For many months now, we have seen leaks pertaining to a new phone being developed by Microsoft. The leaks came in the form of digital images and hardware specifications that have been circulating through the blogosphere.
Today, although this is not official as in a Microsoft announcement, this is the strongest information about the Windows Phone 7. The new handset is expected to be officially introduced to the global audience at the Mobile World Congress being held on February 15, 2010, the day after Valentines Day.
Some of the highlights include:
- No Adobe Flash support, at least upon the launch of the smartphone
- UI is codenamed METRO and will resemble the Zune HD user interface
- Software installation of applications will be through the Marketplace. Alternative installation methods such as storage cards will not be available
- In lieu of Windows Mobile Device Center, Zune desktop software will be used for PC syncing
- Full XBox gaming integration – Could this be another reason Microsoft canceled support for the original Xbox console?
- There is no integrated support for Multi-Task. Rather, applications running in the background will be paused, although push notifications will be supported
- Complete support for Social Networking sites
It is believed that the mobile phone will be available by September 2010.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The restrictions being imposed by Windows Phone 7 will turn people away from it. Especially the block on side-loading apps. It means you can’t download your own apps and install them. Instead, all apps will go through Microsoft’s approval process via the Marketplace for Mobile app store.
I can see a lot of people dropping their plans to migrate to Windows Phone 7, because of this issue alone.
This seems very similar to the ipad os interface, no flash! Really dont think this will go down well