Trends Hut

It's about to be put up or shut up time for Microsoft in mobile. On October 11, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets CEO Ralph de la Vega will be conducting a New York City press conference to spill the beans on the widely anticipated Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

Microsoft has been rather immobile in the smartphone biz these past few years. The company's handsets have been overshadowed by Apple's iPhone, Google's Android devices, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry. Recent efforts by the company to turn things around in mobile have proved disastrous--witness the summer demise, after less than two months in the market, of the company's youth-oriented Kin handsets.

Microsoft is holding a press conference in Europe on October 11, where several Web sites are expecting the company to finally announce the first Windows Phone 7 devices.
The October 11 announcement coincides with a Microsoft "open house" in New York that day, although the invitation to Microsoft's New York event specifically excluded any mention of Windows Phone 7.

According to Engadget, the October 11 press conference will be held at 2pm in London and is expected to offer "hands-on opportunities with WP7 devices." We've heard from other sources in Europe invited to the same event.

Microsoft spokespeople in the U.S. didn't respond immediately to a request for comment, but they're on the West Coast and it's pretty early in the morning there right now.
There's been a lot of confusion over the launch date for Windows Phone 7, with Neowin insisting that there will be launch events on October 21 but not giving any hints of the October 11 event to which Engadget was invited.
Further complicating things, Microsoft observer Paul Thurrott is claiming that Windows Phones will launch in the U.S. on November 8...