Windows Phone 7 (previously Windows Phone 7 Series) is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.
Windows Phone 7 was launched in Europe, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand on October 21, 2010, and in the US and Canada on November 8, 2010, Mexico on November 24, 2010, the PAL region on December 3, 2010, and Asia in early 2011.
With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft offers a new user interface with its design language named Metro, integrates the operating system with third party and other Microsoft services, and controls the hardware it runs on.
The name Windows Phone 7 is a rebranding of Microsoft’s old mobile OS called Windows Mobile. Before the official announcement of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft began to refer to devices running Windows Mobile as “Windows Phones”. Microsoft at first announced its new platform as “Windows Phone 7 Series” which initially came under criticism as being too wordy and difficult to say casually. Responding to this, on April 2, 2010 Microsoft announced that the “Series” would be dropped from the name, leaving the platform named Windows Phone 7.
The official statement on the matter was:
“Customers want a simpler way to say and use the name consistently. The important thing is keeping the focus on the Windows Phone brand, which we introduced in October and will continue investing in through Windows Phone 7 and beyond.”
In February 2010, a Microsoft press release listed the companies that would help make and operate Windows Phone 7. Many hardware makers were listed in the release.
Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 7 on February 15, 2010, at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona[11] and revealed additional details at MIX 2010 on March 15, 2010. The final SDK was made available on September 16, 2010.
HP later decided not to build devices for Windows Phone 7, citing that it wanted to focus on devices for its newly purchased WebOS.
Windows Phone 7 supports five languages: English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Windows Phone Marketplace allows buying and selling applications in 17 countries and regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, and United States.