As people who know me will attest, I’ve been watching the development and imminent launch of Windows Phone 7 with a lot of interest. Firstly I like the UI, secondly I love the idea of being able to take my existing development skills in .NET and start to easily develop applications.

That said, I don’t have an application available at launch so I’ve been looking at applications by other developers/companies that I think will be on my list to purchase when I get my device.

Pictures Lab

Pictures Lab is an image manipulation application developed by a German developer, @rschu. From what I’ve seen it looks a great little application for adding effects to your photos.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder is an application developed by @mikehole which aims to support walkers and hikers. Whilst neither of those are on my current list of hobbies (!!), it’s a free app that looks quite interesting – who knows, perhaps I’ll add to my list of hobbies!

Tesco

What’s not to like? Gives you the ability to create and edit Tesco deliveries from your handset. User interface looks clean and the ability to edit orders you’ve created on the main Tesco website sounds fantastic – no more forgetting the bread and a last-minute panic!

Facebook

Although the main people hub integrates facebook updates (as well as Windows Live updates) into your contacts, the standalone Facebook application should provide additional notification information and other features. I’ve not managed to play with it yet so I don’t know what the exact differences will be but it’s free so why not?!

Flight Control

I’m sure that anyone who knows someone with an iPhone is aware of Flight Control. Use touch to control the approach paths of aircraft and successfully land them at your own little airport. The learning curve is nothing but it’s fiendishly difficult once the pressure starts piling on!

IMDb

IMDb, or the Internet Movie Database, is a website with every single fact you could ever want on films. From plotlines to actors to goofs this is the ultimate resource. Great for confirming facts on the move.

Seesmic

Because everyone needs a twitter client and this looks to be the best of the bunch at launch.

Tube Companion

Want to know everything about the current state of the London Underground? From upcoming engineering works to next train times, this application will be of immense value to anyone that travels on the tube. Whilst I don’t go to London frequently, even I can see the use of it for the times I do. Developed by @Andy_Gore.

London Travel (free)

London Travel’s an application being developed by Martin Anderson of mdta design. Whilst I’ve not seen a huge amount of the application, the pre-beta visuals look very nice. It’ll be a good comparison to Tume Companion above so it’ll be nice to compare and contrast.

Conclusion

There’re a huge number of other applications on the store and I’m personally looking forward to seeing the quality of games that start to make an appearance. All I know is that I’m going to need to set aside a significant chunk of money for application purchases…!