Image source Engadget.
While your head was firmly pressed against a pillow, CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer has been busy on stage in New York talking about their new Windows Phone 7 platform. Included in the announcement was the revealing confirmation of WP7 hardware devices from manufacturing partners.
Update: Steve Ballmer has confirmed there will be 9 WP7 devices available at launch in the US.
Update 2: Long Zheng of iStartedSomething.com has all the details on the Australian range of Windows Phone 7 devices.
The full list of partners and devices is quite length, so here’s a quick overview.
- HTC Mondrian
- HTC Surround
- HTC Mozart
- HTC Trophy
- LG Quantum
- LG Optimus 7Q
- Samsung Omnia 7
- Samsung Focus
- Dell
- A full list of worldwide devices is available from WMPowerUser
Australian network partners include Telstra, Singtel (Optus) and Vodafone.
Choice is the main game here from Microsoft. While Apple provide consumers with an easy single choice for a phone, WP7 (and Android) runs on a variety of handsets to suit practically any use case. Naturally due to the iPhone’s success, we’re seeing a lot of companies ditching the physical keyboard for a virtual one as consumers become more comfortable with that concept. Now where there’s choice, there’s also complexity, so you’ll need to resort to the old spec sheet to compare the devices to choose the best one for your needs.
Without a doubt the best thing to do is to wait till the dust settles a little bit, before making your decision on a handset. There’ll be plenty of comparison tables over the next couple of days crowning one device ‘THE’ one to have.
Microsoft have made a couple of important announcements during the keynote. It’s now confirmed that EA will be making titles for the WP7 platform. Also based on feedback from early reviewers and developers, copy and paste is coming in 2011.
Watch the replay of Microsoft’s WP7 announcement @ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/
