As it looks ahead to a brisk holiday season for its mobile division, Microsoft has crossed a significant milestone in the incubation of its new Windows Phone 7 operating system. The software giant announced that the new OS has been “released to manufacturing,” meaning that it is now in the hands of handset makers performing the final integrations.
The RTM news marks the latest sign of maturity for Windows Phone 7, which Microsoft is billing as a worthy solution for both the enterprise and consumer markets. Enterprise Mobile Today takes a look.
Microsoft hit a major milestone on the road to putting Windows Phone 7 handsets on store shelves and in users’ hands Wednesday when it announced that its closely watched mobile operating system has been “released to manufacturing,” or RTM.
In industry parlance, RTM means that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) work on Windows Phone 7 is virtually finished and it’s off to handset makers for final integration testing and installation onto new mobile devices — soon to go on sale.