If you own a Windows Phone 7-based smartphone and haven"t gotten the Mango update, it won"t be long now. The official Windows Phone 7 blog has announced that Microsoft is now sending out the Mango update all of the smartphones around the world that are eligible to receive it. That includes the LG Optimus 7 phones on Telefonica in Spain and the Samsung Omnia 7 phones on Deutsche Telekom.
With that bit of news, the Mango release for Microsoft"s mobile operating system is now complete. While Microsoft could sent out smaller firmware updates to specific phones over the coming months, it looks like it won"t release a major update for several months. Nokia has already confirmed that the next major update for Windows Phone 7, code name Apollo, is due for release in mid-2012.
Now Microsoft and its various Windows Phone 7 partners can concentrate on actually getting the public to purchase one of their smartphones. Nokia is going to do its best to convince people in Europe to buy its Lumia models (and hopefully here in the US in 2012). At the moment the HTC Radar is scheduled for release here in the US (via T-Mobile) while the two new Samsung WP7 products, the Focus S and Focus Flash, are scheduled to be made available for sale via AT&T later this fall.
It all comes down to a huge battle between Windows Phone 7, the many different and new Android-based devices and of course Apple"s iPhone. The battle will be fought this holiday season in stores and online and it"s going to be messy for some of the combatants. By January 2012 we should have a better idea of where things stand in the smartphone world.