According to a recent Reuters release, Orange SA will be making the first official launch of their Windows Powered Smartphone next week in London. The phone, codenamed 'Canary' is manufactured by HTC, the same company that is making the hardware for the O2 XDA, T-Mobile MDA, and the recently introduced Siemens SX56.

Windows Smartphone 2002 is a new platform which Microsoft first released in February of this year. The platform is designed to bring much of the popular Pocket PC functionality to mobile phones. The Windows Powered Smartphone was designed to be a good mobile phone first. Additional functionality was then added to enhance the user experience. This contrasts with Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition software which was designed as a Pocket PC first, mobile phone functionality came second.

Editor's Take
While it is nice to hear about the impending launch of Windows Smartphone 2002 devices in London I'm more anxious to know when they will be released in North America. It is widely excepted that the North American launch will occur before the end of the year, and sources indicate that we may even begin to see devices as early as next month.