Boom! Though it’s day 2 or 3 or so (we’ve sort of lost track) of Mobile World Congress events for us, it’s technically Day 1 of the conference — and Microsoft just kicked things off with a lil’ announcement at Steve Ballmer’s keynote. Thus far, they’ve mentioned two big changes: Internet Explorer 9, and improved multi-tasking.
Microsoft says IE9 for mobile brings a “dramatically enhanced Web browser experience” to the device, with things like hardware-acceleration and HTML5 in tow.
Microsoft also demonstrated their new third-party multi-tasking system. If you’re running an application and need to do something else, just hit the handset’s back button. The app will pause, and you’ll be dropped onto the homescreen. Tap back again, and you’re back in the (now unpaused) app. Hold the back button, and it’ll bring up a webOS-esque app-by-app view of all the apps you’ve currently got paused in the background. Certain apps, such as music apps, will be allowed to continue running behind the scenes without pausing.
Additionally, Microsoft’s People Hub will be getting integrated Twitter support, so all of your tweets and twoots and whatnots will be included right in your device’s “What’s New” stream along with all
As far as Windows Phone 7 sales go: Microsoft’s still wording themselves pretty carefully here. As they did at CES, they’re mainly pushing the fact that they sold 2 million Windows Phone Licenses in the first 2 months of its life. That doesn’t mean that they sold 2 million phones to the end-user, of course — just that third-party manufacturers paid for the right to make 2 million phones.