As news came out of Microsoft MIX10 that application deployment on Windows Phone 7 Series will be limited to only the Marketplace, question marks started lighting up on what side-effects this might have on third-party application developments on the platform. I took the chance to clear up some of those concerns in a meeting with a Microsoft representative today.

An obvious point of concern that stems from this announcement is the fact that Microsoft will inherit more “control” over what applications can be deployed to end-users and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw a comparison to the Apple App Store who also inherit a similar “power”.

To avoid falling into the same trap Apple is now continuously drawing criticism for “banning” applications, Microsoft insists its Marketplace is already and will be more “objective”. Like today, Microsoft will be publish criteria for WP7S developers that they claim will not only guide developers on what’s “allowed” but also allow them to test themselves if they will pass the certification process.

Furthermore Microsoft states if applications “meet the criteria” they won’t deny any applications on subjective grounds. For example, even though WP7S has a strong emphasis on good application design and Microsoft will publish style guides for developers, the Marketplace certification process will not have any power to stop applications that don’t meet the guideline or, frankly, look ugly. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” as they put it.

Finally, developers who are looking to beta test their applications to a wider audience than themselves and enterprises can look forward to changes to the Marketplace “later this spring” that will allow private distributions of applications to support both beta and enterprise scenarios. The Microsoft representative hinted at a method to “unlock” Windows Phone 7 Series devices, although not easily, but presumed will allow loading applications using a USB cable.

In a meeting today with Todd Brix, Senior Director for Windows Phone Product Management at Microsoft MIX10 he revealed that Microsoft will be delivering a Windows Update-like service for all Windows Phone 7 Series phones. As many Windows Mobile users would agree in saying, “about time”.

The update service in WP7S is designed to give users improvements to the operating system quickly and reliably. It will be prioritized first on delivering performance, stability and performance improvements and when appropriate, both in terms of new software trends and hardware capabilities, the update service will also be pushing out new features and additional functionality.

Microsoft will reveal what users should expect in terms of update schedules closer to retail availability but there will be a combination of both small and large updates as well as structured and out-of-band updates.

Coming from a mobile operating system which requires flashing the “ROM”, this is a big investment and improvement for Microsoft who seems to have all the right cards to the best hand in the mobile industry.

At Microsoft MIX10 today the Windows Phone 7 Series team are handing out a very special picture book all about our favorite user interface, Metro. There is 47 pages full of beautiful text and icons that explain where Metro comes from, what Metro represents and what guides the philosophy.

It’s rumored to be on Oprah’s reading list next week.

P.S. I have gained a lot of respect for automated book scanning projects.

The Windows Phone 7 Series emulator is out now and here’s a second look at what’s in it (although there isn’t much out of the box to explore).

This screencast takes a look at the Internet Explorer application and its capabilities in the WP7S emulator, although I can’t confirm if this indeed the same build of IE on actual device – it feels inferior. A quick ACID test reveals a test score of only 5, but a more real life example of it rendering this blog shows it’s very much capable of displaying modern websites.

The Windows Phone 7 Series emulator is out and here’s a first hand look at what you can do, change the phone’s settings! The emulator ROM coming in at approximately 75MB allows for a limited number of activities outside of testing your WP7S applications.

This screencast takes a look at the Windows Phone 7 Series settings panel including some options related to the themes – yes you can change it to white instead of black, regional settings and date. There also seems to be a placeholder for managing apps, but due to the lack of any, it’s not entirely clear how it works.

The Windows Phone 7 Series hardware specifications have been officially detailed at the first Microsoft MIX10 WP7S session including but not limited to the capabilities of capacitive touch, sensors, camera, multimedia processing, memory, GPU, CPU and display resolution.

In the same presentation Joe Belfiore also took the time to thank ASUS, finally revealing that they are the manufacturers of the prototype device which Microsoft is using at its various events.

Furthermore Joe also give a sneak peek of a new previously unannounced Windows Phone 7 Series slate device by Samsung, highlighting the high-quality 5.0mp camera on the device.