Samsung Confirm Windows Phone 7 Plans, Surprise Nobody

It comes as almost less of a surprise than Microsoft's confirmation that all UK carriers would be offering Windows Phone 7 devices, but Samsung has made the nowhere-near-shocking announcement that they will, indeed, be offering handsets running the new smartphone OS.  Nice of them to let us know, but since we've already seen the Samsung Omnia 7 in the wild, the whole thing is a little redundant.

Samsung aren't spilling any details on potential launch dates or hardware, either, only saying they'll be releasing products in time for the holiday 2010 market, and that they'll be using all Microsoft's new Hub systems and the other goodies we've seen for Windows Phone 7.  That means a big touchscreen, 1GHz processor and plenty of high-speed wireless.

Press Release:

Samsung and Microsoft join forces for Windows Phone 7 products

Finalizing the Windows Phone 7 license agreement, Samsung is committed to delivering Windows Phone 7 based smartphones to the market for holiday 2010

SEOUL, KOREA – September 30, 2010 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in mobile technology, today announced the completion of an agreement to use the Windows Phone 7 platform and related application software as a key component of Samsung's smartphone portfolio.

With the signing of this contract, Samsung makes a long term commitment to including Windows Phone 7 in its smartphone portfolio. Samsung plans to launch several models based on Windows Phone 7 this year in the US, Europe and Asia.

"For years, Samsung has been a key partner in bringing new Windows phones to customers all over the world," said Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President, OEM Division at Microsoft. "Windows Phone 7 is an important release, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration with Samsung on mobile devices and beyond, with our multi-screen strategy."

WP Hong, Executive Vice President and Head of Product Strategy Team said "The addition of Windows Phone 7 smartphones to Samsung's smartphone portfolio is a significant milestone for us. Samsung's new Windows Phone 7 based smartphones will play a key role to reinforce Samsung's leadership in smartphone market. The new Windows Phone 7 smartphones will provide an unparalleled entertainment experience on the go."

Samsung's Windows Phone 7 smartphones will combine the latest hardware design and technology with Microsoft's software and innovation heritage. Using design to simplify tasks and Windows Phone hubs to organize information, Windows Phone 7 breaks the current smartphone convention with an experience that helps people more easily find and consume the data, information and services they care most about. The new phones are distinguished by unique and diverse experiences built from Microsoft's deep portfolio such as Xbox LIVE, Office, Zune, Windows Live, Bing and more.