Windows Phone 7 Is Getting HTC Sense

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Windows Phone 7 is a big change in Microsoft’s mobile operating systems – and they’re imposing more control over the device, like special hardware requirements. Taiwan smartphone maker HTC was a longtime Windows Mobile device manufacturer and they used their custom HTC Sense UI to improve the looks of the older Microsoft OSes. But, when Microsoft came out with these stricter controls, many assumed that HTC wouldn’t be able to put HTC Sense on the new device. Not so fast, says HTC.

Drew Bamford of HTC told Forbes that their first WP7 device, coming in October, would be running HTC Sense. “Microsoft has taken firmer control of the core experience [in Windows Phone 7], but we can still innovate. We won’t be able to replace as much of the core Windows Phone experience, but we will augment it.” he says. He added that HTC Sense will look different than it does on Windows Mobile 6.5 (will it look the same as Android? Or different) and HTC Sense will be heavily integrated into Windows Phone 7.

“Metro” the UI used in Windows Phone 7 has been pretty well received by the blog crowd, with it’s unique “pivoting” style of navigating. Not all are fond of it, though. As we wrote a few days ago – the folks at InfoWorld wrote a hit piece on Windows Phone 7, calling it “a disaster”.

Windows Phone 7 is coming this October.