MIX 10: or the strange story of the HTC HD2 and WinPho 7

Once upon a time there was a talented manufacturer, technology and customised interfaces coming out of their ears, parterships with all the major mobile OS' on the market, until, one day...

... Microsoft announced its new general consumer mobile phone operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series. Wiping the slate clean with a slightly checkered past and picking up on much of the work carried out on the Zune HD, all with the aim of maximising user experience.

To achieve this, Microsoft stripped things right back: the interface and internal structure have been entirely reviewed and fixed (manufacturers can only change settings details), nor do manufacturers have much leeway when it comes to the physical interface and there's no intergenerational compatibility. While this represents a radical change in direction, it was doubtless necessary.

HTC HD2: ready for WinPho 7?

Problem: HTC launched its top end HD2 a few months ago. With a very large screen and an interface developed by HTC, it's a real high-performance beast. However, as we said above, manufacturers can no longer use their own customised interface with WinPho 7. They have the option of Zune or nothing. The other problem is that it is equipped with four physical control buttons and Microsoft is only allowing three.

While HTC will no longer be able to use Sense, the Zune interface is pretty well designed and while there are four buttons, this just means that the phone has one more than the necessary three which shouldn't be too much of a problem. Except that Microsoft is not of this opinion. They have already said that they're going to be very strict with respect to compliance with their charter.

Adobe and Microsoft don't agree on the question, HTC prefers to keep quiet

At MWC, one of the HTC representatives confirmed that they were working closely with Microsoft on the transition, but just a few days later, a conference on WinPho 7 confirmed that the HD2 wouldn't be compatible. And if that wasn't sufficient, this was confirmed at Mix 10 at the beginning of the week.

Amusingly, a few days ago, Adobe made an announcement with respect to Flash: the HD2 was reported to be the first Windows Phone to support Flash 10.1... in WinPho 7! So what is the truth behind all this?

And what if we asked HTC themselves? This is what we did. Following the contradictory announcements we contacted them to get their view. Their reply: "no comment".

So, will the HD2 be a Windows Phone 7 Series or not? And what about the HD mini?

HTC HD2 Prices unavailable Recommended alternatives Editor's Choice HTC One X A Classic! Apple iPhone 4S Nokia Teams Up With Microsoft Nokia Lumia 800

HTC HD Mini MARCHANDS €     Vodafone  0.00  Cellphoneshop  1.85  Amazon.co.uk  5.28  Mypix.com  7.99  Amazon mark...  27.99  Evans cycles  44.99  Compare prices

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