Microsoft had a real opportunity to offer consumers a different (and hopefully equally satisfying) experience from the Apple iPhone, continuing with the open policy of WinMo phones, while encouraging expanding app development. Instead, it’s chosen to mimic Apple and take a unilateral role in app approval and sales. The company revealed yesterday at Mix 10 that the cleverly-named Windows Phone Marketplace will be the only place that consumers will be able to buy Phone 7 apps. Apps will be approved or rejected at the sole discretion of Microsoft. How original.

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Microsoft has done a little name-dropping over at Mix 10 and provided a list of development partners who will be offering apps when the initial surge of Windows Phone 7 handsets hit later this year. The lofty list includes notables such as the Associated Press, EA Mobile, Fandango, Foursquare, IMDB, Match.com, Netflix, Pandora, Photobucket and Sling. So Phone 7 adopters will get everything from news to games to movies to dating right out of the gate.  

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Motorola announced that it has made a deal with Microsoft to offer Bing and Maps on its Chinese Android handsets. The deal will commence during this financial quarter through preload and over-the-air updates. Chinese consumers will now get a Bing bookmark on their browser and a search widget with Bing integration. Looks like China will get to “Bing and decide” whether it wants to or not.

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Ahhhh….isn’t that always the way. A pretty slow week in the electronics world, but I step out of the office for one afternoon and the biggest story of the week just happens to drop during that time slot.

It seems that with all attention turned on the iPad, some within Microsoft’s ranks are intent upon jumping up and down and yelling “Me too!! Me too!!” Yesterday, new information emerged on the all-but-forgotten Project Pink, and this afternoon, another Microsoft fable character came crawling back into the picture: the Courier. Engadget got the scoop this time around, with a trusted source providing the information.

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With all the commotion about Windows Phone 7, we nearly forgot about those Project Pink phone rumors from months ago. Almost. Providing a reminder in a big way, Gizmodo got its hands on some leaked marketing documents and whispers that all but lay out the full details of the two phones: Turtle and Pure.

The first Pink phone to get leaked was the funky, little slider codenamed Turtle. The phone is clearly for messaging with a strong emphasis on social networking. It is also capable of some apps, though it’s not entirely clear where those will come from as Windows Phone 7 appears to be missing from the phone. The resolution is given at 320 x 240. Verizon is outlined as a carrier and may have an exclusive contract on the phone. The launch is rumored to be coming in April.

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As we saw when Windows Phone 7 was first unveiled, Microsoft is looking to take a completely new direction with the OS. The company is also looking to make the end product better by issuing a tight set of specs for all Phone 7 handsets. Because of this new approach to the hardware, older Windows Mobile phones will not be upgradeable to Phone 7, as they won’t meet Microsoft’s newly implemented spec demands.

Even the HTC HD2, which appears to meet many of Microsoft’s more rigorous Phone 7 standards (1 Ghz Qualcomm, high-resolution capacitive touchscreen, etc.), will not be Phone 7 eligible because it features five hardware buttons instead of the three mandated for Phone 7 devices. Apparently, it also lacks some other necessary hardware components.

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When Microsoft launched its highly anticipated Windows Phone 7 OS last week at Mobile World Congress, it gave a very vague timeframe for the launch of the first handsets, stating simply that they’d be available in time for the holidays. We could have guessed that ourselves without Microsoft saying a word.

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Yahoo and Microsoft finalized their search deal today after regulators gave the green light. The deal was okayed in both the U.S. and European Union. Originally announced last summer, the move is a strategic partnership designed to cut costs and fight the well-known market leader: Google. Google has a hold on about 70 percent of the U.S. search market and now Yahoo/Microsoft will grab most of the remaining pie. And they’re still pretty hungry.

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Gmail users already have social networking built in (like it or not), and now Microsoft is releasing a beta version of its Outlook Social Connector. Initially, the new add-on will provide access to LinkedIn, but Facebook and MySpace connectors will also get added by early next year. The Connector delivers a social networking window–”the People Pane”–in Outlook’s reading area where users can view expanded information about their contacts. Including social networking into Outlook, an email server aimed at businesses, is a little odd since work is generally a place where social networking is off limits.

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