Microsoft Hints Dual-Core Windows Phone Handsets Are Coming Soon

One of the biggest complaints I hear about Windows Phone devices is that they don’t support dual-core processors. While the latest single-core processors may be plenty fast enough for a snappy smartphone, customers just aren’t happy with only one core. According to Microsoft’s Andy Lees, however, dual-core Windows Phone smartphones with LTE capabilities are on the way.

Lees revealed to AllThingsD that despite a lack of support for dual-core processors, the latest crop of Windows Phone 7.5 handsets are more than capable of keeping up with their high-end Android rivals. Lees said:

“They’re all single core, but I suspect that they will be faster in usage than any dual-core phone that you put against it, and that’s the point.”

Lees confirmed, however, that Windows Phone handsets will adopt multi-core processors in the not-so-distant future — as soon as the hardware and the software is up to the job:

“I think that what our strategy is is to put things in place that allow us to leapfrog, and I think that’s how we’ve gone from worse [sic] browser to the best browser, and I think the same is true with hardware.”

As you’d expect, Lees was also very optimistic about Microsoft’s smartphone platform, and said that now Windows Phone 7 has captured the mindshare, the marketshare will follow with Windows Phone Mango:

“We’re not making specific predictions but I think that our momentum is going to build.”

“Our first [release] was about mindshare, and really getting the credibility, and I think [Mango] is really about starting to build unit volume and market share.”

I spend some time with the HTC Titan during its launch in early September, which is HTC’s latest flagship Windows Phone device. Although it only packs a single-core processor, it was plenty fast enough, which begs the question, do we really need fancy multi-core processors in our mobile phones? What