Windows Phone 7 Series: everything you ever wanted to know

Microsoft just planted a massive flag in the ground with the debut of Windows Phone 7 Series. The company's new mobile operating system is a radical and potent departure from the past, and there's a lot to take in -- so we've gathered together all our knowledge and impressions of the device so far and rolled them into a single, concise guide. Of course, there will be plenty more to learn in the coming months, and we're going to be beating down Redmond's door for more details on this thing, but for now let's dive into what Microsoft has revealed so far about its latest and (potentially) greatest phone operating system.

Windows Phone 7 Series Interface

The basic facts

Windows Phone 7 Series is the successor to Microsoft's line of Windows Mobile phone operating systems. It's based on the Windows CE 6 kernel, like the Zune HD, while current versions of Windows Mobile are based on Windows CE 5. Microsoft announced the new OS at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, and says that the first handsets to run it are supposed to be released by the holiday shopping season of this year.

The visual and underlying differences in the operating system are almost too numerous to mention, including a completely (and we do mean completely) upended user interface, an emphasis on finger-based touchscreen input, deep social networking integration, fully branded and expansive Zune and Xbox components, and extremely strict hardware requirements for partners. A couple familiar touchstones from the past include plans for Outlook and Office support, as well as licensing to a wide variety of third party hardware vendors -- despite the name change, Microsoft still isn't building any phones itself.

Windows Phone 7 Series live gallery

Hardware

Part of what makes Windows Phone 7 Series a departure for Microsoft is that the company is taking a much bigger role in dictating what hardware is allowed to run the OS. While we still haven't seen an actual device produced by a manufacturer for retail (the demo unit being shown off is a prototype slab allegedly made by Garmin-Asus, but not a device that might ever come to market), Microsoft has a very clear picture of what they want these units to be built like. Still, while the company is laying down the ground rules in an attempt to create a more consistent experience across phones, it doesn't mean there won't be variety. You'll see variation in devices (yes, some with and some without a keyboard), but there will be a much more steady tone in the nature of Windows Phone 7 Series handsets. Here's a look at some of the minimum specs detailed to us thus far:

• Large WVGA screen with a single aspect ratio (which means BlackBerry-style devices won't be readily available to begin with)
• Five specific hardware buttons required: Start, back, search (a dedicated Bing button), camera button, and power -- no more, no less
• Capacitive multitouch
• CPU and GPU requirements (beginning with Qualcomm's Snapdragon as the go-to processor)
• WiFi
• AGPS
• Accelerometer
• FM radio
• High resolution camera

As we said, Microsoft is showing the OS off on unbranded prototype hardware. It's a simplistic slate phone with a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen, what appears to be a front-facing camera (a point we haven't heard the company sound off on yet)... and not much else. We still have plenty of unanswered questions on hardware, not just about that camera, but storage specs, whether or not we'll be able to use microSD or some form of removable storage, and how we'll go about connecting these devices to our laptops.

What's the software like?

How exactly is Windows Phone 7 Series different than previous versions of Windows Mobile? The question is probably better phrased as "how isn't Windows Phone 7 Series different than previous versions of Windows Mobile." This isn't a coat of paint or a touch up -- this is a full-scale nuclear assault on everything you knew about Windows on phones. Basically, every interface paradigm you've seen in earlier versions is obliterated here, and the design has been utterly decimated (in a very, very good way). There's no longer a Start menu, drop downs, check boxes, radio buttons, windows, lists of icons... we could go on and on, but suffice to say this thing is just a totally different beast altogether. Microsoft clearly worked long and hard developing new ways to navigate a phone, and this doesn't even bear a resemblance to other phones currently on the market. There are no icon grids, no pull down menus, no card view, and no task manager (more on that in a moment).

Windows Phone 7 Series UI walkthrough

So what is it actually like? Well, it's a lot like the Zune HD. In fact -- it's just like the Zune HD... but more. Microsoft says it's drawn on its Zune and Windows Media Center UI concepts and come up with something it calls "Metro." A typographic and motion heavy interface based on primary colors and lots of minimal, negative space. Whatever you call it, however, it should be very familiar to anyone who's ever glanced at a Zune HD, because it incorporates all those weird interface tweaks that made it so distinct, such as large, bold text that trails off the screen, menus which move dimensionally in and out instead of just side to side, and the sense that you're panning over long, single pages of information, rather than a set of separate panels. Another way Microsoft refers to the look is "chromeless," which can best be witnessed in the clean, sharp "tiles" which dominate the home screen, completely lacking in any real world-inspired bevels, drop shadows, curves or textures, or the Tron-like calendar app, dialer, and alphabetical contact search grid, which look like they've been built out of spare parts from Tempest.

