Microsoft has unveiled a version of the Windows Phone operating system, (code named Mango) that boasts of over 500 new features, for the Gulf region.

Speaking at the launch preview in Dubai that coincided with a series of media events around the world, Microsoft said the Mango release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall.

Mango will deliver more than 500 new features to push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet, the company added.

Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets.

“Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” said Gustavo Fuchs, director, Mobility, Microsoft Middle East & Africa.

“With ‘Mango’, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort,” he noted.

"The smartphone experience can be complicated by a sea of disconnected apps and accounts as people attempt to keep pace with all the ways they communicate – from calls, texts, email and IM to status updates, tweets, check-ins, photo posting and tagging," stated Fuchs.

"To help people stay on top of that growing complexity, the Mango release organizes information around the person or group people want to interact with, not the app they have to use," he added.-TradeArabia News Service