Microsoft this autumn will release the version of Windows Phone 7 OS for smartphones with a new browser and support for multi-tasking, the company said at a conference for developers Mix11.
System upgrade, code-named Mango will allow Microsoft to reduce the lag of Windows Phone 7 with better competing solutions, in particular, by providing system support for third party programs running in the background.
In May, Microsoft will release the development tools for creating applications with the usage of new platform capabilities of Windows Phone 7, and by fall the update will be available to end users.
Together with update, the mobile platform will get a new browser based on Internet Explorer 9 with support for graphics hardware acceleration. During MIX11, Microsoft demonstrated that Internet Explorer 9 on WP7-smartphone handles the ‘heavy’ web pages based on HTML5 standard faster than the Android-based Google Nexus S and iPhone 4.
Developers will have get access to the camera and sensors, which will allow creating "augmented reality" applications, imposing digital image and text information on the image captured from the camera in real time.
According to Microsoft representatives, Skype, Amazon and other companies are also developing apps for WP7. In late May, app of the popular game Angry Birds for this platform will be released.
Microsoft ran into difficulties with the release of initial updates of the operating system WP7: in February, after installing a minor update, smartphones of some users stopped working. Another update, which among other things included the feature to copy and paste the text, was released in March, but not all the users have yet been able to install it.
According to research firm NPD Group, the devices running Windows Phone 7, U.S. sales of which began in November 2010, have barely been able to capture 2% of the American market in the fourth quarter. However, since the beginning of worldwide release of smartphones running WP7 in October 2010, more than 2 million units have been shipped to the market.
