Ever since it unveiled the new mobile OS in February, Microsoft has been cagey on whether its new Windows Phone 7 would support direct synchronization with Apple's Macintosh computers. Now a spokeswoman confirms that Microsoft will offer a Mac OS X tool that syncs "selected content" between Macs and Windows Phone 7 devices.
The first devices are expected to ship later this month in Europe and in the United States in early November. A public beta version of the Mac syncing tool is expected by year's end, the spokeswoman told InfoWorld.com. There's no word when a final version will be available, nor exactly what content can be synced between the devices.
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On Windows PCs, Microsoft will rely on its Zune media manager app to sync most content, much as Apple's iOS devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, rely on iTunes.
Microsoft is using this "we'll add it later" strategy for several technologies common on competing mobile platforms. For example, multitasking, copy and paste, and HTML5 support will all be missing from the initial version of Windows Phone 7 but are promised to be added at some point in the future. Also missing is support for Adobe Flash Player, though the only major mobile platform to support that technology today is Google's Android OS 2.2 (aka Froyo).
This article, "Windows Phone 7 to have limited Mac sync capability," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter.
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