Mango to Be Windows Phone 7.1, Will Support Front-Facing Cameras

As the official announcement on the next Windows Phone platform version approaches, more and more rumors on what it would be all about started to emerge.

Some of the most recent ones suggest that the platform would be released on devices as Windows Phone 7.1.

Undoubtedly, this does come as a surprise for some, based on the large number of new features the OS should include.

Some of the previous rumors on the matter suggested that Microsoft could launch it as Windows Phone 7.5, or even Windows Phone 8, but it seems that the software giant might actually consider bumping up the numbering only by a little bit.

A recent article on MSDN unveiled the platform version that Mango would supposedly feature.

The said article refers to new APIs in Silverlight for Windows Phone OS 7.1, clearly showing that Microsoft is preparing this platform release for availability on its mobile phones.

Nothing else can be extracted from the said article, except maybe for the fact that the Windows Phone 7.1 name appears a lot on the said page.

The page lists the namespaces and classes that have been added or updated for Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.1. You can check on it here.

Based on the fact that the current OS build number is 7.0.7392, it would make sense for the next Windows Phone release to come as 7.1, some suggest.

However, nothing was officially announced on the matter, and we should wait for Microsoft to make a formal announcement on this to learn more on the matter.

One other thing that we should wait for would be confirmation on whether future Windows Phones would include front-facing cameras.

Recent rumors noted that all of them would come with this feature on board, and the recently announced deal between Microsoft and Skype would sustain the assertion. Stay tuned for more on the matter.