Windows Phone 7 Shows Its Business Focus; Devs Get New APIs

It might feel that way, but Monday wasn't entirely about the iPhone 4; Microsoft's TechEd conference also kicked off, and the company took some time out to focus on Windows Phone 7's business credentials, as well as detailing how some of their developer policies will work.  Dry stuff, you may be thinking, but with Microsoft reckoning that more than 90-percent of buyers will use their smartphone for business purposes in some way

Of those Microsoft spoke to, over 70-percent want to use their same device for business and pleasure, so the company has been showing off ActiveSync integration, Exchange support and other Office Hub details along with the existing social networking and gaming functionality we've seen before.  There are also plenty of remote administrator tools, such as the ability to not only lock or wipe a device, but to turn off tethering, memory card access and more.

As for the developer policies, the latest batch are detailed here.  Microsoft are hoping that they'll be a little more inclusive and pull in more new developers; they've also added an optional push notification service to send messages to app users, together with an optional Trial API to hopefully reduce the number of refunds requested.  Revenue sharing is still set at 70/30 and the $99 annual registration fee covers up to five free apps and unlimited paid apps.