Microsoft planning special Windows Phone Mango developer devices

By Tom Warren, on 7th Jun 11 1:37 pm with 13 Comments

Microsoft is planning to make a new Windows Phone developer device available.

The software giant currently supplies ASUS E600 devices to some third-party developers. Microsoft previously distributed Samsung Taylor Windows Phone 7 devices during the summer months last year, ahead of general availability. The company now plans to distribute new devices to developers. “We’re working on a plan,” says Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Team. “Just like last year, when we made developer phones available with the Windows Phone 7 OS, we plan to have developer phones this summer supporting new Mango features like the gyroscope.”

Microsoft revealed the minute details in a developer news update published earlier this month. “We don’t have any dates to share just yet, so stay tuned,” they added. The company referenced Joe Belfiore’s tweet which appeared to promise Windows Phone Mango bits for existing developer devices. Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Phone marketing told WinRumors that the company would release the bits in late June or early July. However, Microsoft’s plans may have shifted towards supplying dedicated devices.

It’s not yet known which devices Microsoft will supply and whether they plan to charge developers for said devices. Microsoft has also started to use a non-production HTC device for several Mango demos and internal development. The HTC Mazaa includes an updated CPU and GPU configuration and a 12MP camera. Microsoft unveiled a number of new Windows Phone Mango features last month. Mango will include over 500 new features ranging from multitasking through to some major Bing search improvements.

ASUS Windows Phone 7 device

Image Credit: Rafael Rivera (withinwindows.com)

Tim

Is there somewhere else where it says that their plans may be shifting towards supplying devices instead of allowing developers early access to the bits on their own devices? I’ve read that posting several times and every time I read it to say that the devices are in addition to the bits (So you can test the hardware if its necessary for your application).
Anonymous

i hope it’s fairly cheap!! anyone know what price the last lot of developer devices were selling for?
Hernan Lozano

Is there a front-facing camera somewhere on this bullshit?
Brandon

I only wish they’d have gone the ROM route. I really don’t want the beauracracy of requesting & returning a physical device
Brandon

I only wish they’d have gone the ROM route. I really don’t want the beauracracy of requesting & returning a physical device
http://www.seriousinternets.com Tim Smith

Microsoft needs to use a program like they did with xbox (and other systems) and allow users to sign up/apply to be beta testers and pick say 1,000 users which should allow them to cover every possible scenario of hardware/carrier and cover regular users and will allow them to work out any bugs with the OS itself or the upgrade process before it goes live. Potentially saving them lots of time and money. Not very likely but I can dream.
- Anonymous
  
  Actually, Microsoft’s testing for Windows Phone is much much more sophisticated. They have developed testing sites with major carriers that run literally millions of automated tests. The tests are developed in-step with the OS. And there are rooms full of WP devices that run these tests.
  
  The test results are compiled by Microsoft and presented to the carrier. But the carrier has the final say in whether the update is pushed out. I suspect that if there is a finger to be pointed in the calamity that was the first WP update, it should be directed at carriers who likely wanted to roll the dice on a few failed tests in order to get the update out.
http://www.seriousinternets.com Tim Smith

Microsoft needs to use a program like they did with xbox (and other systems) and allow users to sign up/apply to be beta testers and pick say 1,000 users which should allow them to cover every possible scenario of hardware/carrier and cover regular users and will allow them to work out any bugs with the OS itself or the upgrade process before it goes live. Potentially saving them lots of time and money. Not very likely but I can dream.
Edyg023

Apple seems to be able to get their developers newer versions of the OS without having to give out devices. Seriously, we need to fix this problem. Assign the developers a unique id that can only reside on one device. Give them access to the new ROM. We pay for developer licenses, but get very little benefits.
http://thommck.wordpress.com Thom McKiernan

I don’t think people understand that if you want to test your app on a phone utilising some new Mango hardware features (like the gyroscope) then you actually need some hardware to test it on.
You can’t be guaranteed that just because it works in the emulator it won’t have flaws when in peoples hands.
Mark

Why do I constantly get the feeling that the WP7 team is making things up as they go? Localization. The update process. Now this. It’s like every time they hit something that they should have a decade’s experience with, they act like it’s totally unexpected and needs a dedicated team to solve. WTF? They’ve been in the mobile business for a decade.
Mark

Why do I constantly get the feeling that the WP7 team is making things up as they go? Localization. The update process. Now this. It’s like every time they hit something that they should have a decade’s experience with, they act like it’s totally unexpected and needs a dedicated team to solve. WTF? They’ve been in the mobile business for a decade.
FMH

They want developers to experience new hardware. Gyroscope, dual-core, faster graphics, they want better apps for new batch of WP7 devices launching in september.