1. New hardware with Mango is not a rumor.  It was part of the press conference yesterday.  In fact, they are adding 3 new hardware manufacturers (Acer, Fujitsu, and a Chinese company).  Also, Nokia, who doesn't yet have a WP7 device on the market is working feverishly to launch this year, and they have stated their phones will have Mango.

 

2. God only knows how long it will be until Verizon launches another WP7 device.  However, if they learned their lesson from today's launch, it is that WP7 is wanted.

 

3. 4G you won't see until Mango, as it is not supported in NoDo.  Also, unless you live in a 4G area, a 4G phone will do nothing but run the battery dead faster.  Yes, 4G is good for that.  Personally, I have been impressed with the operation of the Focus on 3G, even though I live in a fringe area.  I can definitely tell the difference between 3G and Edge, though.  As far as the processor, one of the reasons this phone is so fast is that Microsoft has tight control over the hardware that it goes onto, so it is optimized for that hardware. 

 

Nine months ago, Windows Phone 7 was still just being talked about.  It launched 7 months ago (on my birthday).  And the holdup from October until February was that there was no CDMA support in Windows Phone 7.  I'll give Verizon a pass for up to March, when Sprint launched the first CDMA WP7 device in the world, on the 23rd.  But between the end of March and now, that two months is all Verizon's fault.  Yes, most of the phone is 7 months old, however, the CDMA support was up to Microsoft.  That doesn't make us any less aggravated, but we should be mindful of just what fault lies where.

 

Personally, I hope some Nokia models come to Big Red.  Nokia has stated that one of their models next year will be the most powerful phone at the time it is launched.  That's what I'm talking about.  But if it doesn't, I have been impressed with the hardware in the five HTC phones I have owned over the years.

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1.  I don't think there were any guarantees that the hardware comes as Mango is released - I think it is just at this point guaranteed after Mango which in anticipation time - could mean a long wait.

2. I too sincerely hope Verizon does learn a lesson about WP7 popularity.   Even though they picked mediocre hardware there are many claims that Verizon was told they were out of them although others are claiming Verizon for whatever reason is just trying to talk people out of buying WP7 phones.

3.  The 4G wait makes no sense to me.   They release hardware before the drivers are available which I have seen.  They certainly released WP7 before copy and paste was available.  They could just release WP7 phones with 4G on board but not functional until Mango is available.   As for 4G draining your battery - certainly a well established fact - however you might also want to point out you can turn it off when you don't need it and use 3G.

4.You are correct about 7 months.   However on the other hand, Verizon had more time to pick phones than the GSM providers and certainly could have picked better hardware since they had a wider selection than the initial round with GSM providers.