Citing “people familiar with the launch plans,” The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft will launch Windows Phone 7 on October 11th. While the date has been floating about for some time, what is new is that AT&T will apparently be the exclusive US carrier at launch.
With a CDMA version of Windows Phone 7 not ready until 2011, Sprint and Verizon had already been knocked out of the running for the launch. With this report, T-Mobile could also be left out. There is no word on how long the exclusivity period will last.
AT&T is set to launch three devices the week of November 8th, about four weeks after the official unveiling. HTC, LG, and Samsung will each supply one device.
Microsoft will hold a launch event in New York city (as well as London). Additional events are planned in other unnamed cities (I hope Toronto is included).