MICROSOFT'S SMARTPHONE SHARE DOWN 35% AFTER WINDOWS PHONE 7 RELEASE

ComScore issued its May report on mobile subscriber market share in the U.S. last week, as usual, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS grew more popular in the month, mostly at RIM’s expense. Perhaps equally as troubling as RIM’s continued slide, however, is Microsoft’s position with Windows Phone. As noted by Winrumors, Microsoft’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has dropped a whopping 35% since it released its next-generation smartphone platform in November of last year. At that time, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile accounted for an estimated 9% of smartphones sold in the U.S. In May, Microsoft’s combined share was just 5.8%.

The lack of carrier attention has left the OS as something of an afterthought thus far. With Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” devices due later this year and Nokia set to launch its first Windows Phone before 2012, Microsoft is well-positioned globally. Here in the U.S. however, the Redmond-based tech giant needs far more carrier support if it hopes to make a dent in an already crowded smartphone market.

MICROSOFT SHUTS DOWN ZUNE ORIGINALS

Hard to believe that Microsoft's been offering consumers the ability to customize their Zune purchases for the better part of four years now. Without any advanced notice Microsoft has apparently decided to shutter the Zune Originals storefront. As of this weekend, no new orders for highly personalized Zunes are being taken.

So, you're looking at two tidbits of import: if you placed your Originals order at 5PM PT on July 1st, you likely have quite the coveted device headed your way, and more importantly this is further evidence Microsoft is making WP7 into the Zune.

LEAK: NOKIA'S FIRST WINDOWS PHONE PHONE

A video just surfaced showing Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, foolishly asking a crowd of people to "put away their cameras" for the unveiling of something "super confidential," codenamed "Sea Ray." Naturally, a few people ignored the plea for "no pictures please" and, indeed, leaked the new device out to the blogosphere.

What is it? Why, it's Nokia's first Windows Phone. While it looks nearly identical to the just announced N9, the different LED placement on the back (in line with the same 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens) confirms it's a new device as does the additional hardware button (for shutter release, we presume) along the side. And the fact that it's running Windows Phone 7 Mango seals the deal.

MICROSOFT GETS ANTI-TRUST APPROVAL TO SWALLOW SKYPE

Microsoft just crossed another hurdle in its bid to swallow Skype whole. Earlier today, US antitrust approval was given on Microsoft's largest (proposed) acquisition, clearing the path for all sorts of Windows / Xbox / WP7-related VoIP shenanigans. While many are still questioning the logic here, Skype continually brought around 145 million users to the table per month even while it constantly bled money. Whatever the case, it looks as if the accountants in Redmond just got FTC permission to move $8.5b from one column to the next, and with an initial investment like that, we're hoping for a number of updated features as the attack plan unfolds.

MICROSOFT RELEASES ANDROID PORTING PACKAGE FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7 DEVS

Microsoft's App Guy has quite a job on his baby-soft hands: to boost Windows Phone 7's numerically-challenged Marketplace by encouraging developers to port apps across from other platforms. The little fellow helped iPhone devs out a couple of months ago with an API mapping tool to makes it easier to translate iPhone APIs to WP7 code. Now he's extended the mapping tool to work with Android APIs too, and backed it up with a 90-page white paper and a promise to get more involved in developer forums.

WINDOWS PHONE 7.1, 'MANGO', COMING THIS FALL

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its forthcoming major update to its Windows Phone platform — Windows Phone 7.1 “Mango.” We gave you live coverage of the event as well a hands-on look at the update, and now that the dust has cleared we can finally sit down and collect ourselves. In short, Mango looks awesome. We’ve seen plenty of promise in the Windows Phone platform right from the start, but we also thought Microsoft rushed the OS to market — understandably — and a lot of key features and functionality were missing as a result. Mango goes a very, very long way in bringing the emerging platform up to date, and Microsoft has named HTC, LG, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu Limited, ZTE Corporation and of course Nokia as partners moving forward. Windows Phone 7.1 will be the launch platform for upcoming Windows Phones from Nokia, by the way, and Microsoft confirmed that Nokia has already built devices running Windows Phone 7.1 that are currently being tested in its labs. Mango will add more robust multitasking support, messaging threads, deeper social integration, a unified email inbox, voice-to-text and text-to-voice support, and about 500 other enhancements to the Windows Phone platform when it launches this fall.

BALLMER SAYS OVER 500 NEW FEATURES IN WP7 'MANGO' UPDATE

Steve Ballmer revealed the Windows Phone 7 'Mango' update will have "over 500 new features" in a speech over in Japan today, where he also said that additional information about "who's going to be building Windows Phones" will be forthcoming at tomorrow's preview event as well. Combine that with an otherwise unsubstantiated rumor about Microsoft showing nine new Windows Phone handsets tomorrow, and it does seem like there'll be fresh hardware to go with the ripening software.

