According to the CEO of AT&T, Ralph De La Vega, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 devices are not selling as well as the company had hoped or anticipated. During an interview with Ina Fried of All Things Digital, he had said that his company was fond of Microsoft's latest mobile operating system, saying "We actually like that software very, very much. It hasn't sold as well as Microsoft or us would want it to".
These words came only days after comScore published its latest market share results for American smartphone sales, with Microsoft's share having dropped 25% since the introduction of Windows Phone 7 in November 2010. Despite the sales, De La Vega went on to say that for Microsoft's first smartphone attempt, it is a good effort. He believes that the next update for WP7, codenamed 'Mango', will go further still to improve the platform. Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, has previously claimed that Mango contains over 500 new features, in an update planned for the end of 2011. To quote De La Vega, he said:
"I think they are going to make it a lot better, giving customers more application choices, having a bigger app store with more functionality on the phone, I think that is all that it needs."
On top of this, he praised Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system, saying that it is a 'huge win' to retain the same look and feel across personal computers, tablet PCs, and smartphones. It is predicted that Microsoft wll release the Mango update to retail Windows Phone developer devices in roughly a month.
Mango's new features have all been finalized, making it virtually code-complete, and the company is expected to RTM (Release-to-Manufacture) the update shortly, in order to deliver it to key OEMs and worldwide carriers so they can complete the final testing phase for the new update, with Microsoft having unveiled a number of features within Mango during May. Mango includes major new features, including improved Bing search results, and the ability to multi-task.
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