In an exclusive interview with FierceWireless, HTC CEO Peter Chou said the smartphone vendor initially will be unable to bring its Sense UI onto its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 devices. “Initially, we don’t have time to bring things on top of that,” he said. “But over time we will innovate on top of that to provide some HTC experience.”

Although the Microsoft software had been finalized a while back, and developer tools were made available recently, it looks like the phone manufacturer is taking its time to make sure the experience is right. After all, users who have been accustomed to Sense UI on either Android or Windows Mobile 6.5 will come to expect nothing but a solid experience.

In fact, HTC might do something completely different with Windows Phone 7:

“I don’t think we would do complete Sense UI on Windows Phone 7,” he said. “However, I will say that we will innovate differently to improve the experience and to get some HTC unique and differentiated experience on Windows Phone 7 in the future.” Perhaps what Microsoft did with Windows Phone 7 makes it impossible to have Sense UI, or some variant of it, work well with it. After all, the folks in Redmond have completely overhauled its game plan and started this OS from scratch with an eye toward making it more locked down.

We’ll have to wait and see, but just because HTC won’t be able to add much of its own touch to the new platform doesn’t mean it won’t provide a good user experience.