Microsoft starts roll-out of Mango update for Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has started rolling out the next major version of its Windows Phone 7 operating system (OS), version 7.5, codenamed Mango.

The Mango version of Microsoft's mobile OS was announced in April 2011 and includes new features, such as Office hub support for Microsoft SkyDrive and Office 365, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn integration.

In a blog post, general manager for customer experience engineering at Microsoft, Eric Hautala said the update will be rolled out to 98% of existing Windows Phone customers and will be staggered to allow Microsoft to fix any problems quickly.

"If a problem comes to light, it's critical that we can isolate and fix it quickly. So we're deliberately starting out slow. This week, we'll be making the update available to 10% of customers. If everything looks good, we'll open up the spigot a bit more - to around 25%. We'll hold there for one or two weeks, then quickly ramp up to 100% - monitoring quality the entire way. That's how we ensure Mango arrives both quickly and in tip-top shape," he wrote.

Microsoft expects to temporarily slow or stop the update rollout if it experiences "unexpected snags".

In March 2011, Microsoft delayed its first major update to its Windows Phone OS after experiencing problems with an initial minor update.

Microsoft took down the minor update to Windows Phone 7 on Samsung devices after discovering the technical issue with its software update process.

Windows Phone users can check the global status of Mango updates at Microsoft's 'Where's my phone update?' website.