The OS's unlock screen is similar to the Zune's; a large photo that can be dragged upward to unlock the device, though it also includes time, date, upcoming calendar items, number of unread messages, and number of missed calls (imagine that -- information on a lock screen!). Behind the unlock is the Start screen, which is composed of user-configurable and movable "tiles" in a somewhat narrow strip down the middle of the screen, either in sets of two across, or longer single tiles. Tiles can be linked to an app (like Internet Explorer), a specific contact or website, a photo gallery, playlist, can function as a standalone widget, or reach out to one of the "hubs" which comprise the majority of the phone's functionality. In fact, there seems to be no end to what you might be able to link the tiles to (we'll wait for word on Microsoft though, because we suspect there is an end). The panels are live and animated, with changes coming in the form of status updates from friends, new photos, new messages, upcoming calendar events and so forth. Your most used or best loved tiles can be "promoted" to the top of this list, meaning that what you are most likely to reach for is easily accessible, but as your habits or use change, so does the arrangement of your Start screen, and the list of tiles is infinitely long. Infinite.

Windows Phone 7 Series first look

Hubs are where things really get interesting, however. Microsoft described it to us as an "app that makes sense of your apps." Instead of icon screens or just the applications themselves, Microsoft offers a weird kind of middle ground -- sections of the phone where further action can be taken. You're not diving down into obscure menus here, rather interacting with a subset of functionality within the OS or applications. When you jump into a hub, you land in a horizontal-scrolling interface, with a series of scrollable data streams and views in parallel that you can "pivot" to. Again, this should be very familiar to Zune users. The content in a hub is composed of both locally-stored data and cloud-sourced information such as photos, contacts and so forth, and each hub has its own particular emphasis. The cloud-connected content is interesting, because it means you'll be able to browse both locally stored data (such as a photo gallery) or a server-side collection in exactly the same way, with no break in the user experience or separate action required.

Core-functionality applications have a similar but more minimal interface, centered around a single task like SMS or email, while still relying on the swipe (or pan or pivot, whichever term you refer) motion to switch between views. At the bottom of the screen is an "app bar" that has a few icon shortcuts to common commands (like add calendar item or back and forward in the browser), but which also can be pulled up like a drawer to reveal further commands available to the user. Additionally, the search button is contextual, meaning that depending on where you're located on the device it can have slight variations on behavior. For instance, when you're in your contact list, tapping search will call up a contact search, as opposed to dropping you into a web or device search. Make no mistake about it though, Bing is your main avenue of search with this device, and Microsoft is pushing its engine hard, making it a central part of the user experience for both local (that is, local to the phone) and external content.

Also present in Windows Phone 7 Series is an all-new touchscreen keyboard (again, similar to its Zune HD counterpart), but with some significant auto-correction, along with the ability to tap a word you've already typed and select or type a correction for it. There's even a dedicated button to reveal a bevy of emoticons when updating your status, though this isn't unheard of -- Android features a similar set.

So how does it feel? Well right now it's rough. Overall things seem solid and connected, but there are clearly holes where this software is unfinished, and components of the interface that still require some serious debugging. The touchscreen in particular troubled us, as we saw inconsistent results from scrolling and tapping (sometimes there was no reaction at all, sometimes it went a bit crazy). There are also lots of pieces of this puzzle we haven't seen, such as notifications, and we still don't have a clear understanding of the nuts and bolts on things like multitasking (on that topic Microsoft is mostly mum, but the word is that this won't be true a "true" multitasking OS, rather something more like the iPhone), but it's relatively early on at this point. We have reservations about other things as well, little concerns such as the time it takes to jump from one task to another (we're hoping that the company gives us options to tweak animations and interface settings to some extent). Microsoft has the next six months or so to take what is an exciting and really fresh OS concept and put the polish on it that's required. We definitely saw plenty of bugs with touch sensitivity and UI behavior, and have a lot of questions to ask, but the raw materials are really impressive. You can't completely get a feel for something as complex as a modern smartphone OS in a couple of minutes or even hours of use -- it's the kind of thing you need to live with. We're hopeful about what Microsoft has shown us, and think that as long as they stay as aware and realistic as they've been so far with Windows Phone 7, the possibilities for success are strikingly high.

