Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace is reportedly now home to more than 50,000 applications. That’s a relatively small figure taking into consideration that Apple’s iTunes App Store now boasts more than 500,000 apps and the Android Market is estimated to offer almost as many. However, it is double the amount of applications that were available just five months ago, in July, when the Windows Phone Marketplace only offered 25,000 apps. All About Windows Phone, which first reported the milestone and went into great detail showing the app spread, said 17,276 new Windows Phone applications were published in the last 90 days while 8,010 apps were added in the last 30 days. The site also noted that entertainment is the most popular category, with 15% of all Windows Phone applications falling into that group. The entertainment category is followed by books and reference (14%), games (14%) and tools and productivity (15%). All About Windows Phone also estimates that 58% of the apps in the store are free, 14% are paid but come with a free trial and 29% are pay-for only.

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Microsoft will lower its Zune Music Pass from $14.99 per month to $9.99 per month beginning on October 3rd alongside the service’s launch in Canada. The service will now be priced in line with Spotify and similar services. Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace is home to 14 million songs and a Zune Music Pass subscription provides unlimited streaming access to the music. Unlike other services, Zune Music Pass allows subscribers to keep 10 songs per month. Microsoft’s move is no doubt an effort to attract customers who might otherwise but attempted to join a number of competing music subscription options including Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and even Apple’s upcoming iCloud service. Zune Music Pass subscribers can access their playlists and library from any Windows Phone, a PC or from an Xbox 360 console.

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While Microsoft was one of the last to launch an app store on Windows Mobile 6, the company will be the first to shut one down as well. Microsoft has alerted Windows Mobile 6 customers that the company plans to shut down the entire service, including the ability for new developers to submit new applications on July 15th. Though customers will still be able to purchase and redownload apps, we’re guessing that’s coming to a close pretty soon as well. Additionally, Microsoft’s My Phone service — the software and service that backs up data on your phone including multimedia — will be going offline as well on August 7th. The goods news is that there’s Windows Phone, and this is a logical step towards shifting consumers over to the new ecosystem.

Thanks, Joshua!

Microsoft’s senior director of the Windows Phone Marketplace, Todd Brix, has announced that Microsoft will launch a new web-based Windows Phone Marketplace for Mango phones. Brix explained that customers will be able to read reviews, view screen shots, and even promote applications on social networks. Purchases can be made with any credit card associated with your Windows Live ID, and you can choose to download the applications over-the-air to your phone. We’ve seen similar interfaces before: Google’s http://market.android.com website already allows Android users to install apps over the air, search for new apps, and more. The Windows Phone Marketplace web store is expected to launch in tandem with Mango, which Microsoft has confirmed will happen this fall.

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Despite early reports that Rovio would push Angry Birds for Windows Phone out of the nest on May 25th,  Microsoft said on Wednesday that the game won’t launch until June 29th. The good news is that there will be plenty of other new titles to hold Windows Phone users over. Hydro Thunder Go will debut on May 25th, Doodle Jump lands on June 1st, geoDefense will launch on June 8th, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 will be available on June 15th, and Plants vs Zombies will launch on June 22nd. Microsoft didn’t clarify why it pushed the launch out, but we suspect it’s just in an effort to offer a new game every week. Don’t forget: we’ll be reporting live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone press event in New York City next Tuesday at 10am, where we’ll hear more details on the platform.[Via Mobilized]

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During a meeting with Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore, AllThingsD was able to confirm that Rovio’s smash hit Angry Birds game will be available for Windows Phone 7 devices beginning on May 25th. That will leave BlackBerry OS as the last modern operating system to lack support for the title. Belfiore didn’t comment on how much the game would cost, but we hope it’s in the free to $0.99 range. Rovio has launched a number of seasonal updates to Angry Birds and most recently published Angry Birds Rio. It remains unclear which version will hit the Windows Marketplace.

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According to a recently filed report, nearly 1 million Windows Phone handsets were sold in the month of February alone. Using the same algorithm that successfully predicted when Microsoft hit 1 million units sold, The Next Web estimates that 3.38 million Windows Phone handsets have been sold thus far — 877,000 of which occurred in February of this year. The company’s new mobile operating system, which entered a fairly saturated market place, has posted respectable sales figures since its launch late last year.

