Microsoft has been marketing its Windows Phone 7 platform at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference this week.

Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel, GM of the Windows Phone 7 Developer Ecosystem, has handed out free Windows Phone 7 devices to eager developers. Kindel promised a free Dell Venue Pro or Samsung Focus device to developers creating applications. In a twitter message Kindel asked developers to meeting him at the Microsoft SXSW booth with the applications they are working on. “Show me a WP7 app you are building I’ll give you a Dell Venue Pro or Samsung Focus,” wrote Kindel.

Microsoft has also been handing out Windows Foam 7 devices to SXSW attendees. Techie Buzz has rounded up a number of foam Windows Phone devices, spotted at SXSW. Microsoft’s marketing buzz and developer focus comes just a week before the company is planning to deliver its first Windows Phone 7 platform update, codenamed “NoDo.” WinRumors took a recent early look at “NoDo”, including the copy and paste, marketplace improvements and performance gains. Check-out our overview here.

Despite delays with its first platform update, “NoDo”, developers have a lot to look forward to this year. Microsoft’s new Nokia partnership is a great opportunity for new and existing developers as more and more consumers take advantage of Windows Phone. Nokia said recently that it plans to ship Windows Phone branded devices to developerswhen they are avaialble later this year. Nokia is currently engineering Windows Phone devices and is expected to wait for “Mango”, the next version of Windows Phone, until it unveils them later this year. “Mango”, the codename for what will likely be named Windows Phone 7.5, is currently in the early beta stages at Microsoft. The software giant revealed a number of new features in February that will ship as part of its Windows Phone point release later this year. Nokia is reportedly waiting for multitasking, IE9 mobile and others before it releases its first Windows Phone device.

Microsoft will also detail further developer related improvements to Windows Phone 7 during its MIX11 event in April next month. Joe Belfiore, who oversees Windows Phone Program Management, and is responsible for the design and software product definition of forthcoming generations of Windows phones will keynote MIX again. Belfiore will also be joined by Scott Guthrie, who heads Microsoft’s .NET Developer Platform. Guthrie runs the development teams responsible for delivering Silverlight, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework technologies for building client and Web applications. Belfiore is expected to further detail Microsoft’s “Mango” update and other developer improvements.