Neither the Mango release nor any devices on show will be coming to market any time soon, mind you, but it's nice to think we'll get to see what the future of Windows Phone will look like in physical as well as digital form.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATE TO BRING OFFICE 365, FACEBOOK CHAT AND BETTER XBOX LIVE INTEGRATION

The Windows Phone Dev Podcast unearthed some seemingly legit Windows Phone 7 screenshots last week that revealed a few new features apparently headed to the mobile OS, and it's now back with another batch that show yet more additions said to be included with the so-called "Mango" update.

That includes support for Facebook Chat and Office 365 (plus SkyDrive and SharePoint), as well as a revamped Games hub that suggests even more Xbox Live integration (including a rather interesting new "Automatic Sync" option). What's more, the lock screen will apparently now show the album art if there is a song currently playing, and it seems there will be some new group messaging options as well.

Of course, all that's still unconfirmed by Microsoft.

MICROSOFT TO UNVEIL NEXT MAJOR RELEASE OF WINDOWS PHONE MAY 24TH

Microsoft has scheduled a Windows Phone event in New York City on May 24th, 2011, during which the company will “lift the curtain on the next major release of Windows Phone.” We know Mango will offer Internet Explorer 9 with an integrated Twitter experience, better multitasking, and new apps such as Angry Birds, Skype, and Spotify. We’ve also heard that Microsoft will add Bing Audio for identifying music, Bing Vision for scanning bar codes, and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation with Bing Maps, although none of these features have been confirmed by Microsoft just yet.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 SUFFERS SECOND OUTAGE IN A WEEK

Microsoft has confirmed that its Windows Phone 7 platform on Friday suffered its second major outage this week. Early on Friday, users began reporting that they could not access Xbox LIVE services from their Windows Phone 7 devices. BGR had independently confirmed the issue on two separate devices, and now Microsoft has acknowledged the outage via its official Windows Phone support team Twitter account. “It’s a new issue that users are unable to access Xbox LIVE features at this time,” a Microsoft official posted to the Twitter account. Earlier this week, Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace suffered an outage that prevented users from accessing the company’s mobile app store during a scheduled maintenance that was extended due to complications.

RUMOR: AT&T STARTING WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATES APRIL 19TH

According to a leaked memo posted up over at Winrumors, AT&T has just wrapped up its testing of the famed NoDo update, and if all goes well, it'll be pushed to end users on Tuesday. Owners of the LG Quantum and Samsung Focus will see it first, while HTC Surround owners will need to wait until mid-May.

CLOROX DITCHES BLACKBERRY FOR iPHONE AND OTHER SMARTPHONES

Citing a growing number of employees who weren’t happy with the IT team or their aging company-issued gear, Clorox’s CIO Ralph Loura decided to move away from BlackBerry smartphones. Instead, Loura provided company employees with a choice: an iPhone, a Windows Phone 7 device or an Android-powered smartphone.

“If you believe demographic studies, the workforce in their 20s and 30s isn’t going to accept black corporate PCs with black corporate mobile phones and not be allowed to run Facebook or Angry Bird apps,” Loura explained during a keynote at the SNW conference in Santa Clara, California on Thursday. So what phones did Clorox employees choose? Of the 2,000 new smartphones distributed throughout the firm so far, 92% were iPhones. 6% of employees chose an Android device while 2% took Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

SILVERLIGHT COMING TO XBOX; WP7 GAMES ON THE WAY

Silverlight started as just a humble Flash competitor and now, well, it's all grown up. Almost, anyway. It's a fundamental part of the Windows Phone 7 ecosphere and word on the street is that it's about to become a fundamental part of the Xbox 360 world as well -- or a part, at least. Microsoft's MIX 11 developer event kicks off next week and rumor has it that Microsoft will unload a new tier of Silverlight compatibility enabling apps on the company's console and there's the potential for writing apps that could run both on phones and on the console.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATES ROLLING OUT TO MOST CARRIERS...EXCEPT AT&T

Last week, Microsoft released its much anticipated “NoDo” patch for Windows Phone 7 handsets… the patch that finally brings copy and paste and a host of other improvements to the WP7 world.

The only problem with the NoDo update? The carriers.

While Microsoft began rolling the patch out over-the-air to unbranded smartphones in Europe late last week, things are much more complicated in America, where it’s up to carrier discretion whether or not to roll out a mobile operating system update.

This is actually common in the American mobile world, where most phones run operating systems that have been bought off the shelf. In this world, Apple, Research in Motion and (up until recently) Nokia were some of the few makers who were in charge of their own software destinies, and who would take responsibility for an update if it failed on a phone. When a handset is made by one person, and it’s operating system another, both companies can point their figures at each other if things go wrong… leaving the carriers ultimately holding the bag on failed patches.

