Starting with next month, pre-release versions

Jun 16, 2010 14:55 GMT  ·  By

Mobile developers interested in building applications for Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system are expected to start receiving pre-release devices running under the platform come July, previous reports around the Internet suggested. Further confirmation on Microsoft's plans comes from Brandon Watson, responsible for the developer platform for Windows Phone 7, who said in a recent post on social.msdn.microsoft that things were ramping up for the move.

However, there are still a great deal of aspects that haven't been finalized as of yet. The company is hard at work with putting all things in order, and it seems that these Windows Phone 7 handsets are set to arrive at all types of developers. “We will be doing so for a broad range of developers...not just big ISVs. Individual developers with great ideas are just as important. Active folks on this forum are the very people we need to get phones to,” Watson states.

Of course, one should not expect for Microsoft to send the device as soon as one applies for it. Moreover, the criteria on which these handsets would be delivered are quite strict, as they are meant for “developers who can demonstrate that they are building real apps.” The idea is to have these devices in the handset of people who are hard at work with the building of applications for Windows Phone 7, and not to deliver them to those who would like to see “how their app looks like on the phone.” According to Watson, the handsets that would be delivered to developers starting with the following month are not final, as they are meant mainly for app testing.

The developer phones going out next month, and through the summer, won't be final build quality - they are meant for testing and readiness for the marketplace opening later this year. Developer purchasable phones (ones you can buy, which are unlocked) probably won't be available until after launch. The OEMs and mobile operators don't want final phone designs hitting the market ahead of launch. In the mean time, we have many many thousands of phones which we are looking to get into developers' hands so that we can harness the collective creativity, passion and desire to be amongst the first to publish apps to the Windows Phone 7 Markteplace,” the said post states.