Yesterday Microsoft released a series of developer tools for Windows Phone 7 Series… including an emulator. And one of the intrepid hackers at xda-developers figured out how to extract the emulator image, which is now available for download as a standalone file. But while this file will give you a peek at the source code for Windows Phone 7 Series, it’s worth noting that this is not necessarily a first step in unofficially porting Windows Phone 7 Series to run on existing phones.
That’s because the emulator was designed to run on machines with x86 processors. You know, like desktops and notebooks running Windows — not smartphones.
While it’s possible that we will see Windows Phone 7 Series ROMS for older hardware, there are a few technical hurdles to leap. First, you need a build that’s designed for ARM-based chips. Second, you need to get around the fact that Microsoft doesn’t expect Windows Phone 7 Series devices to use external storage — which means new phones will have large amounts of internal flash storage and the operating system ROM will likely eat up more storage space than you have on most current phones.
In related news, PocketNow has put together a short video showing the web browser from Windows Phone 7 Series, made using the emulator from the developer tools. You can check out the video after the break.
via SlashGear
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