That’s why, in America, carriers test patches before they roll them out. It’s also why updates for Android and Windows Phone 7 can get held back for so long:

MICROSOFT BEGINS 'NODO' COPY PASTE UPDATE FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed that its first major update for the Windows Phone 7 platform is now being rolled out to users. Internally referred to as “NoDo” — which is said to be short for “No Donuts,” mocking Google’s first Android update dubbed “Donut” — the update adds much sought after copy/paste functionality to Windows Phone 7 devices. It also adds support for “tombstoning,” improves Marketplace searches, fixes a variety of bugs and adds support for CDMA devices. “We’ve begun to gradually roll out the Copy & Paste update, starting small with open market phone customers in parts of Europe this week,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated in an email, adding, “More to come.”

Sprint’s HTC Arrive was the first device to feature NoDo when it launched this past Sunday with the update pre-installed. Microsoft has not yet detailed its plans for a U.S. rollout, so we are unsure when other U.S. carrier-branded devices will begin receiving NoDo. Users will receive notifications on their devices once the update becomes available, and they will need to connect to PCs in order to install it.

MICROSOFT PAYING NOKIA BIG MONEY IN WINDOWS PHONE 7 DEAL

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft Corp. will pay Nokia more than $1 billion to promote and develop Windows-based handsets as part of their smartphone software agreement, according to two people with knowledge of the terms.

Nokia will pay Microsoft a fee for each copy of Windows used in its phones, costs that will be offset as Nokia curtails its own budget for software research and development, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the final contract hasn’t yet been signed. The agreement runs for more than five years, the people said.

“This gives Microsoft scale and allows Nokia to rip out costs,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners in New York, who recommends buying Microsoft shares. “Microsoft is getting the platform boost that comes from acquiring a Nokia for about a billion dollars.”

DUELING WINDOWS PHONE 7 'MANGO' UPDATE RUMORS

Paul Thurrott, Microsoft guru, published an article in Windows IT Pro and stated that the Windows Phone 7 (WP7) update, dubbed 'Mango', that will bring multi-tasking, IE9 and Twitter integration into the WP7 OS, will be delayed until 2012. He writes Mango won't be finalized until the end of the year, making a 2011 release nearly impossible.

Mary Jo Foley, a Microsoft watcher/writer at ZDNet, says Microsoft is promising OEMs and carriers Mango by "early fall at the latest." This would put the update out just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Both writers are highly regarded on Microsoft, so it will be interesting to see who is right on this one.

BEEZZ - FIRST TWITTER APP FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7 WITH PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

Beezz, an emerging Twitter client for the Windows Phone 7 OS, will soon become the first Twitter app to support push notifications on Microsoft’s new mobile platform. In a major update, Beezz will add two highly anticipated new features: Live Tile support — the app’s home screen icon will display information that updates automatically in the background like a widget — and support for toast notifications, which are visual and audio alerts much like push notifications on Apple’s iPhone (only they’re not intrusive or disruptive). Both features will support Mentions and Direct Messages from users’ Twitter feeds. The current version of Beezz can be downloaded immediately from the Windows Marketplace. The updated version, which has been approved by Microsoft, will become available later today or early tomorrow. [BGR]

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATE COMING IN JANUARY; WILL BE 'MASSIVE'

Microsoft has been talking about Windows Phone 7 updates since long before Windows Phone 7 was even released. While the OS’ launch was a bit rushed, Microsoft is to be commended for taking a pretty open stance and choosing to talk about upcoming functionality instead of shrugging off inquiries as most companies do.

WP7 users should be happy to learn that many of the upcoming features Microsoft has been discussing could be coming as soon as January in a major update. According to Windows Phone 7 developer Chris Walsh, who claims to have inside knowledge of the update, Microsoft’s upcoming software bump will be “massive.” Expected features include copy/paste, free voice-guided Bing navigation, custom ringtone support, a third-party multitasking solution and more. Needless to say, all of this functionality is sorely missed in Windows Phone 7 as it stands today. [BGR]

MICROSOFT RESPONDS TO WINDOWS PHONE 7 JAILBREAK

Hot on the heels of the release of a utility for bypassing the Windows Marketplace and sideloading your own apps, Microsoft has released a brief statement on the state of the Windows Phone 7 hacking community.

"We anticipated that people would attempt to unlock the phones and explore the underlying operating system. We encourage people to use their Windows Phone as supplied by the manufacturer to ensure the best possible user experience. Attempting to unlock a device could void the warranty, disable phone functionality, interrupt access to Windows Phone 7 services or render the phone permanently unusable."

Of course they want to put the fear in people that may consider jailbreak their spanking new WP7 devices with cautions of bricking the phone. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft takes a hands off approach or plays a cat-and-mouse game with jailbreakers ala Apple. [WinRumors]