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Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?

By | July 29, 2010, 6:38am PDT

Summary: LG is going to be first to market with Windows Phone 7 in September

We’ve been hearing a lot about Windows Phone 7, but one thing that hasn’t been confirmed is when the devices will actually be available for purchase.

While Microsoft isn’t stating official ship dates, it seems that LG is now on record saying that it will ship its first Windows Phone 7 device by end of September. LG is also stating that it’s going to have more Windows Phone 7 smartphones available before the end of the year.

I have to say that I’m surprised to see that LG is the first mover on Windows Phone 7. With the developer handsets coming from Samsung, and HTC always being the first to market with the latest iteration of Windows Mobile, I figured it was a definite that HTC would be first. That said, the company still could be, and may have just not announced its release dates yet.

It will be interesting to see how well received Windows Phone 7 is. Microsoft has severely limited the amount of customization that a handset manufacturer and carrier can do to the device, which will be good and bad for the consumer. Good in the fact that the phones won’t be as cluttered, but bad in the way that if you don’t like the stock Windows Phone 7 interface, there’s not going to be a lot of options for you to customize.

I happen to like HTC’s Sense implementation on both Android and Windows Mobile, and was hoping to see something similar on Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions by Microsoft, HTC’s options are limited. I’m still holding out hopes that the company can innovate, even in the smaller sandbox that it’s going to be allowed to play in.

Now the big question is whether or not the public actually wants Windows Phone 7. I’m sure that the handsets will be heavily discounted, but it’s still not clear why you would want a Windows Phone 7 device over the other competing platforms in the market.

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Topics

Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Windows Phone, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands and technologies into the mobile and wireless space.

Disclosure

Joel Evans

Joel is a serial entrepreneur with his most recent business, CronkSoftware (cronksoftware.com), focusing on consulting and building games and applications for mobile devices. Joel has consulted for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division and advises other companies on how to incorporate mobile into their existing brands and products. Joel purchases many of his devices and others are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the supplier. If any devices are provided as “keeper” Joel will clearly disclose this in his reviews.

Biography

Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands, technologies and services into the mobile and wireless space. Joel is currently serving as the Managing Director of Cronk Software, Inc., a company he founded to offer full-service, end-to-end mobile strategy, design and development services.

Joel is the former founder and "Chief Geek" of Geek.com, a website praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and others as one of world's best sources of information for technology professionals and enthusiasts.

Joel also serves as a technology expert for a number of well-known publications and regularly advises corporations, analysts, journalists and bloggers on what the future of technology will bring. He brings decades of relationships with leading game publishers, online communities and publishers, along with both hardware and software product management and delivery expertise. Joel can be found online as "JoelGeek" and you can follow him on Twitter @JoelGeek.

Talkback Most Recent of 35 Talkback(s)

  • Watch the demos, the ux is MUCH nicer.
    The xbox live stuff will blow away iphone/android mobile gaming. the calendar stuff look awesome, the exchange and office stuff looks way better on WP7, the zune music stuff looks awesome for both streaming and non streaming, the cloud services are very cool, the autocorrecting keyboard looks like it works way better, the bing maps and directions and voice search look like they totally outshine the google stuff, the facebook integration is seemless., the vastly superior mobile app devs tools will mean much nicer and more trustworthy apps, the os updates will be controlled by MS so no more being at the mercy of whenever your carrier gets around to it. The list goes on and on. The better question is why wouldn't you want to switch?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Johnny Vegas
    29th Jul 2010
  • Yep
    What he just said.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rjohn05
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @Johnny Vegas
    And that my friends, is the definition of "fanboy". wink

    I don't really play games on my iPhone - yes, I realize that's a chicken or the egg thing, but it just doesn't interest me.
    Can email/calendar/music/keyboards/maps/facebook really get significantly better than the experience on iPhone or Android?? I doubt it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rossdav@...
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @rossdav@...

    Of course they can. All of those things you mentioned can get much better and will. Windows Phone 7's developer framework for mobile is going to really put Apple and Google in a bad place. Apps that take me sometimes weeks to do on Android, I can do in a matter of hours on Windows Phone 7. Their developer tools really destroy Apple and Android.

