Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Smartphones on Display at CTIA

By Nicholas Kolakowski

Windows Phone 7 Series’ initial (and customizable) screen displays items such as the local time, your current e-mail count and appointments.

The Windows Phone 7 Series is built around “Hubs” that aggregate content, such as “People.” The tiles actively update with content from Facebook and other sources.

All Windows Phone 7 Series phones will utilize multitouch.

The “Office” hub features a touch-screen-optimized version of OneTouch.

Office documents are accessible through the device.

Enterprise users get a nod with access to SharePoint.

Windows Phone 7 Series leverages Bing-and its distinctive opening image-for search.

By entering a search term such as “pizza,” Windows Phone 7 will produce local results (in this case, nearby restaurants).

In addition to local results, users can run a search term through “web,” “news” and other options.

Windows Phone 7 Series presents Outlook with lots of white space against black text, in order to heighten readability while on the move.

An Outlook e-mail on a Windows Phone 7 Series device. Note the profile image.

The virtual keyboard can be used to search through Outlook e-mail by keyword.

Windows Phone 7 Series incorporates Xbox Live functionality, allowing users to access games.

Xbox Live users can adjust their avatar, their digital representation when playing games with others.

Windows Phone 7 Series “Hub” feeds updates from Facebook and other social networking services for its “What’s New” feature.

Microsoft is counting on the “Hubs” to create a differentiator from other smartphones on the market, such as Google Android devices and the Apple iPhone.