Windows Phone 7 Comes To Verizon

Verizon Wireless has announced the first Windows Phone 7 handset available on its network. Microsoft hopes it will help overturn disappointing sales that have left the mobile platform well behind its competitors in popularity.

Windows Phone 7 on HTC Trophy 7

The new handset is the HTC Trophy 7, which will retail for $150 if buyers take advantage of a rebate and sign up to a two-year service deal. That's notably lower than the $200 that most top-end smartphones go for under such conditions.

One of the big selling points is that the phone is compatible with the Xbox 360 gaming system.

A select number of games can be played on the phone and will be synchronized to the owner's game console if they have one. That means that in some cases a player could start a game at home on the Xbox, continue playing on the commute to work, and then carry on back at home, with their game progress on the phone saved. (Source: technewsworld.com)

Microsoft Looks To Younger Audience

It appears that stressing this feature may be part of a deliberate strategy to alter the image of Windows Phone 7 devices.

A recent report by analyst firm Gartner suggests Microsoft may need to downplay the Windows connection because it is so closely associated with the computer use of older people rather than a younger audience that is often the target of smartphone manufacturers.

One Gartner executive is quoted as saying that "the current perception is that Microsoft is something dad uses at work." (Source: computerworld.com)

Windows Phone 7 Slow Out-of-Gates

Windows Phone 7 has had a remarkably slow start. Gartner estimates that in the first three months of this year, 1.6 million handsets running the system were sold. Microsoft has previously reported that by the end of 2010, manufacturers had shipped 1.5 million handsets.

That likely adds up to somewhere short of three million handsets in the hands of users.

Including earlier editions of Windows Mobile, a total of 3.6 million phones running Microsoft systems were sold between January and March this year. That puts it a distant fifth among the major systems, including Android (36.2 million), Symbian (Nokia's system) (27.6 million), Apple (16.9 million) and Research in Motion (13 million). (Source: zdnet.com)