Windows Phone 7.5 has now officially been released to manufacturing. Also known as the Mango update, its an important milestone in the evolution of Microsoft’s mobile platform. Mango represents a maturing of the OS, adding multi-tasking, increased speed, conversation view, threaded messages, group tiles, single inbox and more.
Mango will ship with the IE9 browser, adding better support for HTML 5 sites. What does still seem to be missing is the ability for website developers to easily add an image for when users pin their site to the home screen. It looks like Microsoft will also release Zune Music in additional markets, including Australia when Mango ships later this year.
That brings us to the topic of when you’ll actually get the Mango release. First off Microsoft have committed to delivering the update to all current (1st gen) WP7 devices. Now the update is code complete, its distributed to manufacturers and carriers for testing. Lets hope everyone in the chain has learnt their lesson from the mess that was the NoDo update.
The official word from Microsoft is ‘this fall’ which still puts the release around September, giving the chain 1-2 months to get devices out. Given current rumours put iPhone 5 around the same time, it’s likely going to be important to be first, launching Mango devices after iPhone 5 won’t help adoption rates for WP7.
Also announced today was the Fujitsu Toshiba IS12T, while not the friendliest device name, it will be the first WP7 Mango device. Engadget has a great hand-on with the device, check it out, the specs are actually pretty impressive.
More info @ Windows Phone Blog