Windows Phone 7 Series UI walkthrough

Hubs and apps

Microsoft has made it clear that we haven't seen everything from Windows Phone 7 yet -- particularly in the application department -- but here's a look at what we have been given access to, and brief descriptions of the software's functionality:

People hub: Pulls in contacts from Gmail, Exchange, Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live and others, aggregating contact information, status updates, and contact images into a single view (or views, really). The main view of this hub keeps your most recently or heavily contacted people in first view dynamically (though this can be customized as well), and allows you to quickly jump to feeds of your recent updates from social networks aggregated by Windows Live. There's also a section here called "me" where you can view and edit your own statuses within your networks.

Pictures hub: An aggregate of your locally stored photos, cloud-based Facebook, Windows Live, or other connected picture galleries, and feeds of your contacts' recently updated images. The pictures hub will also allow you to upload and comment on photos on services like Facebook natively inside of the hub experience.

Games hub: Integrates with Xbox LIVE, including the housing of a miniature version of your avatar (in 3D and everything), Xbox LIVE games and achievements, Spotlight feeds, and the ability to browse gamer profiles. Microsoft hasn't shown any games yet, but has made mention of Facebook-style turn-based casual games being part of the equation. It's our impression that these devices have the horsepower to push pretty decent gaming experiences, and the integration with Xbox and its ecosystem is being taken very seriously by the folks in Redmond. We hope the fruit of this union will focus on more than just users hoping to play Sudoku on their phone. This should be an easy one to not screw up.

Music + Video hub: It's a Zune HD in your phone. Seriously. It's exactly like the Zune HD experience. You're able to utilize Zune Pass here too, including the ability to browse and download new music over WiFi and 3G. Video is a go too, and we assume that means rentals as well as purchases, but it's still unclear how this will interact with your desktop, Xbox, or Media Center setup. Furthermore, Microsoft is working with partners like Pandora to integrate with the hub, utilizing the Zune player to tap into Pandora's streaming service.

Marketplace hub: We've heard the least about this one so far, Microsoft is promising big things at MIX10, but we get the impression that when it comes to getting apps for these devices, the company is going to bring a much more Zune or Xbox like experience to the process. Based on the photos we've seen (which haven't been officially issued by Microsoft), the Marketplace looks nothing like the app-purchasing scheme on current Windows Mobile devices -- and that's an incredibly good thing.

Office hub: Microsoft's bread and butter, but so far we've just seen the hub itself -- none of its deeper functionality like document editing. There's an emphasis on OneNote and SharePoint Workspace that should be pretty interesting, however. Ultimately, based on the new UI paradigms and user experience directives of Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft is going to have to rebuild these applications from the ground up. As long as they're able to make them super functional while keeping the Metro look intact, this should be a real win -- we're still curious as to how the company plans to cram all that information into a UI which is focused on doing away with visual noise. Hopefully MIX10 will shed some light on this as well.

And all the rest...

Email: Relies on the pivot to switch between message views (unread / flagged / etc.), and has a color-coded system for differentiating between work and personal messages. Hopefully there's an option to un-mix multiple inboxes as well, but it's unclear so far. Multiple message management is onboard here, thankfully, though there's also a lot of negative space in the app, which is a bit of a concerning (if beautiful) trend throughout the UI. We don't expect any deep integration with services like Gmail beyond the contact syncing... though if Microsoft could pull labeling, archiving, and threaded messages off here, we can think of at least one editor who would be seriously inclined to switch to this platform.

Calendar: One of the odder apps visually, it almost looks like a DOS UI, with a white-on-black / primary color presentation. There are differentiations for specific types of data, such as red and blue notation for personal items and work. As we said earlier, this is weirdly one of the most striking applications on the phone, with lots of interesting functionality tied to its visual elements, like little lines in the day boxes which represent appointments when you're zoomed out to a month view.

SMS: It's barebones so far, but supports SMS and MMS, and it appears that the keyboard can be rotated to landscape for text entry. Let's hope that's an option in most places where input is required.

Phone: Even barer bones. Chromeless is in full effect here.

Internet Explorer: This is a big one, and Microsoft claims to have something newer and more based on the desktop IE than the current Windows Mobile / Zune browser. Features include multitouch pinch-to-zoom, "tabbed" browsing, and a new text rendering engine that brings supports sub pixel positioning for text. It's not as fast as we'd like just yet, but Microsoft has more than half a year to work out the kinks, and at least the page rendering is accurate.

