Windows Phone 7 gets released to manufacturers

News in brief: Microsoft's mobile OS sneaks closer to launch

Windows Phone 7 has taken one step closer to launch, with Microsoft's release of the mobile operating system to manufacturers yesterday.

With most of the internal engineering done, Windows Phone 7 OS RTM {release to manufacture) is now available to its original equipment manufacturers and service provider partners, so they can complete their work on customisations and hardware in preparation for a global release by Christmas this year.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's corporate VP of Windows phone engineering, wrote on the Windows Phone 7 Team Blog that Windows Phone 7 is the company's most thoroughly tested mobile platform, noting that it has run daily automated tests on nearly 10,000 devices with more than 3.5 million hours of stress test passes and 8.5 million hours of fully automated test passes.

The Windows Phone 7 People hub, which aggregates contact information, social networking updates and emails into one menu on the device
(Photo credit: Microsoft)

For more, see Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7 to manufacturers on CNET News.com.