While talking to Pocket-Lint, Microsoft has officially stated which companies will be their partners for the launch of Windows Phone 7. While they’re still not confirming when they’ll launch (it’ll happen in the “holidays”), you can expect handsets from Dell, Asus, LG, HTC, and Samsung.
Samsung was already known to be a launch partner, because they produced the developer hardware that recently went out to devs and some publications.
It sounds like each company will produce one phone for the launch, some with QWERTY keyboards. The only officially named handset is the LG Pacific. The OS will not be limited to a single carrier.
“We will offer the best aspects of Android and the best of the iPhone, giving users the flexibility of different form factors, but with the rigidity of apps that are guaranteed to work on every device that is out there,” said Greg Sullivan, senior product manager for Microsoft.
Maybe I’m alone on this, but I’m actually looking forward to this phone. iPhones are great… but there’s something kind of un-serious about them (I think it’s the cartoonish icons). I’d like a nice phone for adults that’s not as clunky as a Blackberry. I actually like the squarish model in the image above. I hope someone makes one that looks like that or similar to the Zune HD (which looked pretty sweet, though I don’t own one).