Bing search: Search has contextual use in most apps, but from the Start menu it pulls up a separate, dedicated Bing app. When you search, Bing will try to decide what sort of search you're doing and present an appropriate set of results -- local results instead of web pages if you're looking for sushi, for instance. You can pivot between views, naturally, and the results are presented in the standard Windows Phone UI instead of just a mobile browser version of Bing.

Bing Maps: Addresses throughout the phone are turned into hyperlinks that can pull up Bing maps (phone numbers and email addresses are also intelligently discovered by the OS and made linkable), which includes pinch to zoom navigation and an auto-switch from map to satellite view at a certain zoom level. Microsoft is really pushing geolocation here, though we assume users will be given an option on whether or not they want to be found.

Windows Mobile legacy

Microsoft hasn't directly addressed the issue of backward compatibility with old Windows Mobile applications, but based on rumors and chatter we've heard, it's looking like this is a clean break, or at least it would require significant tweaks to get old software up and running on the new platform. Also, few (if any) existing handsets will be eligible for an upgrade to 7, there's almost zero UI carryover (sorry, power users), and Microsoft isn't allowing any carrier or OEM skins on top of 7 either. Let that soak in for just a moment: no Sense, no TouchWiz, no SPB Mobile Shell. The company has hinted at "extensibility" of its framework to allow for some level of carrier or manufacturer customization, but it's clear that Microsoft wants a much more unified experience from device to device.

So, where does this leave existing Windows Mobile users? Well, your phone still works, and since Microsoft has eliminated any sort of clear upgrade path, we're guessing there will be a pretty vibrant community of non-upgraders who will develop for and support existing Windows Mobile devices for years to come. Microsoft itself is positioning Windows Phone 7 Series primarily for consumers right now, which means it also has an interest in keeping Windows Mobile alive and well supported for the enterprise -- not to mention the slew of new Windows Mobile 6.5.3 devices it's pushing at MWC right this minute. Any reports of the death of Windows Mobile are greatly exaggerated, but it's also not an exaggeration to say that Microsoft has gone "scorched earth" in developing toward its primary future in phones.

Partners and developers

Naturally, there are plenty of companies -- both on the hardware and carrier front -- on board for Windows Phone 7 Series, and so far support has been pledged by Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG (rumored to have a device ready by September), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba on the hardware end. When it comes to carriers, the list is even longer, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. Needless to say, there will be no shortage of availability when WP7 comes to market.

On the developer side, Microsoft seems to be acutely aware of how badly it needs to come big on the app and software front. Every indication we got from team members in Barcelona led us to believe that they are focusing a tremendous amount of energy and thought on what the next step for them from a developer standpoint will be. One thing Microsoft has always prided itself on was developer love (c'mon, we've all seen the video), but in recent years the company seems to have taken a backseat while Apple has been blowing everyone away with its easy-to-code, easy-to-market solution for software on the iPhone and iPod touch. Microsoft will have to deliver a solution here that is not only competitive, but more attractive than the competition. We were told countless times that we would get a clearer picture on a lot of the nerdier queries we had at the upcoming MIX10 (which happens in mid-March). Until that event comes and goes, we're not sure we'll get a lot more clarity on that.

What's next?

Live from Microsoft's Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010

Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win

Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video)

Windows Phone 7 Series faces off against its Windows Mobile past

Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft's shown a lot, but in some ways it's raised more questions than answers. The biggest issue at hand is how Microsoft will treat app development: will it expect Windows Phone 7 Series apps to look and operate like the 7 Series UI? Will it allow open extensions into its hubs to expand the number and kind of supported services? How do you navigate your files on the phone? Is the Xbox Live hub going to be inhabited by the likes of Scrabble or Halo? Hopefully most of this will be answered at MIX10, where Microsoft promises to unveil its app and gaming strategy for Windows Phone (amongst other things). It's going to take a special blend of tools, encouragement, and market share incentive to get developers on board, but we have to assume Microsoft knows this as well as anybody.

The rest is in the hands of Microsoft's developers, however. So far we've seen barely skin deep into the new OS, and witnessed plenty rough edges in even what was presented. We've been here before: Palm wowed the world with its revolutionary webOS UI, but a tight release deadline left quite a bit of functionality on the cutting room floor, and perhaps too many bugs, hiccups and slowdowns for a shipping OS. Microsoft has less than a year to pull this thing into fighting shape, and we'll be tracking every step of the way, with particular curiosity about the what sort of finished product we'll end up with on the other side.

