The upcoming update of Mango for Windows Phone 7 (which includes a lot of really neat enhancements, but is still missing a lot of key features) is know internally as version 7.5 of the operating system, according to some text on the Microsoft Partner website. It’s unlikely that Microsoft will rename the platform to “Windows Phone 7.5″ given the resources already invested in “Windows Phone 7″, but rather, the version number gives us a hint to the significance of the update and when we’ll see the next major version of Windows Phone, version 8.
If Microsoft is working on a one-year release cycle of major versions of Windows Phone (remember, it was in Fall 2010 that the platform was launch), that would put us a Fall 2012 for Windows Phone 8 to start shipping since Mango is due out presumably in Fall 2011.
