Windows Phone to get 500 new features

Speaking at the Microsoft developer conference in Japan, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system will receive over 500 new features with the Mango update.

He also announced that a slew of new Windows Phone OEMs and carriers will be revealed at the May 24 'Windows Phone' event

The Mango update is slated to bring full multi-tasking capabilities to the Windows Phone operating system with a card-like UI, similar to the one seen on HP's webOS.  Extended Microsoft Office support will also be added including Office 365, SharePoint and Sky drive to woo corporate customers. Enhanced Xbox live integration is expected with support for Kinect too.

Previously, rumor mills were buzzing with the impeding announcement of new Windows Phone hardware. We are yet to see a dual core powered Windows Phone device and reportedly Microsoft was planning on adopting the ST Ericsson dual-core processor for the Nokia Windows Phone devices. To date, we have only seen QUALCOMM Snapdragon processor powered Windows Phone devices.

So what exactly are the 500 new features Steve Ballmer was talking about?  Watch this space for updates.