Windows Phone 7 Devices Expected Early November

Microsoft will release a set of Windows Phone 7 smartphones in early November, according to a 30 September report in The Wall Street Journal, following the smartphone platform’s anticipated launch on 11 October.

According to the Journal, there will initially be Windows Phone 7 devices manufactured by HTC, Samsung and LG Electronics. The Journal‘s sources included unnamed “people familiar with the launch plans.”

New York launch

Microsoft has sent out press invitations to a high-profile launch for Windows Phone 7 in New York City on 11 October. A Microsoft spokesperson’s email to eWEEK on 30 September declined to mention the products on view at the event, but suggested: “This season is a big one for Microsoft with the launch of Xbox Kinect and Windows Phone 7, as well as new stuff from Windows Live, new Windows 7 PCs, great shopping services from Bing and more.”

Microsoft is making a considerable bet that Windows Phone 7 will reverse the company’s mobile market share slide. In addition to the Apple iPhone and Google Android, the company also faces competition in the enterprise from Research In Motion, which seems determined to revive its own fortunes with new devices such as the BlackBerry Torch 9800.

“We missed a generation with Windows Mobile. We really did miss a release cycle,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the audience during his 12 July keynote at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference. However, he promised, “We will give you a set of Windows-based devices that people will be proud to carry.”

A different approach

Unlike Android and the Apple iPhone, which rely on grid-like screens of individual apps for their user interface, Windows Phone 7 aggregates web content and apps into a series of subject-specific “Hubs” such as “Office” and “Games.”

Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg has estimated Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 marketing tab at $400 million (£250m), not including the already-substantial development costs for the platform. On top of that, Microsoft has reportedly offered financial incentives to mobile applications developers, trying to entice them into building apps and games for the platform.

Windows Phone 7 will appear first on GSM-based mobile networks before being available on CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) operators in the first half of 2011.