Microsoft confirms lack of backward compatibility in Windows Phone 7

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In a twitter Q&A session Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Phone 7 development will take place in XNA and Silverlight. XNA is already in use on the X-box platform for mini-games and is also the foundation of application development on the ZuneHD.

Microsoft also confirmed Windows Mobile software will not run on the Windows Phone 7 platform, with Microsoft promising they  "will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come" .

With this move Microsoft has sadly basically condemned Windows Phone 7 series to feature phone status for at least its first 6 months to a year, due to the very likely severe dearth of applications, especially productivity ones that take quite a long time to develop.  At the same time, despite Microsoft’s promises, we can also expect development on Windows Mobile to more or less cease also.

It seems the time in the desert has just started.

Do our readers think Microsoft is acting wisely? Let us know below.

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