No Windows Phone 7 for low end devices?

We previously posted about the possibility of there being low end Windows Phone 7 devices for emerging markets, where the prohibitive cost of modern smartphones has led to minimal adoption.

The Register have been told by Microsoft that there are no such plans:

Microsoft is working with OEM and MO partners to provide customers and developers with a consistent hardware experience across all devices. As part of this, there is a single Windows Phone 7 hardware specification that includes guidelines around screen options, storage, camera functionality, and processing.

That doesn’t rule out WP6 continuing on lower end devices, but does pretty obviously state that WP7 and the hardware it runs on will be very controlled by Microsoft.

Via The Register.