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Microsoft has already gone on record saying that Windows Phone 7 will be initially launching in just five languages, all with essentially the same easy character set -- English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish -- but they're undoubtedly champing at the bit to ramp that list up to a few more. In fact, the latest word on the street is that they're going to be cutting a bunch of corners on those additional tongues, presumably in an effort to get them on shelves sooner rather than later. Not... a bad strategy, perhaps, but the rumored list of features on the chopping block is an ugly one: Xbox Live support, Zune functionality, and "limited" Windows Phone Marketplace capability, just to name a few, and only the browser and email views will actually support the native character sets; phone menus and keyboards will initially be in one of the "big five." As much as we'd like to see WP7 in as many places as possible right away, we'd have to say this is too great a sacrifice if true -- all the best stuff would be gone. Keep chugging, guys.

Microsoft bringing Windows Phone 7 to some languages without Xbox Live or Zune? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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