Microsoft finishes work on Windows Phone 7

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 2 Sep 2010 at 09:00

Microsoft has finished code work on Windows Phone 7, and is ready to send the mobile operating system off to handset manufacturers.

The OS still needs to be integrated onto devices, but the expected arrival of handsets in October looks likely.

Terry Myerson, corporate vice president of Windows Phone engineering, promised the mobile OS was the "most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released".

"We had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes," said Myerson on the Windows blog.

"We’ve had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing our software and giving us great feedback," he added.

Microsoft has certainly had lots of time to perfect Windows Phone 7. It released Windows Mobile 6 in 2007, following it up with the stopgap version 6.5 last year, letting rivals Google and Apple leapfrog Microsoft in the mobile space.

Recent stats from Neilsen Online showed Windows Mobile phones held 11% of the US market, compared to 27% for Android and 23% for Apple.

Myerson said Microsoft was "just getting started," claiming Windows Phone 7 "sets us up for success over the long term in the mobile space… we’re really just getting started".