Microsoft Planning Tegra Platform For Windows 7 Mobile?

It's one of those self-fulfilling stories about Microsoft; the software giant is allegedly going to launch a mobile phone based on Nvidia's new Tegra CPU which would be announced at the forthcoming GSMA Mobile World Congress in February 2009.

TheInquirer's Charlie Demerjian who broke the news is irate about the fact that Nvidia chose Microsoft's side rather than Linux and this, apparently means, that the new "Microsoft phone" will be the complete opposite of Apple's iPhone with a clumsy interface, buggy platform and worse to come.

The smartphone will be powered by Nvidia's Tegra, probably the APX 2500, which is a System-on-chip that was first announced back in February and should find a nice niche in between low performance, low power processors like the Marvell CPU used in the Samsung Omnia, and the more powerful but hungrier Intel Atom CPUs.

The 65nm single-core processor, which can run at 750MHz, is powerful enough to run to decode and encode 720p HD video, has a 12-megapixel camera sensor support and is capable of working non stop for 10 hours using a standard battery.

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Earlier this month, Xbitlabs reported that Nvidia had delayed shipments of Tegra chips which meant that devices based on the platform would be launched in Spring 2009; coincidentally, Microsoft, as well, has announced that it is postponing Windows 7 Mobile to the second half of 2009.

But rather than release a "Microsoft Phone", as many are expecting, the company is more than likely to have a standard platform ready early next year for its partners (HTC, Samsung et al).

This could be a blessing in disguise for Microsoft as it would give it more time to tweak the platform and it has Windows Mobile 6.5 to keep competitors like Android busy for a few months.

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