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.
