HTC to unveil Windows Phone 7 smartphone as Microsoft prepares launch for October

With Microsoft widely tipped to unveil its new Mobile Phone 7 operating system on October 11th, Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC is said to be planning to launch a new smartphone in advance of that at press event on September 15th.

Smartphone fans are likely to be treated to the HD3, which is the natural successor to the HD2 Windows Mobile-based handset that made quite a few friends. The HD3 is rumoured to feature a 4.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, will be powered by a 1.5GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and will come equipped with a generous 32GB of storage, expandable to 64GB.

Connectivity will be covered with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, there should be an 8 megapixel camera onboard with dual LED flashes plus HD video recording capability and an HDMI port. The downside is that there will be a significantly smaller array of apps for the Windows operating system, with many developers siding with the increasingly dominant Android platform and Apple mobile OS.

However, Windows Phone 7 is likely to muster up plenty of interest, particularly as it will feature integration with Xbox Live. Fellow handset manufacturers including Samsung, Dell, LG and also Asus have also come on board and have been developing their own models ready for the release of the new Microsoft platform.