Nokia's Windows Phone 7 on Oct. 26 ?

This is the first image you'll see anywhere of the early fruit of Microsoft and Nokia's budding new  partnership. We have it on good authority that the technicolor phones on show are conceptual devices produced by the two companies. You shouldn't, therefore, go jumping to conclusions about retail hardware just yet, but hearts should be warmed by the familiarity of Nokia's new design -- the shape of these handsets is somewhere between its recent N8 and C7 Symbian devices and there is, as usual for Nokia, a choice of sprightly colors. The trio of keys adorning the new concept's bottom give away its Windows Phone 7 ties, but also remind us that the N8 and E7 are highly unlikely to receive any WP7 upgrade love. The best part about this whole discovery, however, might be that it confirms Steve Ballmer's assertion that the engineers of both companies have  „spent a lot of time on this alreay". So, who else is excited about owning an Engadget-blue Microkia device?

    

Nokia set the date for its annual Nokia World conference on October 26-27 in London, fueling speculation that this will be the venue for the company to announce its first Windows Phones.

ight now there aren't many details on the Nokia World site. Each day of the show has a keynote, and the agenda is bland. But at the Communicasia conference today where Nokia announced its MeeGo-based N9 phone, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop confirmed what EVP Jo Harlow told us in May that Nokia would be releasing its first Windows Phone 7 devices this year.

In February, Nokia said that it was abandoning Symbian and relegating the MeeGo OS to "science projects" in favor of Windows Phones, which Harlow told us will come out every few months. The first Nokia Windows Phones will run the Windows Phone Mango OS release coming out this fall, whichPCMag previewed this week.

Nokia has traditionally used Nokia World to introduce prominent new products, and an October 26 introduction both puts Nokia's first phones in line with the potential Mango release date and on sale in time for the critical Christmas shopping season. With Nokia's market share slipping every quarter, the company can't ramp up Windows Phones fast enough.

Nokia announced the N9, its first MeeGo-based smartphone, early this morning. Even though Nokia has all but abandoned MeeGo, the N9 is an impressive device, including a 3.9-incled AMOLED screen, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, and an intriguing feature called swipe, which allows users to swipe from the edge of the display will pull up your home screen. Check back with PCMag for a full review of the Nokia N9 when it's released.