If you’re on Verizon and were hoping to get a brand new Microsoft Windows Phone 7 device when it launches next month, you’re out of luck because the nation’s largest carrier won’t offer one of these devices this year. Geez, are they still smarting over the Kin?
From BusinessWeek:
Verizon Wireless won’t offer a device at the planned fall introduction or at any point this year, Brenda Raney, a Verizon spokeswoman, said today in an interview. The carrier plans to support the new operating system and will probably release a phone in 2011, she said.
This could be a potential blow for Microsoft, as Verizon is the nation’s largest carrier and it would have been nice to count Big Red as a launch partner. What’s more, it doesn’t look like the Apple iPhone will be hitting Verizon this year, so it would only have to contend with the Android devices.
It is already known that AT&T will be the “premiere” Windows Phone 7 carrier and we’ve heard reports that it has ordered 8 million units. AT&T has a strong sales force with multiple enterprises, which should give the next Microsoft mobile platform a boost.
I jokingly mentioned the Kin earlier but one has to wonder if this had any impact on the decision. The Kin was introduced with much fanfare and hipster music earlier this year and Verizon and Microsoft wanted social networking fiends to salivate at the ability to update your status on multiple web services. The devices failed spectacularly and it was shelved a few weeks after it was released.
Verizon insists that its relationship with Microsoft is “solid” but you would think the carrier would want to be at the front of the line if it though the platform would be super successful. The carrier does have a major investment and marketing campaign in Android and the Droid lineup but the same thing could be said about AT&T and its iPhone investment.
[Via BusinessWeek, photo]
