How Dell, Samsung & HTC Are Differentiating Their WP7 Phones

Several pundits opined that the inability to add custom shells will make it difficult for the manufacturers to differentiate their devices from the competition. While the thought has merit, phone manufacturers have improvised.

Having got the chance to play with most of the Windows Phone 7 devices here’s how three manufacturers are adding their personal touch to Windows Phone 7:

HTC:

If you thought, the Sense will not make an appearance on Windows Phones, you were mistaken. HTC has added the HTC Hub to their Windows Phone 7 devices and a neat animation brings the HTC Sense UI on the phones:

While I’m not sure why I’d want to use HTC’s note taking app when I have OneNote.

Samsung:

Like HTC, Samsung has designed their own hub which makes good use of the horizontal scroll of Windows Phone 7. The hub is like a set of widgets that you choose and can browse through. Samsung says this hub is your Daily Briefing. Here’s a demo of the Daily Briefing hub by Samsung:

Dell:

The Dell Venue Pro is an interesting handset, it is long and grows longer with the portrait slide-put QWERTY keyboard. Dell’s current differentiating strategy is quite depressing though. They’re relying on hardware design and pre-bundled apps. The Venue Pro will come with some pre-loaded apps like Page Once, no Dell Hub. Here’s a quick look at the Dell Venue Pro with the financing app – Page Once: