As iPhones, Android Phones and BlackBerry’s sell
by the millions, Microsoft reached a major milestone of its own this week for its
forthcoming Windows Phone 7 Smartphone platform. The
company plans for a multiple Window Phone
7 smartphones to be available in time for the coming 2010 Christmas shopping
season. The latest mobile operating
system from Microsoft features aggregated Web content and apps that are
organized into category specific Hubs that include “Games” or “Office”. “Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly
tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released,” Terry Myerson, corporate
vice president of Windows Phone Engineering, blogged on Sept 1st. “We had
nearly 10,000 devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours
of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test
passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes.”
Microsoft has
been working with developers for sometime as it gathers new apps for Microsoft’s
emerging Windows Phone Marketplace. As
this may be Microsoft’s last chance to stay in the smartphone market, the
company is planning on spending nearly $500 million to do the product launch
according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg. He stated that Microsoft has heavily invested
money and resources in the development of the Windows Phone 7 platform, and the
company has been actively working with Samsung, HTC and LG Electronics for the
upcoming consumer rollout. Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer has been putting the pressure on to make sure the Microsoft
meets quality and schedule targets for this product. “We missed a generation with Windows Mobile.
We really did miss a release cycle,” Ballmer told the Microsoft Worldwide
Partner Conference audience as part of his July 12th keynote address. Ballmer went on to say that “We will give
you a set of Windows-based devices that people will be proud to carry.”
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Microsoft-Windows-Phone-7-Released-to-Manufacturing-740331/