Tue 16th of February, filed under Mobile Marketing
Windows Phone 7 Series coming in 2010
Microsoft has officially launched the next generation of its mobile operating system.
Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft, unveiled the Windows Phone 7 Series at the Mobile World Congress yesterday. It is the company's latest attempt to become a serious challenger to the likes of Apple, Google and Nokia in a growing sector filled with lucrative mobile marketing opportunities.
Several major manufacturers have already licensed Windows Phone 7 for use in future devices, including HTC, LG and Samsung. And it is expected that the UK's Big Four mobile operators – O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile – will all sell the handsets in the UK. Microsoft claims that the first devices will be onsale later this year.
Windows Phone 7 Series features
Search engine optimisation experts may be interested to hear that customers will be able to get one-touch access to Bing from anywhere on the phone by using a dedicated hardware button. But perhaps the operating system's standout feature is the addition of Windows Phone hubs, which gather together related content from the web, apps and services into a single user-friendly location. There will be six hubs on Windows Phone 7 – people, pictures, games, music and video, marketplace and office.
Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft, said: "In a crowded marketplace filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people."
Yesterday, the Wholesale Applications Community was launched at the Mobile World Congress. However, some mobile marketing analysts expressed concern that the involvement of 24 global telecoms manufacturers could hinder the decision-making process, allowing Apple to further dominate the app sector.
Posted by Richard Frost
