Microsoft Releases “Mango” Windows Phone Update, Will Consumers Bite?

This morning Microsoft officially unveiled “Mango,” its anticipated Windows Phone update with a dizzying array of upgrades and new features and developer tools.

Microsoft emphasized the speed of its mobile browser, a range of new local search capabilities, Bing Vision (visual search like Google Goggles), “a smarter approach to apps” and new group messaging and email features.

There were so many feature tweaks and improvements that it’s difficult to summarize them all. The video below highlights the major changes and upgrades of Mango.

The central question is will these changes make Windows Phones more appealing to end users and kick-start sales? Most smartphone market share data indicates that Windows continues to lose ground to other platforms (though perhaps not as fast as it had been).

For example, according to Gartner, Microsoft sold 1.6 million Windows Phones globally in Q1 of this year. The 3.6 million number in the chart above includes sales of the older (now discontinued) Windows Mobile OS. By comparison to Windows Phone’s 1.6 million unit sales, Android sold 36 million units during the same time period.

Microsoft hopes, and many industry watchers believe, that once Nokia handsets start shipping with Windows software that Microsoft’s mobile sales will improve. That’s undoubtedly true but how much is uncertain.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP30F3ZxTmw&feature=player_embedded#at=545[/youtube]