The long awaited Windows Phone 7 has finally launched! The first devices were sold in New Zealand yesterday.
Handsets in other countries including the UK go on sale today, and if you’re in the US, well it looks like you’ll just have to wait until 8 November.
There’s no doubt the handsets themselves (like HTC’s) are very powerful devices. They always have been. The real question is: Can the OS deliver and compete with the likes of iPhone and Android? Is it user-friendly? This really remains to be seen. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile was always very developer focused. I will applaud Microsoft for their fantastic Visual Studio integration for developing for WM and have no doubt it’s just as good if not better for WP7.
However phones are about the general public and it will all be about the apps including ease of use, ease of download and installation, ease of upgrade, finger friendliness, and social media integration. From what I’ve seen they may even have surpassed the competition when it comes to that last point. Let’s see how it pans out.
Oh and by the way, the UK division of MSDN will run a competition for a free handset. More details here.
-Krip
Posted by Krip 
