Windows Phone 7 looks like it will be right in the thick of it at launch

History seems to be repeating itself.  I've been using an iPhone for several years now.  I have been very happy with it, but I decided to hold off on the iPhone 4 until it users put it through its paces.  Turns out to have been a good choice.  I don't need a phone that drops calls because you hold it in the wrong place, and I'm not enamored of a company that won't just admit to the issue and say that they are examining some potential solutions that don't require the phone to be in a case.

Enter Windows Phone 7.  Microsoft's long overdue return to the smartphone space looks like it will make an incredible splash.  Can Microsoft muscle into the market that iPhone owned and Google is now crashing into like a freight train?  I don't know, but I like what I have seen enough from Microsoft to begin taking steps that would make a move from an iPhone to a Windows Phone 7 to be relatively painless.  I expect that most of the applications I use on a regular basis will appear, in some form, on Windows Phone 7 in the first six months it is out.

The operating system looks amazing.  No doubt about it.  It is clean and modern.  What I don't know yet is whether the hardware will live up to the operating system.  You can't deny that Apple makes great-looking hardware.  The iPhone feel and build quality is first rate.  If I find a Windows Phone 7 handset on AT&T that looks as good and feels as solid, then I am sold.  HTC could do it.  We'll have to wait and see on the others.

I am sick of iTunes.  It is now the least responsive major program on my otherwise unstoppable i7-toting computer with its 8gb of ram and the 64-bit Windows 7 OS to use it all.  I would be filled with joy to find an entirely new ecosystem to live in as far as media and mobile applications are concerned.  Windows Media player and Zune software could fit that requirement nicely.  Now all I need is a good Windows Phone 7 handset...

If I make the jump to Windows Phone 7, I will regularly post about applications that would help the mobile litigator on the go.