Microsoft: no backwards compatibility for Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has unveiled some important elements for the Windows Phone 7 Series development platform. Most importantly, the software giant has confirmed what we've been expecting the company to announce for a while now. "For Microsoft, the cost of going from good to great is a clean break from the past," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "For example, previous Windows Phone content will not run on Windows Phone 7 Series."

Charlie Kindel, Microsoft Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience, went into a little bit more detail on his blog, Charlie Kindel on Windows Phone Development. "To enable the fantastic user experiences you've seen in the Windows Phone 7 Series demos so far we've had to break from the past," Kindel writes. "To deliver what developers expect in the developer platform we've had to change how phone apps were written. One result of this is previous Windows mobile applications will not run on Windows Phone 7 Series. To be clear, we will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come, so it's not as though one line ends as soon as the other begins."

Specifically, Microsoft is going to draw on two technologies for software development on Windows Mobile 7.0 that are closely tied to .NET Framework and that aren't available in Windows Mobile 6.x. Silverlight will be used for apps, allowing developers and designers to work separately on design and code, not to mention the option to easily port them to the desktop and other mobile operating systems. XNA will be used for developers that want to expand their portfolio to include 2D and 3D games, and again possibly port them to other platforms such as the PC and the Xbox. In this way, Microsoft is ensuring that .NET developers, Silverlight developers, and XNA developers can all use their skills and much of their code to Microsoft's upcoming mobile platform. While it is a clean slate, developers won't have to completely start from scratch. Klein is promising "a cohesive, well designed API set with super productive tools."

Klein says the reason for these developer changes comes directly from feedback Microsoft obtained from face-to-face conversations with hundreds of developers over the last year about what the company should do with Windows Phone 7 Series. The company learned they want three things: to create truly compelling apps and games users will love, to get more done with better tool productivity and platform capabilities, and greater opportunity—not just on the phone but across the PC, Web, and TV/game console. Microsoft choosing Silverlight and XNA, cross platform technologies since day one, is no coincidence.

Microsoft is planning to reveal more developer details at the MIX10 conference (March 15 to March 17 in Las Vegas), through keynotes and at least 12 technical sessions. Ars will be there to report on the latest news about not only Windows Phone 7 Series, but Internet Explorer 9 as well.

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Microsoft Pink phone reportedly exists, coming to Verizon

Pink, the long rumored Microsoft-branded (but not Microsoft-manufactured) phone(s) that features premium mobile services (think Zune) and has also been referred to as Zune phone, is all but officially confirmed now, thanks to leaked third-party marketing materials obtained by Gizmodo. Microsoft did not announce anything regarding the device when it showed off Windows Phone 7 Series, but these documents lay out a promotional plan for Pink in detail, and while they don't talk about specs or software details, they do shed some light on the upcoming mobile phone.

Just as rumored in September 2009, Pink will arrive on Verizon. Furthermore, Verizon is a launch partner for Pink (a joint Microsoft/Verizon launch is possible), and while exclusivity is likely, another carrier isn't completely out of the question. Previous rumors talked about a codenamed Turtle and a codenamed Pure, but only the former is mentioned in the documents. Turtle (pictured above), is reportedly "squircle" in shape, and includes a microphone at the bottom of its slide-out keyboard, which is meant to be open when being used as a phone. Last but not least, social networking will play a big part on the phone, just as with Windows Phone 7 Series.

Remember the analyst who said earlier this year that a Zune Phone was coming soon? She predicted it would arrive this month, would have 720p HD video capabilities, at least a 5MP camera, and that it would run Windows Mobile 7.0. She also claimed that the next version of Microsoft's mobile OS would include premium mobile services, including a Zune video store and music subscription and purchasing services, an interface similar to the Zune HD UI, and could include social networking apps like Xbox Live, Facebook, and Twitter. She got the details about Windows Mobile 7.0 pretty darn close, so now let's see if she gets the Pink parts correct.

Gizmodo, however, says that it doesn't look like it has Windows Mobile 7.0 on it for two reasons: the interface looks different and Turtle doesn't look like it has the minimum hardware requirements to be part of the Windows Phone 7 Series. We're not so quick to rule out Windows Mobile 7.0 as Pink's mobile OS. Firstly, we've heard before that Pink would be built on top of Windows Mobile 7.0. Secondly, we still don't know the specs for the third chassis, so it's entirely possible that Turtle has those requirements and can still be under the Windows Phone 7 Series branding. It would be a huge shame—not to mention very stupid—if Microsoft decided its own phone wasn't a Windows Phone 7 device.

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WinMob 6.5 to Windows Phone 7 Series upgrades to be rare

It's long been known that Microsoft would have much tighter hardware requirements for Windows Mobile 7 than any previous version of its mobile operating system. Therefore, the general expectation for upgrades to the new version have not been hopeful: if you want Windows Phone 7 Series device, the fact that you have a Windows Mobile phone right now does not mean you can avoid buying a new phone.

Natasha Kwan, General Manager for Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific region, recently went on record that Microsoft would be very strict about what phones will be upgradable: she told APC that the HTC HD2 touchscreen smartphone "doesn't qualify because it doesn't have the three buttons" (it has five). HD2 owners will be unable to upgrade the device to Windows Mobile 7 when the OS is released later this year despite the fact the device meets many of the criteria laid down in Microsoft's Chassis 1 spec, including a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, a high-resolution capacitive touch display, a five megapixel camera, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

This statement has been widely extrapolated to mean that all Windows Mobile 6.x phones will not be allowed to move on up. That's simply not the case. "For Windows Phone 7 Series we are enforcing a strict set of hardware requirements to ensure a consistently great experience for end-users and developers," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "While we cannot confirm that WM6.X phones that satisfy those requirements will be upgradeable, every Windows Phone 7 Series device will be upgradeable with improvements and features we deliver with subsequent Windows Phone 7 Series releases."

Devices with Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition are expected to sell alongside devices from Windows Phone 7 Series. 

The good news here is that Microsoft plans on maintaining a much more consistent experience across its many different devices with its rigid Windows Phone 7 Series hardware requirements. The bad news is that it comes at the loss of many of its current faithful Windows Mobile customers.

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etc: Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman unveiled the first Windows Phone 7 Series device the world has seen on The Engadget Show: a pre-production prototype QWERTY slider from LG.

Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman unveiled the first Windows Phone 7 Series device the world has seen on The Engadget Show: a pre-production prototype QWERTY slider from LG.

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