Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger phone for France is hardly Pink
By Paul Miller 
posted March 18th 2010 8:38PM
posted March 18th 2010 8:38PM
Microsoft's a pretty big company, and while we've been focused on its Windows Phone 7 Series and Pink mobile projects over here in the Land of the Free, its Live Messenger arm has apparently teamed up with French mobile carrier SFR for a branded phone. The Messenger Edition 251 handset looks to be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 (or something older), with no word on who the hardware partner is, and is taking on the youth market just like Pink will presumably be doing Stateside sometime this year. Of course, Messenger is much more popular in Europe than it is in the States, so it makes sense to brand a phone around it, but underneath that candy QWERTY shell we're sure those hapless Europeans can find plenty of legacy Windows Mobile to be desperately disappointed in.[Thanks, Bibo]
omg this is awsume
@maattp
I'll stick with my BlackBerry... It has MSN too.
@maattp
Yeah has more features than Windows Phone Severn Series Phone
"we're sure those hapless Europeans can find plenty of legacy Windows Mobile to be desperately disappointed in."
Must you guys troll everything? Stay classy.
@n0ne BB sucks this is da best
@maattp
>___>
Looks like a Curve clone.
Lets not hate, it will find its' fans. Especially that it has that "Messenger Edition by SFR".
Windows Phone 7 Series Killer right here!
.................LMAO jk
Windows 7 mobile.... I am waiting for you....
@shoxite
You, then will be waiting forever because there will never be such a thing.
It's Windows Phone 7 Series, all you idiots, not Windows Mobile 7, or w.e.
@masta vaan Well I guess I'm waiting for Windows Phone 7 Series and yes it will be out. Have hope~
@masta vaan
It was unofficially called Windows Mobile 7 before being announced by Microsoft as Windows Phone Severn Series Phone (Windows Phone 7 Series Phone)
I still think it would of been a lot better if Microsoft used a shorter name!
I wish we used Live Messenger here in the States rather than crappy AIM...
@Heat amen to that!!
@Heat : Yeah, I wish everyone here would realize what a much better IM client WLM is compared to AIM.
@techno1q
Not hating but you can't deny the obvious design influences
Its more like Azerty.. What ever keyboard layout that is..
Even if i am from europe, im not going to buy that one ;)
AZERTY is the standard keyboard layout in French speaking countries.
I live in Europe.
Yes, MSN is a popular messaging service here.
No, it doesn't make any sense to brand a phone around it.
WLM is a piece of shat. I tried logging on to it on my mobile phone for the first time in years, random people were trying to add me and random people were sending me messages yet I could not see them online and they weren't a friend. At least with YM you can select an option for random people not to bother you. WLM needs serious upgrades...
@Plazmic Flame
I don't know how you managed to have random people in your wlm, as the only persons who can speak to you are the ones you add, or the people that sent a request you accepted.
WLM is the dominant service here in canada also. AIM, yahoo and others are nowhere near WLM messenger users.
@rayray1983 I had friends from the U.K and Windows Live Messenger is super popular over there as well. I guess only Americans dig AIM.
@Proverb
For the most part, the teenage crowds adore AIM. As a young adult myself, I prefer MSN - on Pidgin. Keeps the annoying set from school from finding my screenname to IM me on pointless questions and keeps me in touch with the select few I actually care about - that use MSN anyways.
Although I never really "got" using mobile IM or SMS for that matter - I'd much rather take a call than deal with the hassle of pulling up the Mobile IM client, typing out three paragraphs on a 5 line, 49 key slide-out keyboard - then close that all out to go back to whatever my phone was doing at the time - then getting another message - th- UGH.
And I'm a WinMo owner - adding a touch more irony when I rely on email and voice only with the occasional Web browsing when I'm waiting around or tethering to an actual machine to IM or do actual work.
@rayray1983 I don't know anyone who really uses it anymore, everyone I know has migrated to google chat or skype.
@huh i just stated the fact that it still way more popular in terms of active users than other services. its the most casual/home IM if i should say. and aol canada never took off (freesbie discs). i dont even like wlm that much, it became too bloated imo. but the truth is even people who are shifting to skype or gtalk, still use wlm once in a while for x reasons
@Proverb i guess US will always have some markets meant to be dominant only in US. ( apple, hd radio, cdma, netflix, and so on...)
"Aimed at the youth market?" Yeah, until you see the popular kids are using iPhones/Android phones. Kids are into what's popular, and I don't see this can be "popular" at all (unless MS is selling it for free with super cheap unlimited texting plan). It's not cool, it has the "old" form factor, and it's from Microsoft.
I'll wait for MSN Peek.
@Gregorian In theory that could already be done. Take libpurple and use its' MSN frameworks to be able to send and receive messages over email.
You would use a command set of sorts that the app could parse; ie, for an example, "SN editor@engadget.com MSG Hey, what's up?" would send a message to editor@engadget.com's MSN with the desired message. You'd just get an email back along the lines of "FROM editor@engadget.com MSG Not much, you?".
Bada-bing, bada-boom, Peek for MSN.
......................................................................
'hapless europeans'...wow... I didn't realise we were beneath you.
@mountainfinch
What's the problem? You've had sixty years to get used to it. ;)
Well - I'm not sure about the QWERTY shell since the keyboard is clearly AZERTY!
Can it copy and paste?
I find this post pretty biased.
It look like the blackberry curve 8500 or the 8300.
If I'm not wrong, MSN messenger is the most popular messanging service in the world, not only in Europe. The rest of America uses it, so do Oceania, Africa and Asia. There are countries where it is not popular but, for example, yahoo messenger has never been able to toppple its popularity.
The geopolitical world isn't composed of North America and Europe alone
@prometeum
+1. It's not just Europe, but those other continents as well.
Well maybe except Asia..Yahoo! is pretty popular there actually.
Oh lord, it's a Peek for Live Messenger. This is good for preteens I guess.
Looks a little like the current Black Berry Curve with some sort of jog wheel & a keyboard from the previous generation Curve.
@hated one
I really, really do not think this is meant to be an iPhone killer.
I sort of doubt that a phone like this would be running Windows Mobile at all. It looks like a qwerty dumbphone to me.
what for.....using a blackberry happy with it