Ballmer says sorry for Windows Mobile 'missed generation'

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Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has been stoking the fires of anticipation for Windows Phone 7, saying the next-generation mobile OS will be a hit for consumers and enterprise users alike.

At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in San Francisco yesterday Ballmer conceded that the company had “missed a generation” with Windows Mobile, and had paid the price in terms of mobile phone market share.

But with a toolset beta now available and preview handsets being shipped next week, Ballmer is keen to look to the future.

“On the phone side we missed a generation with Windows Mobile,” Ballmer told delegates. “We really did miss almost a release cycle, but Windows Phone 7 which we had a chance to debut at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year has received really quite remarkable reviews.”

He promised Windows Phone 7 would be available in the wild “soon”, but stopped short of giving a specific release date.

However, that date moved one step closer this morning as Microsoft announced the release of the Windows Phone 7 toolset this morning, with communications manager Brandon LeBlanc challenging developers to “get serious”.

“With the beta release of the tools, developers can build apps with a 'ship it' mentality,” he wrote on the Windows Phone developer blog.

“It’s time to get serious about building the actual apps and games for Windows Phone 7 that consumers will be looking for starting this holiday season.”

He revealed that handsets would start shipping to developers on July 19 – as promised last month – but repeated the warning that there simply wouldn't be enough to completely meet demand.

“We are planning to set up deploy and test labs in major cities to make it a little easier for everyone who wants to have access to a preview phone to have it,” he revealed.

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