Microsoft is reportedly nearly finished with the first update to Windows Phone 7, supposedly dubbed “NoDo”, which should start arriving on phones next month.

This rumor comes from venerable Microsoft guru Paul Thurrott, who has revealed what he claims are insider details behind how Microsoft will be handling its update process. According to Thurrott, this first update will be ready any day now, but we won’t get a chance to see it until February, as the mobile carriers run it through their testing protocols.

Supposedly this will be par for future updates as well, coming out infrequently after a long testing period. This move against minor updates is mirrored in the NoDo name, which Thurrott suggests is a dig at Android Donut.

Last month we heard that Microsoft was planning a massive overhaul for WP7, focusing mainly on support for web standards. While that’s not quite how things are playing out, with the NoDo update bringing features like cut-and-paste instead, those big changes may be waiting for us in Mango.

Mango could be Microsoft’s name for the full update, or just a component of it, but this looks like the one to bring HTML5 to Windows Phone 7. That will comes as part of an upgrade to Internet Explorer 9, along with Silverlight support. Unfortunately, Thurrott says Mango is not coming directly after NoDo, but waits for us further down the line.

Source: Windows Phone Secrets