Microsoft yesterday announced availability of the beta version of the Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS. Andy Lees, senior vice president of mobile communications business for Microsoft, made the announcement in a keynote at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference, which runs from July 11-15.
Microsoft hopes to create mobile solutions that offer deep integration between Windows Phone 7 and the company’s suite of business productivity software such as SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, Microsoft Office and Business Productivity Online.
Meanwhile, the official Windows Phone 7 blog yesterday confirmed that the new OS will support Windows Phone Live, a new Web-based service, similar to Apple’s Mobile Me. Windows Phone Live will offer mobile device support in the form of sync backup for contacts and photos, as well as tools for recovering a lost or stolen device with remote wipe and locate features. At launch the service will offer a SkyDrive with 25GB of remote storage, Office and Zune support for media sync.
The latest version of Microsoft’s OS comes as the battle of the smartphone platforms rages this summer between Android and Apple’s iOS 4. Both Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) are expected to have launched devices running their latest operating systems by the end of the year.