Additional reporting and research by Paul Miller

[gameozymandias Posted Feb 24th 2010 4:31PM]

@Mr iPhone How do you define home screen? The main hub you see when unlocking the phone is customizable - so I think it's more than "just" the menu you mention, but not quite sure?

[GIESS Posted Mar 8th 2010 6:14PM]

@gameozymandias
There is only room for 7 points of customized navigation. CLICK CLICK CLICK.... The iPhone has 21, all customizable. I just don't get how MS can't just bury APPLE. They've got amazing innovation with no intuition. We work with them on a daily basis and the consistently squish creative with number crunching. The company is run by the spreadsheet. We are witnessing yet another blunder. GO MS.

[TN0 Posted Mar 9th 2010 9:14PM]

@GIESS What you mean with only 7 points? You can scroll down on the home screen and have as many "Live Tiles" as you like. In any order.

Maybe you wanne watch the videos first.

[gmanzig Posted Feb 23rd 2010 1:41PM]

All Droid and Smart phone users, I do not have a smart phone and am looking to finally get one. Should I wait till Winmo 7 is available or go get a Droid? Thoughts?

[derekdevine Posted Feb 25th 2010 2:16PM]

@gmanzig

From Smartphone user,

If your patience enough I would wait until Microsoft makes more announcements about the WinMo OS

[BrownSound Posted Feb 27th 2010 1:49AM]

@gmanzig

Cant really tell for sure but maybe wait and see the the new line up of phones that will run win 7 before going to Droid. Wont be long long + if your a Microsoft fan like me the amount of integration and potential of this OS is something to wait for. Its a good thing the Microsoft's requirements make phone providers up the anti for the GPU and CPU to a high standard. If you have a Zune HD like I do you know that the Win7 OS is going to be something really great.

[tdevs112 Posted Feb 25th 2010 8:36PM]

I was thinking about windows phone 7 series using silverlight and if it is possible that netflix be apart of the entertainment hub. I was also thinking of AT&T being the premier partner may just be some type of U-Verse integration and not a period of exclusivity. Would be nice, huh?

[BrownSound Posted Feb 27th 2010 1:43AM]

They might as well call it the Zune phone everybody's been wanting for so long now. They should have skipped Zune HD altogether and came up with this zunephone sooner.

[coolkams03 Posted Mar 1st 2010 9:43AM]

I knew MS was up to something . . and am glad it was THIS !!!

looking forward to it !!

[Zdrummond Posted Mar 1st 2010 4:15PM]

The zune sucked, so why won't this? I think MS will have a hard time proving themselves.

[GIESS Posted Mar 8th 2010 6:26PM]

@Zdrummond

Tell me about... The navigational components of this phone spell "catastrophic nightmare" when the app store goes live. The better have a damn good solution for it cause the home screen only has 7 points of navigation as the iPhone has 21. Seriously, what are they thinking?

[TN0 Posted Mar 9th 2010 9:19PM]

@GIESS They thought: "Nobody really has 21 apps on the home screen with notifications on. But people want to know how many mails, text massages they have BEFORE unlocking the phone."

[gameozymandias Posted Mar 3rd 2010 12:38PM]

Hey folks -

Just wanted to mention that we're collecting questions and feedback on what you'd like to see from Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone. If you have the time or interest, we'd love to hear from you - the dev team is reviewing the feedback, and just as with Xbox LIVE, we'll be taking into account in our future planning.

Best place to comment is in comments on this blog post: http://www.ozymandias.com/your-thoughts-on-xbox-live-and-windows-phone

You can also send comments to me via Twitter at Ozymandias - though I'd encourage you to also post your comment on the blog since that's the central store.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have!

[AndroidFreewareORG Posted Mar 5th 2010 7:56AM]

old crap in new packaging

[matic89 Posted Mar 7th 2010 4:39AM]

So like doesn't anyone hate the animations and the time it takes to load the screen? I mean ofcourse yeah we all love it when we take it out of the box and for the first week and when we have time...but what if you're in a hurry? You really need to call someone fast or check something on the web? And then it takes you 2x more time to do that because of the annoying animations that just take forever to load (especially after a while when the system clogs up with all sorts of trash in the register or wherever and starts to work like 50% slower than when u unboxed it....god I hate that with windows...)
There should be like a button or something, that you could hold down or turn on if you would like to turn off all animations...and when you'd want to see them again, you'd just turn them back on....