Microsoft can also celebrate another, software-related milestone achieved with the Windows Phone ecosystem: 10,000 Marketplace applications. Adding over 1,000 applications in the last two weeks, the Redmond company has pushed its total app count over the five-digit mark. Microsoft officially announced that its mobile store had crossed the 6,000 application threshold back in January of this year. Many Windows Phone users are still waiting for the first major software update to the platform — codenamed NoDo — which is scheduled for release later this month. An subsequent update planned for later in 2011 is scheduled to bring multitasking and support for third-party push notifications to the platform — which should spur application development even further

Read [Sales] Read [Apps]

The digital rights management (DRM) security used by Microsoft to protect apps in its Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has been cracked, enthusiast blog WPCentral reports. Though the technology needed to do so is not yet in the hands of the general public, the DRM protecting paid applications can now easily be stripped off of apps. If details of the vulnerability used to achieve the DRM crack are made available to the public, unscrupulous programers could use the exploit to develop software that allows users to steal applications and deploy them to Windows Phone 7 devices. Microsoft has not publicly responded to the security hole, though WPCentral claims the company has been made aware of the issue. Hit the break to see Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Marketplace security being manhandled in a proof-of-concept video demonstration.

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Microsoft is set to reach another mobile milestone Tuesday as its Windows Phone 7 Marketplace passes the 5,000-app mark. The Marketplace reached 4,000 apps just 12 days ago, and it took 20 days to jump from 3,000 to 4,000. At its current pace, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace could overtake Palm’s webOS App Catalog as soon as next month. Microsoft announced last week that Windows Phone 7 devices sales have topped 1.5 million units globally, and developers clearly see the potential in the company’s emerging platform. Currently, more than 18,000 developers have registered to build apps for Microsoft’s new mobile operating system.

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If you’re waiting for a Windows Phone 7 device on Big Red, we have some encouraging news for you. It appears as though Verizon compatible WP7 applications are starting to make their way into the Windows Phone Marketplace. VZW is rumored to be launching a Windows Phone handset sometime after the New Year, but the presence of these Verizon-specific applications seems to hint that the timeframe could be shortly after January 1st. Anyone have plans to pickup a Windows Phone 7 set from Verizon Wireless?

According to third-party Windows Phone 7 Marketplace monitor WP7applist, Microsoft’s mobile application store is now home to over 4,000 applications. The site, which provides a Web-based interface for searching and browsing Windows Phone 7 apps, shows a current app total of 4,005. Microsoft announced on November 25th that its mobile app market was home to 3,000 apps, so the 4,000-app milestone comes 20 days later. The pace has slowed slightly compared to Microsoft’s jump from 2,000 apps to 3,000, which took just 17 days, but the rate new apps are hitting the Marketplace is still impressive. At its current pace, the number of apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will surpass the Palm App Catalog some time in the first quarter next year. Palm’s App Catalog launched in June of 2009, and currently offers approximately 5,800 apps.

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When Windows Phone 7 launched in the U.S. earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it already had 2,000 apps and 13,000 developers registered to build software for the platform. Two short weeks later, the proud Redmond giant is boasting of 3,000 apps and 15,000 registered developers. That’s some solid growth for a new, unproven platform. It should also be very encouraging for consumers — yes, established platforms like iOS and Android dwarf a growth rate of 500 apps per week, but mobile developers are spread thin. To know that Windows Phone 7 is drawing a fair amount of developer interest in its infancy is very, very comforting. As we know, Microsoft needs developer support if it hopes to succeed.

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Following concerns that Windows Phone 7 wouldn’t have enough titles support to satisfy the new wave of app-hungry smartphone users, Microsoft confirmed Monday that developer support has exceeded expectations. In a post on The Windows Phone Developer Blog, Microsoft’s Todd Brix announced that the Windows Marketplace for Mobile is now home to approximately 2,000 apps and games compatible with Windows Phone 7 devices. The figure is nearly double the company’s target, which was set last month. Microsoft also announced that the Marketplace is fully open to app submissions, and that it currently has 13,000 registered Windows Phone 7 developers. Windows Phone 7, which launched Monday in the U.S., is Microsoft’s attempt to reclaim consumer interest in its smartphones. Continued developer support is one of several keys to the success of the platform, and Microsoft certainly has an uphill battle ahead of it considering the massive app war chests held by Apple and Google.

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Hey, hey! We’re here at Sony’s GoogleTV event ready to see what the two companies have in-store for us. Hit the break for the live blogging action.

