Windows Phone Thoughts: Gizmodo Takes a Look at the Verizon HTC Imagio

"Verizon's HTC Imagio is a touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, or "Windows Phone," with a healthy, if expected, spec set, iiiiinnncluding!: a 3.6-inch WVGA screen, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and microSD storage expansion (but sadly, no included card). It's also the first smartphone with V CAST Mobile TV, which is a Flo TV-based live streaming TV service that looks and feels a bit like digital cable, phone-ified. Accordingly, it has an adorable kickstand."

This $200-with-contract device - or $100 after a rebate - is a study in how flexible Windows Mobile is. So flexible, in fact, that HTC took out almost everything that Microsoft put into Windows Mobile 6.5. Start Menu? Replaced by HTC software. Home screen? Replaced by HTC software. Internet Explorer 6? Replaced by HTC software. I've never seen a device launch with a new operating system, then work so hard to cover up that operating system. Microsoft has a significant problem on their hands here when their biggest partner wants to make the device look and act nothing like Microsoft's vision for the software. I can't really blame HTC though - without their investment into TouchFlo3D (now dubbed HTC Sense I believe), Windows Mobile phones would have been even worse off.