Window of opportunity
All five major UK mobile network operators will stock phones running Windows Phone 7 when it launches later this year, according to Microsoft.
As well as the likes of Orange, Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Three, retailers The Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u will also sell the new Microsoft offering.
As well as a slick new interface, Windows Phone 7 promises to bring Xbox Live games and Zune, which has just launched in the UK, to the phones.
Alex Reeve, director of mobile business group at Microsoft UK, said: "Following our announcement at Mobile World Congress that Orange will be our lead partner, it is wonderful now to have all of the UK's network operators supporting the launch of Windows Phone 7."
"This means we can provide network choice and also a range of phones across networks for customers to choose from, all with the power of Windows Phone 7," he added.
Details of HTC's Mozart WP7 handset have already been leaked, with more handsets from the likes of Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung expected to emerge in the coming weeks.
However, Microsoft will no doubt hope that research firm Gartner's predictions do not become reality after it forecasted that Windows Phone will be the least desirable mobile os behind MeeGo by 2014.
The research predicted that Windows Phone, which had an 8.7 percent share of global mobile os sales in 2009 will slip to 4.7 percent next year and to just 3.9 percent in 2014, after a small rise to 5.2 percent this year when WP7 launches.