5:25 PM: We’re here and seated waiting for Sony to start the event. The event ambiance is pretty rockin’ — super clean, white sofas, white leather wrapped bar — nuts.

5:28 PM: Almost there, folks.

5:34 PM: Sony Exec is on stage talking about the world’s first HDTV powered by Google TV. Today is the launch of Sony Internet TV. “It puts you in the driver’s seat and let’s you continuously search for content across multiple sources.” Sony internet TV offers a progrssive internet experience with infinite posibilties.

5:35 PM: We’re ver proud to be the pioneers of this new category. Presale for Sony Internet TV products is now available through SonyStyle.com. Today we’re launching two solutions. Sony Internet TV and Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc player.

5:36 PM: what’s an Internet TV experience without an intuitive and comfortable remote. Based on the leaked photos and this photo, well, we’ll leave the judgment up to you.

5:38 PM: You never need to boot up the laptop. It’s as easy as browsing from your PC, but it’s on your large screen. Sony introduced cutting edge. Sony delivers the full internet based internet experience directly on your living room. In n effort to grow our television business we will continue to combine our hardware expertise, and now the Android OS to create compelling and attractive TV experiences.

5:39 PM: Mike Abary, SV of Sony’s Home Division is now on TV demoing the product. Here is Sony’s first Internet TV. And, it looks like a TV! “The world’s first TV powered by Google TV. In the history of consumer eleectronics this is a pretty big one, and we’re proud to be a pioneer of this entertainment category. We are creating the new TV revoluton.”

5:42 PM: “Watching regular TV with regular apps is so 2009″

5:42 PM: Time spent watching TV while on the PC is up 10%. Time is right for the new revolution. Hardware info now… four models ranging from 32″-46″ in price from $599-$1,399. Also, if you just bought a new TV, there is a Blu-ray integrated box for $399. We’re incorporating components in CE devices that you wouldn’t normally see. They have to perform to capture the content on the internet. We have an Intel Atom processor as well a 8GB of storage. Mike is talking about the remote now, or what Sony likes to call, “a unique remote.” The design of this remove control is beautiful. It belongs in the living room. See how it feels, it feels natural. We’ve incorporated design elements from other successful remote controllers in the Sony remote portflio.

5:45 PM: Some design elements were borrowed from the PS3. There is a full QWERTY keyboard, and when you’re searching on TV, you need input. There is a mouse function built in, control your DVR and Blu-ray player, single remote for all of the functions that are necessary in the living room.

5:46 PM: Ease of use for the consumer. Software and services: it incorporated the Google TV platform and the Chrome browser. Search is a function of these unique products, and while search is available on other products, not lke this. Search across your DVR, TV, and across the web. The TV is fully personalized b bookmarking your favorites.

5:47 PM: Apps are important. There are some installed out of the box. CNBC, Netflix, Napster, NBA, etc. Other competitors that have closed access to the internet

5:49 PM: They are now walking us through the new product — demo time! He’s showing Food Network and how he’s watching live TV, and he doesn’t want to watch what’s on Food Network. He wants to watch Man Vs. Food, his favorite show. He hits the search button on the remote, types in man v. food, and showing the results.

5:54 PM: Demo is over, he hopped around from live TV to Google Maps, to the browser, and even sent a Tweet.

5:55 PM: The people that care about this product is the same audience that’s already using a PC and TV.

5:55 PM: Preorder now, available in Sony Style stores this weekend. This is the only Internet TV with Google TV available for the holidays.

6:03 PM: We’re checking out the TVs and devices — stay tuned for our hands on post!

Once at the top of the smartphone pack, Microsoft’s current mobile operating system, Windows Mobile, has quickly fallen from grace. Luckily the juggernaut in Redmond, WA decided finally to do something about that. You call it whatever you’d like — a restart, a do over — but Microsoft has entirely changed course with Windows Phone 7, and they have broke most everything in the process. That means old Windows Mobile applications won’t work, the entire OS has been redone, and practically nothing from the user’s perspective has been carried over. A good thing when you’re now playing in a world of Androids and iPhones. We have been testing out a non-final, never ever going to be released to market Samsung prototype Windows Phone 7 device for a week, and we’re excited to let you know what we think of the operating system.

