14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is nearing the official launch of Windows Phone 7, something that should happen in a matter of weeks, as the latest rumors around the web suggest, but it seems that the company would leave outside a wide range of mobile phone users.
Among them, we can count CDMA mobile phone users in the United States, who won't get a taste of Windows Phone 7 until next year.
It's a common fact that the new mobile operating system won't land in too many markets in the beginning, and it seems that the number of users able to enjoy its capabilities would be much lower than originally expected.
According to Microsoft, this makes sense, since there are considerably more GSM users than CDMA ones around the world, but Verizon and Sprint customers in the US will certainly see this differently.
The new info on CDMA flavor of Windows Phone 7 devices comes from Microsoft senior product manager, Greg Sullivan, who unveiled the move in a recent interview with Cnet.
“For the worldwide market, the vast majority of phones are GSM phones, so we focused on GSM first and then plan to deliver an update that will have great CDMA support in the first half of 2011,” he stated.
“That’s device availability in the first half and we’re very confident of that. That’s probably a conservative estimate.”
For the time being, it seems that only AT&T and T-Mobile would be offering Windows Phone 7 devices to their users during the ongoing year, which is in line with AT&T's claims that it would be “premier Windows Phone 7 carrier.”
Since Verizon and Sprint are out of the equation at the moment, it seems that Windows Phone 7 won't be able to become as successful as expected right from the start, at least when the US market is taken into consideration.
Making Windows Phone 7 devices available for purchase via as many carriers as possible, and on as many markets as possible, is one approach that Microsoft needs to take into consideration when it comes to making its mobile OS competitive once again on the smartphone market.