Microsoft names its partners for Windows Phone 7

Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager at Microsoft, confirmed the blessed manufacturers, which will be getting WP7 phones out of the door by the end of the year. Dell, ASUS, LG, HTC and Samsung- we've posted their share of Windows Phone 7 rumors along the way. No surprises in that lineup, but it's always nice to receive an official confirmation from the source, so we can start sleeping well again.

The Redmond giant's representative also shared some other interesting tidbits. As can be expected, WP7 will not appear exclusively on any one carrier. The launch will be a full-on assault with different US and UK wireless service providers carrying handsets in a variety of hardware choices. Microsoft thinks this approach will allow them to quickly capture more share in those markets than Palm's webOS, Samsung's bada, Qualcomm's Brew MP and -  interestingly enough - Nokia's MeeGo and Symbian.

Sullivan also said that they are not hoping to steal customers from the big three - Android, iOS and BlackBerry OS. Microsoft will rather be carving a niche for newcomers to the smartphone market with numerous hardware choices, and applications that work on all of them. Wait, isn't that what Android is doing already? Time will tell, but the next few months are shaping to be pretty exciting for the industry.

source: Pocket-Lint