What the world really needs is yet another phone on the Market to make the job of choosing and buying a phone just that little bit harder. Until today there were four main choices. A Blackberry, An Android based phone, A Nokia or an iPhone. To be fair "other phones are available" but to my mind the question is why?
Regardless, choosing one from four isn't to bad. But now you have to choose from five thanks to the inventors of BSOD, or to the less geeky of you, the Blue Screen Of Death. And so it's come to pass that Microsoft have finally realised they're lagging behind the competition (again) and the boss that isn't Bill Gates has officially unveiled the Windows Phone 7. Steve Ballmer has given us a wealth of information, most of which is irrelevant, but some of which is interesting. I'll try and boil it down to the useful stuff...
There will be 9 (so far) different handsets. These will be built by Dell, Samsung, LG & HTC. They will be available in 30 different countries and on over 60 different networks, but they will be exclusive to different carriers in different countries.
Here's a summary of the Spec's I've seen so far in ascending screen size....
| Manufacturer | Model | Processor | Screen | Resolution | Style | Storage | Camera | Video | Battery Talk & Standby | ||
| LG | Quantum | 1GHz Snapdragon | 3.5” | 480x800 | Slide out Keyboard | 16Gb | 5MP | 720p | 7hr T, 19days S | ||
| HTC | 7 Pro | 1GHz | 3.6” | 480x800 | Full Keyboard | 8Gb | 5MP | 720p | 6hr T, 15days S | ||
| HTC | 7 Mozart | 1GHz | 3.7” | 480x800 | Candy Bar | 8Gb | 8MP | 720p | 6hr T, 15days S | ||
| LG | Optimus 7 | 1GHz Snapdragon | 3.8” | 480x800 | Candy Bar | 16Gb | 5MP | 720p | 7hr T, 19days S | ||
| HTC | Surround | 1GHz Qualcomm | 3.8” | 480x800 | Slide out speaker | 8Gb | 5MP | 720p | 4hr T, 11days S | ||
| HTC | 7 Trophy | 1GHz | 3.8” | 480x800 | Candy Bar | 8Gb | 5MP | 720p | 6hr T, 15days S | ||
| Dell | Venue Pro | 1GHz Qualcomm | 4.1” | 480x800 | Vertical Slide | 8Gb | 5MP | 720p | 7hr T, 14days S | ||
| HTC | HD7 | 1GHz Qualcomm | 4.3” | 480x800 | Touch Screen | 16Gb | 5MP | 720p | 6hr T, 13days S | ||
| Samsung | Focus / OMNIA 7 | 1GHz Qualcomm | 4” | 480x800 | Touch Screen | 8Gb | 5MP | 720p | 3hr T, 10days S | ||
It'll be very interesting to see a) what the pricing is like and b) what the performance of these devices is like. By comparison, and just because I am shamelessly biased now, here's the same specs for the iPhone 4:
| Manufacturer | Model | Processor | Screen | Resolution | Style | Storage | Camera | Video | Battery Talk & Standby | ||
| Apple | iPhone 4 | 1Ghz Underclocked to 750 | 3.5” | 640x960 | Touch Screen | 32Gb | 5MP | 720p | 7hr T, 12days S | ||
I don't think for a minute that they're anything like a threat to the iPhone, but it's entirely possible they could get enough developers behind it over the next 12 months to at least start making some in roads. Unless of course, the likes of Apple & Google pull something else out of the bag.
With MS garnering some support from even @StephenFry (a well known Apple proponent) there is most definitely a battle royal taking place in the smartphone market place. As always, these things are usually good for the consumer, but can end up being fatal for the protagonists. Time will tell eh?
This post originally appeared here: Posterous
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