Microsoft Photosynth Panorama App With Bing Maps Goes iOS Before WP7

Microsoft seems to be on a roll lately launching apps on iOS prior to its own platform Windows Phone 7. After having recently launched a Bing Maps app for the iPad, Microsoft today unveiled a smart panorama photo stitching app for the iPhone and iPad called Photosynth. The app was previously limited to the Windows desktop environment and online, but made its leap today to mobile devices.

Photosynth uses an intelligent auto-stitching process that creates panoramic images beyond horizontal spans to full spherical 360 degree views that can then be easily shared via Facebook, Bing maps, or a freely hosted Photosynth.net account. The video below demonstrates the power and ease of the app.

It's interesting that Microsoft chose to launch the app on iOS prior to its own WP7. It shows that they acknowledge the importance of having a foot hold on the iOS platform if it wants the app to reach the most users. Until it can get WP7 up to speed and hopefully soon with its Mango update, we may expect to see more Microsoft apps released on iOS first. The app is optimized for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and 4th generation iPod touch, although it will also work on the iPad 2. It is available now for free download at the App Store.

[via TNW]