New ASUS Windows Phone 7 Device Appears in Pakistan
We don't have much information on this (yet) but it looks like an ASUS device running on Windows Phone 7 has been spotted in Pakistan. Unlike the LG Panther and Samsung Taylor devices that are only intended to be development devices …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 push has been leaking out in stages through 2010: the platform's core details surfaced from developer sources back in February, and by spring attention had turned to whether existing hardware like the HTC HD2 would carry the new OS. What has been confirmed so far are development-only units — the LG Panther and Samsung Taylor — which exist to seed apps, not shelves.
That framing is what makes an ASUS sighting notable: if genuine, it suggests hardware from a manufacturer beyond the two named launch partners, and a test unit circulating outside Microsoft's usual Western development circles — this one photographed in Pakistan. The report itself remains unconfirmed, with no specs or images verified.
First-order effects
- ASUS joins LG and Samsung as a third manufacturer visibly working on Windows Phone 7 hardware, expanding Microsoft's launch bench beyond the confirmed dev-only Panther and Taylor units.
Second-order effects
- If OEM breadth at launch becomes the story, rivals like HTC — whose HD2 was already the subject of Windows Phone 7 porting talk earlier in 2010 — face pressure to show their own retail-bound units rather than ceding the lineup to ASUS, LG and Samsung.
Third-order effects
- Leak-driven confirmation of OEM lineups ahead of a platform launch is becoming the standard pre-release cycle for mobile OSes, with emerging markets like Pakistan surfacing test hardware as early as the trade press does.
The trend: Windows Phone 7's launch is taking shape through incremental hardware leaks, with each new manufacturer sighting widening the perceived footprint of Microsoft's comeback attempt before a single retail unit ships.