Windows Phone 7 Demo For iOS and Android Smartphones

While Microsoft is usually pretty tame when it comes to marketing ploys and advertising, the firm seems to have stepped up the pace by releasing an HTML5 web app that allows Android and iOS users to test Windows Phone 7 on their handsets. 

It's cheeky, it's daring and it's hats off to Microsoft for its sheer audacity, as the firm's new web app brings a functioning Windows Phone 7 demo to distinctly non-Windows handsets like the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S (or any other phone running iOS or Android).

So while the mobile world is still dominated by the 'Big Two' operating systems, users can get a taste of life on the other side with Microsoft's feature-rich HTML5 web app. Although it's not 100% operational, the demo is sufficiently functional to test this alternative and original smartphone interface in relative depth. 

If you want to have a go, use this link: Windows Phone 7 Trial. Then click on Start Demo to see any smartphone temporarily run on Windows Phone.  

In the demo you can explore contacts hubs, the photo gallery, points of interest in the local area, the calendar function, the app list and the different messaging options. Note that the landscape mode isn't available in compatible apps, however.

You can't make any changes in the demo OS, but the trial still gives you a good idea of what Microsoft's mobile OS is all about.

At the end of the demo, Microsoft craftily takes users to an official page showing the latest handsets running Windows Phone 7.

Note that in the Dolphin HD browser in Android, the 'swipe' function (a key feature of Windows Phone 7) is only available by clicking the arrows at the top of the screen if your navigation toolbar is active (the bar is displayed when you swipe the screen to the left or right).

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