While Microsoft’s update to add copy and paste text to Windows Phone 7 may just be the beginning of MS effects to address the OS’s weak points. Microsoft should have the text editing update in January that might go live at CES. But the real show may be at the Mobile World Congress in February and would dramatically expand the features of the OS. The update will open up programming interfaces for some multitasking, add in-app downloads and allow more user customization.
The release is purportedly in limited beta testing, with fragments but not the whole update sent to some outside testers per inside sources.
Longer-term updates should also help close some of the remaining gaps for the OS when compared to Apple and Google’s mobile platforms.
A more official update should come for for Silverlight, which forms the foundation of the interface and much of the app support in WP7. Visual Studio Senior Technical Evangelist Brian Keller in a recent Channel 9 video dropped strong hints that Microsoft was “saving” WP7 Silverlight updates for MWC, further supporting beliefs that a major update was in store.