[tearadon Posted Mar 8th 2010 1:53AM]

so is there a video of this phone making a call? that's all I want to see.

[lordlance Posted Mar 8th 2010 4:43PM]

@Tiptup300 - Yes, this supports XNA. Developers can make apps for the phone using XNA and Silverlight

[GIESS Posted Mar 8th 2010 6:00PM]

WHAT A HUGE MISS OPPORTUNITY. Mobile 7 only has 7 navigational points of entry to this phone? Are they High? 7? That's it? 7? The iPhone has 21 and with a single 'swipe' you have an additional 16? When is MS going to put this little company in it's place? They better do something quick or this is going to turn into a Zune within 6 months. MS misses again. They over thought this... less is more, but not when you sacrifice usability. You have to 'click' and 'slide' and then 'slide' and 'click' just to get a fraction of the apps of an iPhone... I'm actually speechless.

Our firm designs a variety of interfaces for Microsoft's multi-touch platforms in Redmond. This was one of the worst interfaces I saw from their prototypes. They have the wrong people making the wrong decisions.... ALWAYS.

[FORDY Posted Mar 9th 2010 12:25PM]

I really couldn't care for Zune integration. I run iTunes and MC. I tried Zune for a while, but it just wouldn't label and sort my shows the way I wanted them too. (There was no way, as far as I could tell, to have the Bond movies shown in chronological order, as they are not a TV series therefore have no episode number, and alphabetical is not the same as chronological. Short of having a number in front of each one...)

Until I hear of a 7 Media Center Extender or similar type integration, I'll find it difficult to justify.

I want one, I really do. I just so badly want 7MC on there somewhoe with all my TV.

[techtroll Posted Mar 10th 2010 12:07AM]

To be honest I'm not amused by the UI

[jasonlenik Posted Mar 12th 2010 10:45AM]

I don't think microsoft is really getting the idea of 'mobile' computing. They're trying to fit a screen the size of a notebook and making the user scroll through to wide pages! What the hell! I mean.. just look at the iPhone. The screens on the iPhone is really well made, and so are all the apps. But the Windows 7 Phone (or Windows Phone 7, whatever you call it) is trying to pretend it's a netbook in disguise while it's actually not.

[jmaz Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:17AM]

Let's digress a little:

I am not too exited about the WP7s where Microsoft has been forced by the so called tech blogosphere literati to go retro a la Apple iPhone. These text and menu challenged reviewers have rejected the still strong WinMo 6 OS platform with silly chants such as "nobody wants it," "it is anemic," "it is outdated," "it is a dead OS," "it is too hard to lift the stylus out of my pocket," etc. Of course, what they really mean is "it is not flashy," "it is not visually gunky," "it is not eye candish." Now, I ask you what does any of this haveto do with productivity.When you get your WPs7 phone I want you to tell me what it is that it will do that you won't be able to do on a WinMo 6 (now Classic) phone. Or better yet ,what will it be able to do substantially better than WinMo Classic.

WPs7 will go retro a la iPhone. It will have no cutting and pasting, no multitasking, no customization, no replaceable memory storage card, no freedom to buy software from independent developers but only from Microsost's apps store, no backward compatibility, no auto apps update, no inter communication between apps, no database engine, no sinificant enterprise support and on and on.This is Microsoft's version of "platform lockdown." What you guys asked for. Why buy into WP7s when we already have Apple's vision
of mobile computing future?

Some years ago, audio gears manufacturers came out with claims and boasts about their new technical advances in audio reproduction by simply shuffling the buttons, knobs,and switches on their audio gear around. It turns out that except for digital audio storage and minor reproduction improvements, the CD, there still does not exists a consensus as to what is a good audio reproduction. It will be the same thing with the Windows phone evolution. Microsoft is rearanging things around so that it can be more palatable to the average joe and the average tech blogger.Once Microsoft showed a supposedly new OS with a lot of whiz-bang visual debris this crowd was appeased into releasing its self-generated pent up expectations .Now, they are starting to whine again when Microsoft serves them the dish that they asked for.

To those who will buy the HTC HD2, enjoy WM6 and its power on the HTC HD2 while it is still a viable OS because even if it drops to .5% of use in the market it will still be a strong portable computing OS and some people will get some productive use out of it, especially those who understood its power and are not impressed by overly flashy visual gunk.