    It won't happen overnight but unless Apple and Google come up with much better developer tools Microsoft is going to win this platform within within 3 years time.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    incendy
    29th Jul 2010
  • Can Calendar get better than on iPhone?
    @rossdav@... iPhone's calendar app is the joke of the century. Not sure why, maybe no one uses calendars at Apple, or Steve has someone who keeps his. Calendar on iPhone is an oxymoron.

    When you look at a calendar, you want a week view frequently so you can see where free blocks of time are. iPhone has no facility for this; you are stuck reading each line in list view, or tapping on each day in a week and scrolling in a dinky area to (again) read the times and subjects.

    Not good. There is also no task management, no flagging of email, the color coding in Outlook doesn't transfer, the list is long. I honestly can't wait until a decent WP7 device comes out. I am going to give my wife my iPhone 4 and eBay her 3GS.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dcristof
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @rossdav@...

    And this my friends is the definition of an I-Naive, a person that will purchase anything made by Apple that has an I then a dash behind it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    mikroland
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @Johnny Vegas
    I'm looking forward to testing out a WP7, but don't say the Facebook integration is better than on Android. My FB contacts are right in my contact list (and even merged with my google contacts). The only thing lacking is the FB pictures aren't in the gallery (but all my Picasa ones are).
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Droid101
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @Droid101 - It is better. And yes, facebook contacts and Windows Live contacts are merged into the Peoples hub, which I suppose is the equivalent of the Contacts App.
    But within the Peoples Hub, you can add comments direct to FB and Windows Live aswell as receive all those updates.
    In fact, calling them 'contacts' is not doing the Peoples Hub justice - 'contacts' are actually (FB) Profiles.

    So yeah, FB integration IS better...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Poppets
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    I see that with the SCO lawsuit winding down, Redmond is reassigning folks to do other things. So once again Microsoft will have the bestest, most wonderfullest thing ever. All else will fall before it. Even Zune shall rise from the ashes. You tell 'em, spud.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Robert Hahn
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @Johnny Vegas

    The UI also makes the iPhone and their crowded list of icon shortcuts leading to their app silos look very old and tired.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    tonymcs@...
    1st Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    rossdav@

    Games dominate the app store - without question they are most popular apps and the biggest moneymakers. Just because you don't play games doesn't mean that is not a deciding factor for others - in fact the data proves that it is.

    > get significantly better than the experience on iPhone or Android?

    Thank god you aren't driving the dev of these - or competing platforms. Certainly they have a lot more vision.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Helio99000
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    Hey, as long as i can get an IRC app wifi hotspot and usb/bluetooth tethering on WinPhone 7 I'll be happy.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    podstolom
    29th Jul 2010
  • But it won't have the features that you want
    @podstolom Isn't tethering on the long list of missing features that Windows Phone 7 won't have?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    gjafg
    30th Jul 2010
  • Huh?
    The article says "Microsoft has severely limited the amount of customization that a handset manufacturer and carrier can do to the device, which will be good and bad for the consumer." when the current Smartphone darling of the universe is the iPhone which allows NO customization. That's what Microsoft doesn't get (and the techno-dweeb fanbois won't let them let go of) is when you're talking about the "mass consumer" space it's about apparent functionality, not potential functionality. The interface is static, unchangeable BUT it delivers 80% of the functionality that the general public wants...the apps deliver the remaining 20% and that is where the interface is malleable.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    justthinking
    29th Jul 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 devices by end of September?
    @justthinking Actually, the WP7 start screen is pretty customizable. You can put any number of live tiles on there. Sure they only scroll up and down, but some can be squares, some can be rectangles... you can choose a different color for them... and OEMs/3rd parties can create custom live tiles that do all sorts of different things. HTC could certainly make their own "Sense" style live tiles and put them up there by default... however, Microsoft has forced the UI to be a consistent experience in respect to the user's ability to add/remove/arrange their Start screen. So I think that's a good thing. I could have my own Start screen covered with HTC Sense tiles or Samsung tiles or Spb live tiles.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    AdamzP
    30th Jul 2010
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