Hardware

We’re not going to review the actual hardware we received since it will never see the light of day, but we can talk about the hardware requirements and what that means for the platform. Microsoft has a reportedly over 200 page document that details what’s required of the hardware powering Windows Phone 7. Some of that includes a minimum of a 3.7″ 4-point capacitive multi touch display, 5 megapixel camera, 1GHz CPU, all memory must be built-in (it can be microSD, just not user accessible), dedicated graphics chip, and three hardware buttons on the front. That would be the back, Start, and search buttons.

That baseline is pretty high end, and other chassis specifications will be a little more relaxed. Chassis 2 will apparently support other hardware configurations like slide-out keyboards, and we assume chassis 3 might allow for lower-to-mid specs, but the last part is just our assumption. Having a baseline requirement is a great thing and it’s nice to see Microsoft taking more a stance with this new platform. We all can remember the mess that Windows Mobile became (we’re talking hardware).

User Interface

If you were to call Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS UI minimalistic, you’d be right. Even if our sentence wasn’t. The thing is, sometimes when using Windows Phone, things are so minimalistic, that it actually feels a bit too lonely and open. Don’t get us wrong, it’s nice to feel like you’re not constrained to a certain window or foreground app, but at the same time, we can’t help but feel that there could have been so much more done.

At the bottom of every application are Microsoft’s action buttons. These are contextual buttons that offer added actions in almost every application on the phone. The thing is, they’re pretty standard, and not that user friendly. At least not for us. We’re not sure why Microsoft decided to implement and design something that actually gets in the way instead of helping. For starters, we found them to be tiny and poorly placed. Unlike Android where you have a menu key and a nice big popup of additional actions, Microsoft’s approach is to have a tiny, tiny area reserved for these buttons at all times, wasting screen real estate while also cluttering up the view with pointless circles that are almost laughably small. The one saving grace is the ability to expand this action button view, but we can’t but feel like it would have been better all around to move all the action buttons over, and let the user expand / close it when necessary.

Let’s take the homescreen for instance… Apple’s homescreen is pretty straightforward. You have app icons and you have folders which contain apps and they are all the same size, and that’s about it. Android has the same basic logic, except you can add widgets, add shortcuts to different menus or applications, and even add live moving wallpapers among other things. Microsoft basically reinvents the mobile phone homescreen, and we’re not sure we’re in love with it.

Other annoyances with the UI? The scrolling. There’s a very slight rubber-banding effect, but what happens is, when you get to the bottom or top of a scrollable list, the scrolling stops short and the content then sort of mashes up slightly. It’s not that elegant, and especially on this not-amazing prototype phone, it looks pretty bad and pixelated.

Something else would be the fact that threaded text message conversations are all the same color. So, your messages and the other party’s messages are all the same color which makes things a bit difficult to tell apart. We also can’t stand the fact that the top upper status bar which contains the time, battery level, signal strength and other status icons, is basically hidden from view for the most part. You can have these icons show at will by tapping the always-present time in the upper right corner, but it’s not that reassuring having this stuff hidden by default for freaks like us.

One last thing that really bugs us with the UI is that there is no application switcher. At all. On a BlackBerry you can hold the BlackBerry key, on Android devices you can hold the Home key, and on the iPhone you can double tap the home button. Just simply navigating back, back, back, back and back doesn’t really cut it, and during every day usage, it got tired quick.

Home Screen / Hubs

Microsoft’s new Hub interface is decent attempt to centralize different application data in a clean and pretty fluid manner. Apps will be able to create their own hubs, as will OEMs and carriers, but they’ll have to follow some design guidelines that Microsoft has created. Yes, Microsoft will be limiting the scope of what third parties can do with hubs, and we think that’s a great idea. Thing’s like the navigation, and apparently even fonts will look uniform from hub to hub.

Hubs are a great idea in general, but the homescreen, filled with hubs, just comes off feeling unfinished and unpolished. Microsoft was sure to mention to us how they wanted the OS to just naturally speak for itself with clean, modern fonts and lines, and not be overloaded with fake 3D UI elements like drop shadows and the like. The thing is, it really comes off as feeling a little too plain for us, especially with the all black default color scheme. If you try and remedy that specific problem and you flip it the setting to use white instead of black, the phone is so bright that it’s basically unusable.

You could argue the homescreen is the most important part of current smartphones, and in our view Microsoft really falls short here. It’s definitely dynamic at times, but it’s underwhelming for the most part and it sort of cheapens the other positive areas of Windows Phone 7.

