Windows Phone “Tango” coming in early 2012?

With the Windows Phone “Mango” update just released to 50% of existing customers, news are already coming out for the next update codenamed “Tango”. The latest news came from Thailand’s Bangkok Post (via WMPU), where one of its reporters recently interviewed Birathon Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya, Managing Director at Microsoft Thailand, who said that the company is set to launch its “biggest consumer brand campaign” later this year. In addition, he quotes the following:

Windows Phone in Thailand[Microsoft] plans to collaborate with global phone makers Nokia, Samsung, HTC and LG to push its mobile OS to second in the smartphone market by 2015.

It will introduce Windows Phone version 7.5 with Thai language support early next year.

Now the interesting thing is, Thai isn’t one of the 22 display languages supported in the Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update. While Windows Phone 7 was launched in Thailand late last year, all phones sold in Thailand only supported the English language, hampening local sales in the country. To say that Windows Phone 7.5 will come with Thai language support, we believe this will come as part of the first “Tango” update. According to previous reports, there will be two “Tango” updates, each bringing additional languages and features to Windows Phone:

  • “Tango1” will aim to further broaden the markets addressed by Windows Phone 7 by adding additional language support, much like Mango did.
  • “Tango2” will be targeted at low-cost devices and include fixes and new features, as well as services and language support for markets that still won’t have been addressed after the Tango1 release.

Given the report claims that Thai language support will be coming to Windows Phones “early next year”, we deduce that at least the “Tango1” update, which is aimed at adding additional language support, will be out by early 2012. This also places it at a reasonable timeframe before the next major update – codenamed “Apollo”. If we’re expecting to get “Tango” by early 2012, which is only a bit more than 3 months away, we should be expecting to hear more info about the update soon. Stay tuned!

Image credit: Nanapho.jp