Microsoft released a lot of exciting and new information regarding their new mobile platform at the MIX 2010 conference. Windows Phone 7 has the following minimum spec requirements:

Capacitive Touch: 4 or more contact points
Sensors: A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light, Proximity
Camera: 5 megapixels or more, Camera with a flash and dedicated camera button
Multimedia: Common detailed specs, Codec acceleration
Memory: 256 MB, 8 GB Flash or more
GPU: DirectX 9 acceleration
Processor: ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better
2 screen sizes: 480×800 WVGA, 480×320 HVGA
Keyboard: Optional
Hardware Buttons: Must be fixed on the face

Remember, these are MINIMUM requirements. As you can see, at least in my opinion, this is great news. The main technical aspect I am concerned about is the CPU or processor. If you know your processors, you might know that the ARMv7 is a kind of processor technology that focuses on power conservation. In 2007, 98% of all mobile phones used a processor that used ARM technology. The Nexus One and iPhone uses these processors as well. Mobile processors have only advanced in efficiency since 2007. Microsoft went ahead and made ARMv7 CPUs a firm requirement for Windows Phone 7. The Cortex/Scorpion processors range from 600 MHz all the way to 1.5GHz. Because of the advancing core speeds, we can almost certainly see streaming HD movies and video on the rise in 2010 and with the release of Windows Phone 7 devices.

HTC seems to want to express their intellectual side through the naming of their new WP7 devices. Through the Twitter grapevine, the names of the yet-to-be released Windows Phone 7 devices manufactured by HTC have been leaked.

The HTC Mozart, Maestro, Salsa, Tango, and Swing are all top candidates for the new WP7 devices. The news is just taunting. We need some visual aids here, but nothing has emerged… yet. Either way, it’s great to know that HTC has an arsenal of devices that should fit the personality of every consumer out there.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team made an aggressive move last week in the mobile OS market. In an attempt to bring popular mobile applications to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is offering iPhone Developers CASH to develop games for WP7. While it is still technically a “rumor” because Microsoft will not confirm, many popular iPhone developers have been surfacing their [new] relationships with Microsoft. Multiple sources are reporting that Microsoft is approaching popular iPhone developers with ‘significant cash offers’, in order to motivate them to switch allegiances.

Microsoft’s strategy is genius. In order for WP7 to be [more of] a success upon its release date (still unknown, but i’m guessing July), they need GAMES to compete with iPhone. Cash is King to mobile developers. Why develop apps for the iPhone and wait for revenue, when Microsoft will pay you up-front for your work? If you were approached by Microsoft and get asked to switch mobile platforms, would you do it? What if there was a $10,000 cash sign-on bonus? I’ll answer for you: yes you would switch. Microsoft knows that mobile applications are only as good as the developer that creates them. With this in mind, Microsoft most likely started this campaign as an aggressive move to gain back mobile market share (mostly from Apple). This is very similar to dangling a carrot in front of a horse. I’m not at all trying to compare developers to horses, no that can’t be my main point.  Well in a way, I am. Cash is something that everyone wants, and with the right amount you can “make friends” with almost anybody… even Apple fanboys.

So how many games does the iPhone actually have? Hovering around 200,000 as of this post, the iPhone blows Android, Palm, and Windows Mobile 6 right out of the water. Palm is like a little firecracker that will make your ears ring. Android is like TNT, it can cause some damage.  But the iPhone, at least at this moment in time, is like a Tsar Bomb relative to the other mobile operating systems in regards to available applications.

The competition is getting heated, and it’s getting more and more obvious to consumers like us.  Overall, I’m content with Microsoft paying developers to switch from the iPhone to WP7.  It shows me that Microsoft has not, and will not, bow down to the iPhone.  But at the end of the day, the winner will be the platform that has the most applications available for its users.

AppAcelerator is a company that helps web developers create mobile applications. The company recently polled over 1,000 of their regular developers to see what mobile OS they were most interested in developing for. Surprisingly (kind of), Windows Mobile 7 is increasing in developer popularity. Developer interest spiked from 13% to 36% over the past couple months. The iPhone is still ahead, but they were the first to the plate, giving them the advantage. Microsoft is pulling it’s weight. But they need to keep the momentum if they want to succeed.

FourSquare is a rapidly growing social networking application for Windows Phone 7 that precedes Google Buzz. The app was recently demo’d at the MIX10 (an assembly Microsoft developers, designers and geeks).

While FourSquare is already released for Windows Mobile 6.x, the new version for WP7S has impressed developers because “it just works”. FourSquare has the highest growth rate for any social networking application to date.