In an MWC keynote today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced both near- and longer-term improvements to Windows Phone 7. These will begin "in the first two weeks of March" with an update bringing the long-promised copy-and-paste functionality, plus faster application performance, he said.

Also scheduled for the first half of 2011 is added support for CDMA networks, he added. As previously mooted, this will allow Windows Phone 7 devices to be released on networks such as Verizon and Sprint.

Other new functionality was reportedly shown off by Ballmer to MWC attendees, but won't appear until the second half of the year. It was detailed as follows in a blog entry by Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Bueiness:

• Twitter integration in the People Hub -- The popular social networking service Twitter will be integrated into the People Hub in the second half of 2011
  
  
• Office document storage in the cloud -- Document sharing and storage in the cloud via Windows Live SkyDrive will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011
  
  
• Next-generation browsing with Internet Explorer 9 -- A dramatically enhanced Internet Explorer 9 web browser will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011. It will feature the same standards support (HTML5, etc.) and hardware accelerated graphics as the PC version
  
  
• Additional multitasking capabilities -- We will add the ability to switch quickly between applications, run applications in the background (such as listening to music), along with a number of other capabilities in the second half of 2011

According to a report on the Ballmer keynote by Engadget's Tim Stevens, Windows Phone 7's improved multitasking functionality (right) will allow third-party applications (such as the likes of Slacker) to run in the background. Holding the phone's back button down will provide a card-like view of all running apps, the story adds.

According to a variety of websites, including Winrumors, Windows Phone 7 devices will also be able to control elements in Xbox games. The Microsoft-sourced video embedded at the end of this story shows two phone users interacting with a third player whose movements are being tracked by a Kinect controller.

Lees stated, "A year ago, we introduced Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We described how we are putting the entire muscle of our company behind our mobile strategy including Windows, Windows Live, Bing, Zune, Xbox LIVE, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and our developer tools. Our alliance with Nokia creates opportunities for both companies far beyond what we could achieve separately, and offers a compelling alternative to the existing choices for consumers, mobile operators and developers."

He added that Microsoft sold two million phone licenses in Windows Phone 7s first two months, and the phone is now available from 60 mobile operators in 30 countries around the world, Lees said. As phone availability and sales grow, so too does the app marketplace -- there are now more than 8,000 apps in the marketplace and 28,000 registered developers, the company says.

Windows Phones controlling an Xbox alongside a Kinect
Source: Microsoft via Winrumors
(click to play)

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