Microsoft sets date for Windows Phone 7 developer tools

Microsoft says the platform allows users to get more from their phone apps

Microsoft has set a formal release date for its Windows Phone 7 developer tools.

The company said in a blog posting that the development platform would be released in its 'final' state on 16 September.

The company hopes that the timing of the release will enable developers to tune applications for the platform in time for the holiday buying season.

Microsoft began posting beta versions of the developer tools last month, and the company said that since then it has served up more than 300,000 downloads.

The company hopes that the September release will flesh out the line of tools by adding controls for Silverlight and Bing maps, along with controls for the pivot and panorama functions.

Microsoft has been pushing the Windows Phone 7 platform to developers in large part as a system that allows handsets to better manage applications and take advantage of multiple web services.

"We’ve demonstrated that you can build a phone that doesn’t just allow developers to build apps, but rather one that enhances apps with unique features like Live tiles and a design system not available anywhere else," wrote Microsoft Windows Phone 7 director Brandon Watson.

"We’ve shown that a phone isn’t there to just run apps, but rather to understand the full context of what customers are trying to do; integrating functions like maps and search and saving the state of apps so that customers can move between them without losing content or negatively impacting battery life."