Windows Phone 7 will not run current apps (See all news)

Microsoft announced that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will be a complete break from the past, and third-party applications developed for the current version of Microsoft's smartphone OS will not run on the next version. In a recent online interview, Charlie Kindel, Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform, said Microsoft had to change its strategy to accommodate what developers have been asking for.

"Developers, designers and producers of applications, games and content these days are demanding that we be different," Kindel said. “Over the last year we’ve had face to face conversations with 100s of developers all over the world about what we should do with Windows Phone 7 Series. We heard they want: focus on the end user experience, invest more deeply in the developer platform and drive a standardized hardware platform”

The announcement is definitely most disappointing to companies that have created their own software to run on Windows phones issued to their employees. The new move also leaves software developers with a big dilemma: they can develop applications for Windows Mobile 6.5, which will soon be a dead end, or they can write for Windows Phone 7, which isn't coming out until later this year.

Microsoft has been trying to climb its way back after losing market share to Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices. The company’s core business users have remained loyal but its rivals have broadened their appeal to a new segment, a younger audience.

Handset manufacturer, Palm, made a similar break last year, abandoning an operating system that was more than a decade old in favor of a completely new one. However, the new system is able to run applications written for the old one.

Microsoft also takes a more vertical approach when it comes to hardware and user experience, and dictates handset rigid specs such as: specific CPU and speed, screen aspect ratio and resolution, memory, and even button configuration. The new Windows Phone 7 leaves no place for user or firmware customization and even the carrier and partner UI customizations are left aside.

The company promised the first smartphones to run Windows Mobile 7 will hit the stores by the end of this year. Microsoft partners include AT&T, HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.