Retailers prepare for Windows Phone 7 in September

Retailers are preparing for a September launch of Microsoft Windows Phone 7, according to leaked documents from the computing giant and smartphone manufacturer.

September (or 'Q3' if you work in marketing) is earlier than originally planned for a Windows Phone 7 launch.

Next after KIN

The news follows the recent killing off of Microsoft's KIN phones in Europe, which might well have something to do with the rush to get a decent smartphone on the market to compete with Apple, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia's Symbian phones later this year.

Microsoft has said that the the internal KIN development team would now be transferred to work on Windows Phone 7.

Leaked documents from US phone network AT&T reveal that Windows Phone 7 promotions are set to appear in store as early as late July, according to Engadget, which published the leaked floorplan for retail stores.

Windows Mobile devices accounted for a mere 7 per cent of smartphone sales in Q1 of this year, according to Gartner, with Symbian leading the way with 44 per cent, RIM in second place with 19 per cent, Apple in third place with 15 per cent and Android in fourth place with 10 per cent of the market.

In other Windows Phone 7 news, WMPoweruser.com reports that LG is set to release two Windows 7 Phone devices later this year – the LG E900 and LG C900, two new GSM and HSDPA handsets using the new IE7 browser of Windows Phone 7.

Elsewhere, Tera-wurfl.com has also revealed that the SGH i707 by Samsung also runs Windows Phone 7.

Via Engadget