Microsoft To Release Mango To Developers Before Official Launch

Microsoft has revealed to WinRumors, both verbally and via Twitter that, that they do plan on releasing Mango to developers before the official launch. Specifically, they said it would be available to developers in about four weeks time. Developers will be able to load the Mango update right onto their retail devices. The information was given to WinRumors by Achim Berg, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Phone marketing during a Windows Phone Mango VIP event in London on Tuesday. At MIX11 earlier this year, Microsoft’s Brandon Watson had already mentioned that Microsoft was working to allow developers to use Mango on Windows Phone hardware.

Now, this may be great and awesome for developers, but we really hope it won’t be final build. If they were to release final build in four weeks to developers only then what’s the point of making end-users wait another three or four months? We really hope that the developer released build will still be exposed to plenty of feedback and changes as needed.

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone, also confirmed the plans on behalf of Microsoft. Belfiore however gave no time frame, which leads us to believe that the four weeks may just be an estimate, and may be released even later than that.