Windows Phone 7 coming in October

Microsoft are to launch Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handsets into Europe first, with a launch in October, followed by a launch in the US in November.

The COO of Microsoft, Kevin Turner,  let slip the launch date of WP7 at a recent conference where he hosted a presentation snappily titled “Windows Phone 7 – Getting back in the game!”

In his speech Turner explained that Microsoft has been doing too well in the Mobile arena recently :

“This has been tough – this is a lowlight. For me, the company, it’s tough. But, you know what, in the October timeframe, November timeframe – October likely across Europe, November likely across the US – we are back in the game.”

“This game is not over,” added Turner. “There’s 200 [million] smartphones right now being sold. When you think about what is going to happen in the next three to five years, there will be 400 to 450 million sold. More than double the number.”So what an opportunity we have to really go make change.”

Talking about what to expect from WP7, Turner noted: “When you look at this phone and see some of the UI, it is not like any phone you have seen from Microsoft and ladies and gentlemen, I think that is a good thing.”

Turner is very keen on the sport analogy, so to carry it a little further. We think that if mobile were a game of football, the score would currently be 4:1 in the competitions favour and we’re in the last minutes of the match.

Microsoft are obviously hoping that they will be able to get back in to the game, and WP7 is the player that will do it for them. Hopefully for Microsoft it’s not too late, if this were three four years ago they would stand a chance, but we think we’re almost in injury time as far as the mobile market is concerned. In our view to be successful WP7 can’t just be a me too product, it’s got to be a game changer, and from what we’ve seen so far, it might score one goal but it’s going to have to score at least three to be in with a chance of winning and we don’t think it’s capable of that.

The short video (56 seconds) is available on Viddlerfor all to hear and see.

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