Zune / Music

If you’re a fan of the Zune music player, you’ll no doubt be enthralled with the Zune app on WP7. It’s clean, functional, and very hip looking. In fact, Windows Phone 7 is basically modeled after the Zune UI (in our view at least, since we didn’t see WP7 debut until after the Zune). It contains everything you’d want in a music player nowadays, like video / music video support, podcasts, a built-in radio, and the Zune Marketplace.

We’ve never been huge Zune fans over here, but we do have to say using the music player on WP7 was a really pleasant experience. We’d absolutely put it second to Apple’s iPod on their iPhone. It is miles ahead of anything coming out of RIM or Android at this point, and it’s great to see a phone that is just as focused on multimedia as it is on say, email.

Phone

We’re not going to lie, we really have no idea how people actually let the phone app get this far. When you first launch the application, you’d except to be at the keypad, so you can actually make a call, right? No. You’re presented with the recent call history list. Just text splattered on the screen. No problem, you’ll mosey on over to settings and change the default view so the keypad shows up. Ah, problem there. You can’t make that change because it’s not an option. So to make a phone call, you have to go into the phone and hit one of the poorly-sized action buttons below to bring up the keypad to make a phone call.

Another annoyance? Let’s say you do for some reason want to actually call someone on your recently called list, so you don’t have to bring up the keypad this time. Just tap the phone number in the list, and off you go. Not quite. Microsoft links the recent calls to “profiles” not numbers. It’s the most insane thing we’ve ever seen. If you tap on the caller in the list, you don’t dial the phone number, a profile view slides in and you then have to determine which number to call from there. Ok fine, but if you got a call from just a phone number, and not someone in contacts, it won’t bring up the profile, it will just dial the phone number. Again, not quite. It will still bring up a profile view, but this time offer default options of calling or texting that number. A simple long press gesture could have solved these problems in our book. Long press to get options to text the number, save it to your contacts, or anything else. It’s another little missed UI piece of the puzzle that gets really apparent when you use the OS a lot.

Actual phone calling works fine enough, though it can be a little confusing at times. Unfortunately Microsoft tries to be a little too hip by showing the background as transparent, and we just don’t know what purpose this solves but a cheap UI effect. In our minds, you’re either actively in the phone call (foreground), or the phone call is minimized (top status bar). But to have the phone application in the foreground not take up the whole screen and the view below it to be transparent doesn’t really flow much. Maybe we’re being picky, but with already frustrating calling experience, we’d have liked the phone application to just be a phone.

Email

As huge Microsoft Office fans, using the email app on Windows Phone 7 is nothing short of fantastic. It’s simple, easy to use, feature-packed (especially if you’re on an Exchange 2007 or 2010 server), and really enjoyable. It’s one of the only default apps to use a white color scheme instead of black, and it really looks great. Emails are organized in the hub very cleanly, with all, unread, flagged, and urgent sections that are flickable.

The transitions here work very well for the most part, but it’s a little overblown at times and kind of wastes time if you’re really hoping to and from emails in a hurry. Unfortunately, in this non-final version of the OS, PDF attachments were not supported. We’ve reached out to see if that will change in the first shipping Windows Phone 7 handset. There are little things we’re not in love with on here, but they are pretty small… we don’t like how there is no status bar for attachment downloads, it just says “Downloading” with no visualization of how much time or amount of data is left to download, we also don’t like that by default, emails sent from the handset aren’t immediately available in the sent folder. You have to manually sync the folder to view emails sent from the phone. Seems a little counter-intuitive. One last annoyance we stumbled across is that even with specific rules set up in Outlook 2010 on an Exchange server wit Outlook open, messages can slip through the cracks. It’s not every message, and it’s not the end of the world, but we haven’t seen this happen on an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android handset even once.

Something incredibly stupid with the email app, is the inability to remotely search for emails. With Microsoft launching this feature in Windows Mobile 6.1, and basically every other smartphone OS supporting it, it’s pretty amazing how it isn’t included. You’re limited to whatever is locally stored on your device to search through. Microsoft did let us know they were open to revisiting this, so we’ll have to see if it changes in the near future. For the meantime though, this really takes away from a great email application.

Keyboard

We absolutely love the keyboard on Windows Phone. It’s so… clickable yet still virtual. It really flies, the predictions and corrections are awesome, and it’s almost as good as the iPhone’s keyboard. The iPhone has a more functional layout, and better access to symbols and corrections, but Windows Phone’s keyboard is just about there, and easily our favorite second best software input device on a smartphone platform. Unfortunately, there’s no multi-touch capability on it, but it’s still very solid.

