smartphone market, down from nearly 20% at the same time last year, according to comScore. Windows Mobile commands less than 11% of the U.S. But developers demanded it, and Microsoft plans to add it in an update in early 2011.īattling rivals: Microsoft has struggled to sell smartphones since Apple's ( AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone and Google's ( GOOG, Fortune 500) Android came storming onto the scene in the past few years. Microsoft didn't put that in the original code because it didn't think it would be needed, thanks to auto-links between applications, a company executive said. Along with top-notch support for Microsoft Outlook and Exchange - which should make corporate IT departments very happy - the phones offer a spell check that automatically underlines misspelled words with the red squiggly line familiar to Word users.īut one feature was noticeably missing at launch: copy/paste. Notes taken on phone with OneNote automatically sync to the cloud with Office Live. Windows Phone 7 integrates deeply with other Microsoft products. Games are a focus: Xbox Live players can take their accounts on the go, and Electronic Arts is a launch partner, bringing the Sims game to the phones.

A camera button wakes the phone into shooting mode quickly, so that it is able to almost instantly begin snapping photos. Social networking is baked in, with a 'people hub' that tracks updates across a user's contact list. Instead of the typical smartphone user interface - a series of small icons to launch applications - Windows Phone 7 uses large, dynamic tiles that Microsoft hopes will be both intuitive to use and easy to navigate.Ġ:00 / 5:05 Ballmer: Windows Phone 7 'different'

'It gets you in, gets you out, and back to life as fast as humanly possible.'

'It's a different kind of phone,' he said. The Windows Phone 7 lineup will eventually include nine phone models available in 30 countries, Ballmer said. Samsung's phone, called the Focus, will be available on November 8, and the Surround from HTC and Quantum from LG would be in stores in time for the holidays, Microsoft said. Microsoft ( MSFT, Fortune 500) also announced partnerships with Samsung, LG and HTC, which will make devices to run the new smartphone software. 'It was different than anything we've seen.' 'When Microsoft first showed us Windows Phone 7, we knew it was going to be a winner,' AT&T CEO Mobility and Consumer Markets Ralph de la Vega said at the event.

Windows phone 7 release date