Ever since Microsoft first talked about Mango back in Mobile World Congress earlier in February this year, Microsoft had been saying that the update will be available for release by “Fall 2011”. There had been speculations that it will be coming around to October/November timeframe, given that it will be exactly one year since Windows Phone 7 first launched around the same time last year.
Well, it appears that we might be seeing "Mango” earlier than that. MobilityDigest.com first noticed that Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Twitter account @imaginecup recently tweeted that all Imagine Cup 2011 finalists will be receiving a free Windows Phone 7.5 device. The interesting thing is, the tweet mentioned that all finalists will be receiving it by September:
Neowin.net also confirmed from separate sources that the Mango release is still”on track for September”, and that more details about the OS and new devices should be revealed sometime in late August. However, none of the sources said whether this September release date relates to the availability of actual hardware Mango devices, or if the Mango software update will be available for existing Windows Phone users. Regardless, this is good news as we should be seeing the final build of the Mango update very soon – as soon as within the next two months!
On a side note, the tweet again confirms that the Mango update will be named “Windows Phone 7.5”. Although it is quite obvious given that in the latest Mango public beta build given out to developers clearly says “Software: Windows Phone 7.5” in the Settings > About screen.