14 DAY TRIAL // A few hours back, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has announced that the deployment of the new Windows Phone Mango update was underway.
The new update started rolling-out to mobile phones all around the world, the company announced, adding that this is the most feature-packed software refresh they pushed out so far.
While already available for some users, the update will need some time before being pushed out to all handsets around the world.
“Today we’re starting the roll out of Windows Phone 7.5 to more than 98 percent of existing Windows Phone customers,” Eric Hautala, General Manager, Customer Experience Engineering, Microsoft, notes in a blog post.
“This is a simultaneous, coordinated, global update that cuts across carriers, phone models, and countries. This time, almost everybody is going first.”
However, the company notes the roll-out will ramp up gradually, and that all users are expected to taste it within four weeks.
Most of the wireless carriers and handset models are included in the roll-out, yet the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS flavor might arrive on some specific devices only at a later time.
A quick look at the Where’s My Phone Update? support page on Microsoft's website will show that handsets like Omnia 7 are still waiting for the testing period of this update to be completed.
Along with Mango, the update includes a series of enhancements specific to each device, and the software giant wants to make sure that these are all lined up right, so that no issue will emerge with the update.
“We’re not just delivering our new operating system but also new software supplied by individual handset makers. This “firmware” is necessary so your phone - and apps - work with all the features of Windows Phone 7.5,” the blog post continues.
“But it essentially means that we’re supplying not just one update, but many different ones, given the variety of Windows Phones and carriers out there to choose from.”
The new update will arrive on devices via a desktop computer, and users will have to have the Zune software installed on their Windows PCs, or the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, if they own an Apple machine.
These are available for download from Softpedia here and here, respectively. A how-to resource for Windows Phone updates is available on Microsoft's website here.