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Free WinMo 7 phones to lure punters to desktop Windows 7

Buy the MS PC OS, get the MS phone OS - and a handset - free

Exclusive Carphone Warehouse looks set to give away free smartphones running Windows Mobile 7 with copies of the upcoming Windows 7 PC operating system, Register Hardware has learned.

A phone manufacturer source familiar with the phone retailer's plans told us that the Windows Mobile 7 phone and Windows 7 bundle boxes will be released on the same day that the new desktop OS is launched in the UK, which he said could come during September or October 2009.

Carphone Warehouse recently announced that it’ll open a series of electronics megastores in the UK next year, in conjunction with US retailer Best Buy. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that the bundles will be sold through these stores.

The source added that the manufacturer of the bundled phones hasn’t yet been chosen.

Exactly how the bundle pack will be presented is also still unknown, but selling a copy of a PC OS with a free mobile phone running the latest version of Windows Mobile is bound to be an expensive promotion.

One possibility is that Carphone Warehouse will only offer the promo pack on the first day on Windows 7’s release, or that it’ll be restricted to, say, the first 100 customers in each store.

It's also unclear whether the promo is being spearheaded by CW, or by Microsoft. Certainly, Microsoft has more riding on demand for Windows 7 than CW does, and therefore more motivation to promote the OS with a giveaway like this.

Windows 7 will be the successor to Windows Vista and is rumoured to sport advancements in touch-sensitivity, speed and handwriting recognition. It’ll also boast improved performance when running on multi-core processors, and better-than-Vista boot times.

It’s thought that Windows Mobile 7 will sport more of an iPhone OS look and feel. It’s been claimed that the Mobile operating systems will also include a revamped version of Internet Explorer and a Zune-style media player.

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