Windows Phone 7 Series Gets Fully Exposed at MIX10, True Multitasking Appears to be Missing

From DailyTech: Microsoft really wowed the tech industry when it unveiled Window Phone 7 Series earlier this year. Apple's iPhone has been a dominate mainstay in the smartphone market since its introduction in 2007 -- and there have been many competitors that have come to market since then -- but Microsoft is really looking to turn heads with its visuals-heavy Windows Phone 7 Series platform.

Although phones based on the new platform won't be available until Q4 of 2010, Microsoft today gave potential customers and developers a peek at what to expect from platform at MIX10. Microsoft is putting a lot of support behind both XNA Framework for graphics intensive gaming (you can see a short demonstration of the game The Harvest here on YouTube) and Silverlight to bring rich media to the platform. As has already been reported, Microsoft is also working closely with Adobe to bring Flash 10.1 to the platform -- something that Apple has been very reluctant to embrace for its popular iPhone and iPod touch.

“Windows Phone 7 Series brings together a rich application environment, powerful hardware, a fresh approach to software and a smart new design,” explained Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Windows Phone Program Management. “It was designed to generate incredible opportunities for developers and designers to quickly and easily deliver compelling applications and games. With the best developer tools, an established ecosystem and marketplace, and a path for developers to use their Silverlight and XNA Framework skill sets, we are delivering an application platform that is simple, powerful and inspiring.”

In addition, the folks from Redmond have revealed new details on the Microsoft Location Service (MLS) which will provide apps with a "single point of reference to acquire location information", and the Microsoft Notification Service (MNS) which is similar in concept to the push notifications systems on the iPhone.

The use of the MNS means -- as far as we can tell for now -- that true multitasking won't be available to the Windows Phone 7 Series; at least not initially. However, this could all change between now and the actual launch of the Windows Phone 7 Series platform later this year. After all, Apple is rumored to be including full multitasking in its iPhone OS 4.0 update this summer, and that would be a big incentive for Microsoft to join in on the fun as well.

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