Teased since Microsoft’s launch event for Windows Phone 7 back in October of last year and recently launched in Europe as the 7 Pro, HTC’s Arrive today becomes the very first CDMA device for the platform to be announced with a date and a price.
Sprint picks up the QWERTY tilt-o-matic this coming March 20th for $199.99 on a two-year contract after $100 mail-in rebate, featuring a 3.6-inch WVGA display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera with flash and 720p video capture, 16GB of internal storage, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi – oh, and Sprint is quick to remind us that the phone will be launching with Microsoft’s anticipated copy and paste update, too.
In-store pre-orders begin today with the purchase of a $50 Sprint gift card; follow the break for the full press release. Read the rest of this entry »
We’d raised our own concerns in interviews with both Stephen Elop and Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman in the past week that Nokia could have difficulty pushing the Windows Phone platform low enough to fill the holes left by Symbian’s departure in the bottom rungs of the market, but the Nokia CEO is making it very clear that he thinks that won’t be a problem.
In a talk with Finnish journalists on Friday, Elop said that it has become “convinced” that it can hit “a very low price point” and do it “very quickly,” a strategy that will be key to converting significant swaths of Symbian market share into Windows Phone market share without losing it to other manufacturers or platforms.
Of course, something tells us the leaked design concept (pictured right) doesn’t represent the types of hardware Nokia has in mind for those low price points — but no single device or market segment is going to take Espoo to the promised land here.
Nokia’s fighting an uphill battle to retain its community of developers as it switches focus to Windows Phone and Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Tools from what was a joint Symbian / MeeGo smartphone strategy unified under the Qt development framework.
As such, Espoo just notified its Launchpad members that they’ll be receiving about $1,000 in free hardware in the form of Nokia’s new flagship E7 QWERTY slider and a “Nokia WP7 device” just as soon as it’s available.
Nokia’s also tossing in a few other incentives like free access to the next Nokia World / Nokia Developer Summit, three months free tech support for all Nokia technologies (limited to 10 tickets), a free User Experience evaluation for one app, business development assistance, and help publishing apps on the Ovi store.
This is also great news for us as the chance of seeing leaked pics of that first Nokia WP7 device have just increased dramatically.
Microsoft just dropped its first press release of MIX 10 on us, and in addition to detailing the Sliverlight and XNA-based Windows Phone 7 Series development situation, we’ve also got a list of launch software partners and some screenshots of apps in action.
There’s some heavy hitters here, and everything from games to enterprise apps are represented — notables include the Associated Press, Citrix, EA Mobile, Foursquare, Namco, Pangeonce, Pandora, Seesmic, Shazam, and Sling. We’re slated to see some demos of these in action, we’ll let you know how things look. Full list after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Bad news, HTC HD2 owners: Microsoft has finally come right out and confirmed our suspicions that the mighty HTC HD2 won’t be upgraded to Windows Phone 7 Series.
Joe Belfiore just told us that the HD2 is “not compliant with the Windows Phone 7 Series hardware specifications,” which should end any of the lingering doubt that’s clouded this issue since MWC.
That certainly puts a damper on the HD2′s upcoming launch on T-Mobile, but hey — every Microsoft employee here at MIX is carrying one, so it’s clearly the WinMo handset to get until it’s eclipsed by 7 late in the year.
Pour one out for the king, friends.
Well, there they are, the only three confirmed Windows Phone 7 Series prototype devices that currently exist.
From left, we have the new Samsung slate that debuted today, the just-for-demos unbranded Asus unit that was the star of MWC, and the LG slider that we got cozy with at the Engadget Show.
We’re still hoping for more time with the Samsung — and we’re pushing for more detailed specs on all of thes.
We’ve had a pretty clear indication that Microsoft would have plenty to say about Windows Mobile 7 at MWC this month, and it looks like we now have the first significant batch of rumored details ahead of the presumed launch.
While nothing is close to being confirmed just yet, PPCGeeks has received what it describes as some “truly amazing information” about what’s now apparently known as Windows Phone 7, and it certainly paints an interesting picture.
According to the site, Windows Phone 7 will sport an interface that’s “very similar” to the Zune HD, along with a complete revamp of the start screen, and a UI (codenamed METRO) that’s described as “very clean,” “soulful,” and “alive.”
Perhaps just as notably, the OS supposedly won’t support multitasking, with applications instead simply pausing themselves when in the background (there will be support for push notifications, though). Read the rest of this entry »
