Windows Phone 7 Launched

Windows Phone 7, the next generation of Microsoft’s smartphone platform, became available to North American AT&T and T-Mobile customers in Nov. 2010 on devices made by Samsung and HTC (The platform was released in other worldwide markets in Oct. 2010.) Phone 7 introduces a new user interface, more restrictive hardware specifications, and an application development platform different from Microsoft’s past smartphone efforts. The new platform could help Microsoft regain the smartphone market share it has lost to competitors Apple and Google, but supply problems and expensive contract renewal requirements could deter handset sales in the short term.

Marketing Campaign Spares No Expense

Microsoft has been in the smartphone business for almost a decade; the first smartphones based on Microsoft’s Windows CE OS shipped in 2002. The last significant update to the platform—then called Windows Mobile—came in 2005, when Microsoft released Windows Mobile 5.0, based on the Windows CE 5.0 kernel. The version before Phone 7 was Windows Mobile 6.5, a minor update released in Oct. 2009.