News

Microsoft: Windows Phone 'Mango' Rollout Might Start Before October

• By Kathleen Richards
• September 22, 2011

A Microsoft general manager said on Wednesday that carriers and handset manufacturers might begin rolling out the Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" updates to customers as early as next week.

Eric Hautala, Microsoft general manager of customer experience engineering, made the announcement on a Windows Phone blog post:

I'll have more details to share about the update once it begins in the next week or two. But by "roll out" I mean we'll be starting the actual delivery process -- emphasis on starting.

Mango, the first major update to Windows Phone 7 since the smartphone OS was launched in October 2010, adds multitasking, multiple live tiles, app connect and "fast" application switching, among other features.

Microsoft's Mango rollout announcement, which attempts to narrow the estimated timing of the update for existing Windows Phone customers, comes on the same day as a report in the Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog that indicates Apple will likely unveil its iPhone 5 at a "special event" on Oct. 4.

Mango hit the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) stage in July. The day after it hit RTM, Microsoft released a Mango Beta 2 Refresh (Build 7712) for developers in conjunction with the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK Beta 2 Refresh. In mid-August, Microsoft offered the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 release candidate (RC) with a "Go Live" license. The Windows Phone SDK 7.1 includes all of the tools for building Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone Mango apps, according to Microsoft.

Mango RTM for Developers
Developers will receive the Mango RTM on developer phones from their mobile operators. On Wednesday, Microsoft indicated that it will provide Mango RTM update instructions to developers who are using Mango Beta 2. The company has not released the final version of the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK for Mango.

Microsoft started to certify Mango application updates and new submissions in the App Hub last month. The company created some controversy, however, when it announced plans to freeze Windows Phone 7.0 app updates when the Mango 7.5 versions of applications were published in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Developers expressed concerns because the release schedule of Windows Phone operating system updates has varied dramatically by carrier and handset manufacturer. In the case of "NoDo," a minor update to Windows Phone 7.0, some Windows Phone consumers still had not received it four months after the initial rollouts in March.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced in the Windows Phone Developer blog that based on developer feedback, it is changing its policy. By the end of October, according to Todd Brix, senior director of Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft will provide functionality in its App Hub that allows developers to publish updates to 7.0 and 7.5 versions of their apps. The company is also providing "New for 7.5" screenshots and text overlay graphics that developers can use to help consumers identify Mango applications. The graphics and screenshots meet app certification requirements, according to Brix.

In anticipation of new devices supporting Mango from key partners such as Nokia, Microsoft is increasing its efforts to attract Nokia Symbian developers to Windows Phone. On Wednesday, Microsoft started its Nokia Windows Phone Training roadshow for Symbian developers, first stop -- Paris. The company is also releasing materials to help Nokia Symbian developers get up to speed on developing applications for Windows Phone. Microsoft added Symbian Qt to the Windows Phone Mapping API and is promoting a 100-page whitepaper, "Windows Phone Guide for Symbian Qt Application Developers."

At its Build conference last week, Microsoft reported that it had 50,000 registered developers for Windows Phone and roughly 30,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. AT&T also announced plans last week to offer three Mango phones: HTC Titan and Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash devices. Mango phones are already available in Japan and Russia.

Matt Bencke, general manager for Windows Phone apps, blogged about Metro-style apps on Windows Phone and the PC, and alluded to what developers can expect with the next-gen mobile platform:

As the Windows Phone Runtime evolves, we plan to align the PC and Windows Phone platforms as much as possible. For example as demonstrated [at BUILD], developers will soon be able to easily share XAML and C# code between the PC and Windows Phone. And for developers building Windows Phone apps today, those apps will work on Mango and on the next major release of Windows Phone as well.

Existing Window Phone customers will need to have the latest Zune 4.8 software, released in August, to support Mango updates. The Zune software now supports 22 display languages, more countries and regions and helps streamline the update and backup process, according to Microsoft. In the coming weeks, Windows Phone customers can check the "Where's my phone update" table for more information on mobile operators' Mango delivery schedules.