Browser

The mobile web browser is a tricky one. In our view, Apple still holds the crown, regardless of whether Android has taken over in raw Javascript performance. It’s a whole package kind of thing, and with RIM currently out of the picture, the only two competitors are the aforementioned. Microsoft’s browser is fine, but it’s far from pleasurable to use. It’s not the most elegant browser (there might just be some software bugs that will be fixed in the first shipping handset) and we at times had some pages that didn’t render properly, and were a little janky after scrolling through them. The browser supports tabs, and has a simple thumbnail view to hop back to an open page, or close the open tab. There are favorites and a history view, and to be honest, that’s about it. Bing search is built into the navigation bar, though search results don’t populate in real-time like on Android and iPhone platforms. All in all, the browser was fine, but didn’t have anything that was lust-worthy. We still prefer Google’s and Apple’s mobile browsers.

Productivity

Microsoft’s bread and butter is of course Windows and Office. So, what would a Microsoft mobile product be without a great implementation of Office? Windows phone 7 has its own Office 2010 hub complete with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and SharePoint access. Combine that with the great email app (we can call it Outlook), and you’ve got a pretty powerful mobile productivity software suite. Easily the best mobile Office experience, and why shouldn’t it be?

Social Communication

Windows Phone is pretty social right from the out of box experience. You can link your Windows Live, Facebook, and Exchange accounts as you glide through the first time set up process. Windows Live, Facebook, and Exchange contacts are all integrated together in the main people view. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to control what shows up here, or limit it. For instance, we’d love Facebook to sync to our existing contacts in our address book and link up, but there is practically no interest in seeing every single Facebook friend listed in the people view. We have no found a way to filter out contacts by services or even groups and that’s kind of frustrating.

Facebook status updating is built right into the device, but sadly your choices are only that and your Windows Live status. Twitter is nowhere to be found here.

The photos hub is interesting as it’s an aggregated view of your local and remote photos, and sharing photos is a relatively easy task if you can figure out how. When tapping on an individual photo in a single view, nothing happens. You’d think there would be some overlay that pops over with action buttons, but you actually have to tap and hold the photo to accomplish this. Once there, however, you are greeted by a lot of sharing options. You can email the picture, upload it right to Facebook, send it in an MMS, or upload it to Windows Live SkyDrive.

Conclusion

It should be clear to everyone that Windows Phone 7 as a platform is not finished yet. The first handsets aren’t rumored until September, October, or November depending on what site you’re reading on which day, and the handset we have been using for a week won’t ever be released and is meant only for developers to test apps on actual hardware. However, we have been playing around with WP7 for enough time, and the OS is well-enough along that we have got a great feel for it, regardless of any minor improvements before the first handset launches. Microsoft has no doubt broken course and gone in an entirely new direction, something that many people wish RIM would do, and we applaud them for that. They have created a brand new mobile operating system packed full of clean, modern, and sometimes even beautiful design elements.

We liked using the OS in general, though the experience for us felt a little too much like our time using the Microsoft KIN 2. The tiled homescreen seems a little too constrained and boxed in for us, and the non-frills design approach actually left the handset menus and navigational elements feeling bare and unfinished, rather than pure and unaltered. Not having any sort of menu for hoping back and forth between applications hampers your every day usage, and the animated transitions also start to feel old pretty fast. For a phone that was made from scratch and started on after the first iPhone was introduced, and for a phone that’s not even in market yet, it unfortunately in our view falls short. There’s practically no real innovation we can see with Windows Phone 7. It’s a decent mashup of some already pioneered features like aggregated status updates linked with your contacts, customizable homescreens, and a mobile apps and music marketplace, but we’re not sure that’s enough to push WP7 ahead of the three big juggernauts. It’s a fantastic featurephone, but as a truly competitive smartphone platform, we’re just not sure at this point in time.

There is no killer application on Windows Phone 7, and we can’t see an overwhelming reason to use one instead of an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android handset. Whether Microsoft’s OS updates to the platform will be enough to change our minds in the future is up to them, but for now, they’ve created a decent mobile operating system from scratch, but it unfortunately still has that Microsoft feel. And that’s not the best thing sometimes.