Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will launch their first cell phones running the Windows Phone 7 operating system next week, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Monday.
The Omnia 7 will go on sale in France on Oct. 21 and LG will put its Optimus 7 on sale in Europe and Asia on the same day, the report said, quoting the companies.
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The Samsung handset will launch in other markets in the coming months including the U.S., where AT&T will sell it as the Samsung Focus, Yonhap said. It has a 4-inch screen.
A second LG handset called the Optimus 7Q, which is a version of the Optimus 7 with a QWERTY keyboard and 3.5-inch screen, will be put on sale by AT&T on Nov. 21, the news agency said.
LG’s U.K. unit has already announced the Optimus 7 and Samsung’s Russian unit has announced the Omnia 7, but the other handsets are as-yet unannounced.
The phones and handsets from other manufacturers are expected to be shown at a Microsoft and AT&T news conference that will be held Monday morning in New York.
Windows Phone 7 marks a complete rewrite of the Windows operating for mobile phones.
At the heart of the user interface are themed hubs, which consolidate applications, services and content. The people hub, for example, aggregates phone calls, text messages, social media feeds and Outlook e-mail messages in a single view, which is updated in real time. (See Windows Phone 7 in action in this video.)
Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn’s e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com