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The first LG smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series may arrive as early as September, according to a report from Engadget.
Reportedly, members of its sister site, Engadget Chinese, had a sitdown with LG executives in Hong Kong who indicated that the date likely wouldn’t be as late as “the holiday season” as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested at the introduction of the mobile operating system at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona Feb. 15.
Windows Phone 7 Series is a complete departure from the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system that Microsoft has been promoting for several months now, on devices such as the Sony Ericsson Aspen and the Garmin-Asus M10, both of which were introduced in early February.
“We needed and wanted to do some things that were out of the box,” Ballmer told the audience at Mobile World Congress. “You’ll see us continue to invest in our Windows Mobile 6.5 offering, but we started a whole new generation here with Windows Phone 7 Series.”
Whether the OS, which relies on “hubs” – sections called “People,” “Picture,” “Office,” for example – will prove a hit for Microsoft remains unclear.
In-Stat, in a Feb. 23 report, described the new OS as promising “several compelling features,” though wrote that they aren’t “particularly unique and are available on several other platforms.”
Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart, struck a positive tone in a Feb. 16 research note, writing, “We think that it is too early to make a call whether Windows Phone 7 will help Microsoft to stabilize/gain market share in the smartphone market, but it is an impressive good start.”
In 2009, Microsoft Windows Mobile captured 8.7 percent of the worldwide smartphone OS market share, shipping on 15 million devices, according to a Feb. 23 report from research firm Gartner. The number represented a slip from 2008 numbers, in which the OS held 11.8 percent of the market.
LG may additionally find competition in Motorola, which is also interested in Windows Phone 7 Series.
“I’m open to it,” Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “I think I need diversity in our portfolio.”