Windows Phone 7 Mango update rolled out to vast majority of customers

Microsoft has announced that it is now rolling out the Mango update for its Windows Phone 7 operating system to virtually all of its customers.

The firm had undertaken a cautious approach with the update after problems with its NoDo rollout, but Eric Hautala, general manager for customer experience engineering, said the firm was now confident it could issue the update more widely.

"When we kicked off the global rollout of Windows Phone 7.5, we planned to balance quality with speed. And for three weeks we've been watching quality while sending update notices to a growing fraction of phones," he said on a blog post.

"It's gone well so today we're fully opening the spigot [tap] – slightly ahead of schedule – and making Mango available to nearly everyone in the current delivery pool."

Hautala did admit there had been some teething problems, citing work the firm is doing with Orange in Europe to resolve "a couple technical issues that are temporarily preventing us from delivering updates at full throttle".

Furthermore, Microsoft is set to roll out some device-specific updates in the coming weeks that will help handsets to unlock some of the key features within Mango.

"Next week we'll start delivering some model-specific 'firmware' from handset makers, so don't be alarmed if you receive an additional update notification on your phone," he said.

"These updates are designed to activate new Windows Phone 7.5 features or improve your phone's performance. Not everybody will receive or require one: it all depends on your country, carrier, and phone model."

No specific information was provided on which models or manufacturers this involves, though.

The Mango update has been seen as Microsoft's best chance of competing with Android and iPhone devices, with many impressed by the new features.