Ballmer: Windows Phone 7 is 'thoroughly modern'

"I've been looking forward to this day for some time," said Steve Ballmer, as he officially announced Windows Phone 7 at a press conference in New York. Ballmer said there would be nine handsets worldwide initially and showed off the handsets from a bench that emerged from the backdrop of the stage.

Five phones are being announced at the launch event in the UK, including the HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy, LG Optimus 7, Samsung Omnia 7 and the HTC 7 Mozart.

• Windows Phone 7 phones: all the handsets

Talking about about Microsoft's new mobile OS, Ballmer majored on the experience. "It's a different kind of phone. [It's not] so much what you're going to do with a phone but how you're going to do it."

"We want to let you get in, out and back to life. Thoroughly modern. Modern in the way it embraces what people do today. We hope you'll agree that even with all that in mind we've taken a very different tack."

Personalisation the key

In a typical bit of Microsoft bluster, Ballmer said Windows Phone 7 was "always delightful, wonderfully mine...or yours or the next person's."

"I can represent me with this device. It's got to be mine."

Despite the slick (and slightly sick-inducing) rhetoric, the principle behind this is a key part of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 strategy – enabling consumers to consume the phone exactly how they want it – whether they are a business user, a consumer or both.