Windows Phone 7 is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to their Windows Mobile platform.It is rumored to launch on either October 21 or November 8 of 2010. Microsoft's goal is to create a compelling user experience by redesigning the user interface, integrating the operating system with other services, and strictly controlling the hardware it runs on.
Microsoft officially unveiled Windows Phone 7 during Mobile World Congress 2010 (February 15) in Barcelona and revealed additional details at MIX 2010 (March 15). Windows Phone 7 was released to manufacturing on September 1, 2010, and the final SDK was made available on September 16.
Here's a look at the specs detailed to us thus far:
- At first, only large 800 x 480 (WVGA) touchscreens will be permitted, but 480 x 320 (HVGA) devices will make an appearance "later."
- Five specific hardware buttons are required: Start, back, search (which integrates with Bing services where appropriate), camera button, and power. Some devices might have more, but these are the baseline. Apps aren't generally allowed to override these buttons -- it's an offense that could result in being rejected from the Marketplace.
- Capacitive multitouch with support for a minimum of four contact points, though no more than two are used by any of the platform's six native gestures (developers are welcome to use as many as they like).
- A Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with DirectX 9 graphics support. Microsoft says the platform is flexible enough to expand to other chips in the future, but right now it's all Qualcomm.
- 256MB of RAM or more
- 8GB of internal Flash storage or more
- No support for microSD cards, though that's partially offset by the requirement for capacious internal storage. Some phones might implement the required internal storage on a microSD card, but it's not supposed to be user-swappable, and if you do switch it out, you'll reset the phone and lose all your data -- but you should be able to get most of it back when you sync with the cloud.
- WiFi
- AGPS
- Accelerometer
- FM radio
- 5 megapixel camera or better with flash
One Response to “Windows 7 Phone”
Is there going to be any correspondence with the Xbox 360 though the Windows Phone? As a gamer, I am very interested in the prospect of a fully integrated Xbox hub.