Microsoft Releases Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview for Developers

With market research firm IDC (News - Alert) (www.idc.com) predicting over 31 percent growth for smartphones this year and another 22 percent next year, Microsoft (News - Alert) is preparing to make a splash in the market before the year-end. Consequently, the software giant has released a technical preview of its Windows Phone 7 software for developers and consumers around the world. This technical preview represents a major milestone for the company, wrote Terry Myerson, corporate vice president of Windows Phone (News - Alert) Engineering, in the Windows blog on July 18. This announcement comes a week after Microsoft launched beta version of Windows Phone 7 developer tools for developing applications and games for the platform. According to Microsoft, this beta version represents the near final version of the development tools.

In that blog, Myerson noted that Windows Phone 7 has been undergoing extensive testing by its employees. More than 1000 workers have been using the Windows Phone 7 devices as their only phone for the past several months and more than 10,000 devices underwent laboratory testing at mobile operators.

 “We’he been testing usability, battery life, network connectivity, and many other metric for a long time,” stated Myerson.

With this announcement, for next few weeks, Microsoft is giving thousands of Windows Phone 7 based prototype phones from Asus, LG and Samsung (News - Alert) to developers to start testing their applications and games on real gadgets before shipping the solution. Combine that with the beta release of the Windows Phone developer tools, and I can’t wait to see how our developer partners take advantage of our new approach to smart design and integrated mobile experiences. “I’m personally working on a flash card app for my daughter, and am consistently amazed by the ease with which Silverlight and Visual Studio make WP7 apps possible,” asserted Myerson.

The development tools include Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, a Windows Phone 7 add-in for use with Visual Studio 2010, XNA Game Studio 4.0, Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator for application testing, and Expression Blend for Windows Phone.

According to a review in CNET, Windows Phone 7 is a complete and refreshing departure from previous versions of Windows Mobile. A revamped operating system, Microsoft team has created a mobile operating system based on a number of principles, including elegance and simplicity, typography, motion, and relevance, as per the CNET review. While the CNET article pointed to some missing features like copy/paste, third party multitasking and universal search, it highlighted the Zune integration as a killer with much improved core apps.