Windows Phone 7 gets Twitter integration after deal with Nokia announced

WORLD'S biggest phone maker picks Windows Phone 7, but the biggest news for users is Twitter and multitasking.

Windows Phone 7

THE world's biggest mobile phone company will run Windows Phone 7 on its handsets in a deal said to be worth billions of dollars.

But the big news for users is that they'll get Twitter.

Microsoft today announced a range of new features for WP7 after last week's deal with handset maker Nokia.

The smartphone software will be updated with some basic features that were missing at launch, such as cut-and-paste and multitasking.

WP7 users will also be treated to Twitter integration and a new web browser based on Internet Explorer 9.

Microsoft said cut-and-paste would be released in March, with the rest coming later this year.

The new features — especially Twitter — will make WP7 an even stronger rival to Apple's iPhone.

One of the software's biggest selling points is that it can group information by person rather than source, bringing Facebook, email, SMS and now Twitter into one screen.

Of course, the deal with Nokia won't hurt either.

The chief executives of the two companies announced late last week Nokia handsets would soon be running Windows Phone 7.

In a joint statement, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Nokia's Stephen Elop said the partnership would help bring WP7 to new markets and price brackets.

"The partnership increases our scale, which will result in significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world," they said.

Mr Elop later said Nokia had also been approached by Google to choose its mobile operating system Android, and that the deal with Microsoft was worth billions.