Sound familiar? For Windows Phone 7, seems like Microsoft's taking an angle shared by both Apple and Google
on a feature that enjoys a tenuous relationship at best with network
operators, saying that data tethering will be available but it'll be up
to carriers to decide whether to offer it. Though feature removal
rarely goes over well with potential buyers of Windows Phone 7 devices,
it's actually a pretty easy call from Microsoft's perspective: the
company needs as much carrier support as it can get right now to ramp
up a fresh mobile platform going against entrenched giants with several
years' head start, and enforcing the availability of a feature that
tends to choke 3G networks probably wouldn't be a great way to get
that. Needless to say, we've little doubt that the dev community will
find a way around any roadblocks in short order -- but officially,
anyhow, the ball is in the operators' courts.
