Microsoft has announced that they finally finished Windows Phone 7, their 2 year rush job after realising Windows Mobile would never cut the mustard against the iPhone.

The internet is buzzing with the news that Microsoft is spending between $400 million and $1 billion on the Windows Phone 7 launch.

Microsoft has an uphill battle to fight with Windows Phone 7, and to win market share they need to win mindshare.

There was a time when every new technology started on Windows Mobile.  Technologies such as 3G, 4G, touch screens, high resolution screens, video calling, to name a few.

Due to lack of native coding and sockets, there will never be any 3rd party browsers on Windows Phone 7. Thank god then that it seems the IE7 on Windows Phone 7 does not suck.

Not a single phone with Windows phone 7 has sold yet, yet already Microsoft executives are talking as if its the second coming. Microsoft’s Chief Information Officer, Tony Scott has told Indian reporters they expect to soon overcome iPhone and Android and dominate the mobile world.

Colin Gibbs, research analyst for GigaOM Pro has called Microsoft’s much ballyhooed Xbox Live strategy a mistake.

So now we have seen AT&T’s handset line-up, and it is as I have always expected – disappointing.  The handsets are thick, plasticy and cheap looking, and clear evidence that OEM’s are not committing development resources or cutting edge manufacturing technology to these second string devices, but saving their best technology and engineers for today’s sure bet – Android.

Its all propaganda, but then that's exactly what marketing is.  Microsoft has managed to get people to line up to try Windows Phone 7 games at Gamecon in Cologne, which is no mean feat considering the platform lacks native code, programmable shaders and realtime multi-player gaming.

Compared to Android and iPhone Windows Phone 7 does not have much going for it. With Microsoft’s announcement of 50 Xbox Live titles Microsoft appears to have finally caught the imagination of the blogosphere and average consumer, finally relating the platform to a unique polished consumer experience and brand they can identify with.

So far every Windows Phone 7 app I have seen have been black and white with DOS-like graphics straight from Tron (and not the new version either).

This must have worried Microsoft also, because they created this demo of a Golf app to show dev’s how its really done during “Windows Phone Design Days";

Microsoft has previously claimed that, due to their Tellme purchase, speech control of Windows Phone 7 would be one of their key features, saying it was “raising the bar for mobile device interactions”.

There used to be a time when OEMs delayed products while waiting for Microsoft to sort out its development mess.  With the rise of Android and other mobile operating systems those days are now long over.

Gartner has just revealed its worldwide smartphone numbers, and as usual these last few years it is looking pretty dire for Windows Mobile.

Windows Phone 7 has precious few features that differentiate it from other smartphone OS’s.  The main one so far is the Xbox Live integration, Microsoft’s only successful consumer product this century.