HTML and Other WP7 Rumors Related to Mango
Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet has received some more tips about the Windows Phone updates that we’re all waiting for. Namely, it sounds like the January, February updates will be minimal. They will likely involve copy and paste, some multi-tasking, more UI controls and customizations and other tweaks. Them comes Mango:
I’m also hearing talk of a major fall update (codenamed “Mango”), which will precede Windows Phone 8 (codenamed “Apollo”), slated for late 2012.
The Mango update is supposedly bigger than the January and/or February update, according to my sources. Mango is more like a Windows Phone OS 7.5 — and may even be named that when it debuts.
Mango, according to tipsters, will add Silverlight run-time and HTML 5 support to Windows Phone 7, Far Eastern language support and other features and functionality. (Silverlight already is the primary development platform for Windows Phone 7 devices, but a Silverlight browser plug-in isn’t yet available for the phones.)
I’m wondering if it also might add more enterprise functionality, as the first Windows Phone 7 devices are consumer-focused phones, as Microsoft execs themselves have acknowledged. The first crop of Windows Phone 7 devices only support a subset of Exchange ActiveSync’s feature set, for example. As Windows Phone Secrets author Paul Thurrott recently noted, Microsoft officials have said they plan to gradually flesh out that list.
One thing to note is that Silverlight and Flash are likely to come at the same time as they involve a plugin issue to IE so I’d throw that into the Mango mix.
Well, in January we should start to have more information about the short term improvements and that will shed light on if Mango is in fact real.
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Wow I really thought MS would be hitting the gas pedal on these updates but waiting until fall for a major update is…disheartening. So there are going to be going SLOWER than Apple and Google despite being behind in term of raw features? Sad.
Fall 2011? So all that talk about MS pushing out updates quickly was just that, talk? In one year you can be sure google and apple will pile more features into their phones and if this is true WP7 will be basically just on par with whats available today. Better not be true.
7.5? 8? Let the fragmentation begin!
@Greg: 7.5 will be the same hardware specs. 8 will require new hardware likely. That’s when we get fragmentation but it’s iOS style fragmentation and not Android/WM style.
I’m surprised to see people were expecting the features she mentioned sooner. Folks, those are some big changes. YOu are not going to see them rolled out every month. Be realistic. And it was already known that east asian language support is coming in 2H.
@nulldev2010:
If this is really their proposed roadmap MS is moving too slowly. There are bugs that need fixing TODAY, like the MP/Zune crash, camera settings, missing calendar events, features like secondary calendars, etc. Even today as usual they announed new bing features for their iphone application, yet the WP7 version is ignored. As usual with MS, they talk a good game but come to execute and they fumble, every time.
I’m hoping that some things that aren’t mentioned will be handled in an OS update or in updates by the individual MS divisions. The are my Big 3:
1. Bing needs to be updated to what I had in Windows Mobile…mainly turn-by-turn directions. Would this be an update brought directly by the Bing team or the WinPhone team? Either way, it needs to happen.
2. Synching of Office with SkyDrive should be high on their list. It is a pain in the neck to get documents onto my phone and it should be easy and automatic with two way synchro.
3. The camera settings should have the option to stay each time you open the camera. I’m looking at YOU anti-shake feature. I’m also looking at YOU hi-def option for video. Just give us the option to change the default status and boom, happy town!
@efjay:
Were you expecting major features like Silverlight and HTML5 every quarter? Sorry, I think that’s unrealistic. Frankly, I would be very happy if MS can rollout all of those features (including task switching, turn-by-turn nav, new APIs, C&P, more languages, etc) by next summer. That’s a shitload of features as far as I am concerned. Regarding the bugs, I don’t think those are critical types that require an immediate patch. I expect they will be included in the first update in Jan.
I would be tickled pink with the few features mentioned; cut & paste, some multi-tasking and more UI control/customization, along with any bug fixes that probably are not going to get mentioned much. Things like; % battery meter, custom ringtones, screenshots and a couple other things might fall under that broad UI control/customization category, but if not there is already a plan “B” for one or more so no worries. The development community will take care of the rest.
Business customizations are going to take more time as Microsoft needs to understand and review the best course of action rather than haphazardly throwing new features on the phone that will simply muck things up. A quickfix for Skydrive would be to allow Office files to be emailed back into the cloud. Can already do that with photos. And nothing to change in WP7 at all. Not sync, but would give you two way file navigation without much effort.
I was actually beginning to get a little worried with the talk of a massive update so soon, thinking that things would get pushed out before they were ready or even needed. This seems like a more logical approach.