WMPowerUser received a tip today that the recently announced IE 9 for mobile update for Windows Phone may indeed be coming well earlier than the “Mango” update due in the second half of the year.
WMPU’s tipster, “Sylar”, recently also tipped them to the now infamous pre-NoDo update for Windows Phones, so even though this has to be treated as pure speculation, there’s hope at least that Sylar’s right on this one, too.
In another tidbit of a rumor, Sylar tells WMPU that the new mobile version of IE 9 will not only include full HTML5 support, but support for Silverlight as well.
A pre-Mango update would be consistent with what Microsoft executives have been hinting at, that there would be multiple updates before Mango, not just NoDo. In the official blog post announcing IE9 Mobile, Corporate Vice President Andy Lees promised it “in the second half of 2011”, but not specifically with Mango.
Of course with the reluctance of the mobile operators to push out Windows Phone updates (although the failure of the pre-NoDo update on some Samsung phones hasn’t helped to convince them to do otherwise, we’re sure), there’s no telling when current Windows Phone owners would receive an IE9 update, even if it were ready, or even if the multiple update strategy will change.