The recently launched HTC Sensation smartphone might hit the Indian stores sooner than expected with the handset maker confirming the availability of the device in Q2 this year, probably by May or June.

The HTC Sensation, as reported by The Mobile Indian, was unveiled on the 12th April in London. The Sensation is HTC’s first ever phone to feature a 1.2 Ghz Processor supplied by Qualcomm and a whole new interface with the latest HTC sense 3.0 UI.

HTC, through its official Twitter account, has made it clear that the latest HTC Sense 3.0 UI will only be supported by newer devices and won’t be available for older devices.

So in order to get the best support from the Sense 3.0, you need the next generation of processor that only the newer devices such as the Sensation and the HTC Flyer feature.

HTC Sensation might be launched in UK and the US first following with other countries.

Pricing of the Sensation still remains a mystery but with the kind of hardware the new smartphone features one can easily expect it to be more than Rs 30,000.

The first of the two Nokia phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) mobile operating system will be called W7 and W8, and will be modeled on the current Symbian smartphones X7 and N8.

Eldar Murtazin, a Russian blogger, has published details of these first Windows Phone 7 Nokia phones.

W7 will have an 8 mega Pixel camera with auto focus and a Qualcomm chipset. It will be the first dual core smartphone from Nokia.

Nokia has publicly said that it will launch close to 16 WP7 phones starting in 2012. The company’s new chief executive officer Steven Elop said that it will strive to bring WP7 phones earlier than 2012; and we expect them to be launched before Christmas this year.

Another phone that will receive WP7 is the recently launched business phone E7. In addition, there will be another entry level smartphone based on WP7, which is not ready yet.

W8 is likely to be the most powerful Nokia handset so far.

Eldar Murtazin was one of the first bloggers to have reported on Nokia’s plan to use Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform, and is considered to be a reliable source on Nokia.

At a time when Android and iOS dominate the handset market, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is nowhere in the picture.

Months after the collaboration between Nokia and Microsoft has been announced, there are fewer Windows Phone devices than Symbian phones.

It’s not that Microsoft hasn’t seen difficult periods like this. It had a tough time with Windows Vista and Xbox 360, but if Microsoft and Nokia get it right together, be ready to read some glowing reviews all over the web.

Windows Phone is expected to become the number two operating system in the world by 2015. Apple, however, is likely to continue in market segments where profit margins are high, and therefore its numbers will be small.

So, what is the target audience for Windows Phone 7?

Observers have talked a lot about the possibility that Windows Phone 7 is not targeting geeks anymore. The move, if correct, would be substantial because that is the market that drove the first wave of success for the company.

One Microsoft official talked at MIX (a Microsoft developer conference) about the target audience of Windows Phone 7 and how the company is not about knowledge workers alone. He also mentioned that the company is now targeting “life maximizers”, or people who juggle different types of responsibilities all the time.

Microsoft is also targeting the youth who may worry about work email, but would like to have fun too, so they want devices full of apps.

But then these are two different categories, the young audience will get enhanced feature phones, loaded with apps but at lower cost.

Even at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona early this year, Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, had made it clear that the company would focus on music, video, games, photos, marketplace, people and, of course, office.

One thing is for sure, we can’t say Microsoft doesn’t know what it is doing.

After launching the new range of Xperia devices, Sony Ericsson is reportedly making Walkman series of music phones which could be launched as Sony Ericsson W15.

The W15 is yet to be approved and officiated by Sony Ericsson, but as the picture shows, the product is almost ready to be launched. The company is yet to respond to the reports.

According to the website, the W15 is expected to feature the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, a smaller yet capable 600 MHz processor, a 3.2 Megapixel camera and a 3 inch display.

The phone’s look and feel would be very similar to Sony Ericsson’s very own Xperia X8 smartphone. Along with the regulars, the newest Walkman series phone will also feature a specialised audio chip for a better overall audio output and stereo speakers for loudspeaker.

It would be too early to comment on the pricing but is expected to cost less than Rs 20,000.