Steve Ballmer kicked off the Imagine Cup 2011 with his keynote, praising the excellent work done by all the contestants and for showing everyone what they could do with Windows Phone.
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| Excellent Work contestants |
Things got interesting (matter of opinion) when Ballmer started talking about the Mango devices and Nokia and hinted at Mango devices being available by Christmas.
"Windows Phone. You know, a year ago we didn't have a phone in the market. Now, we're charging forward with Nokia. We have the second generation of our phones coming out this Christmas, and people are starting to do things they had never imagined before. I love the applications that I saw for the Windows Phone from the people in this room, and the way you're pushing that device, and using that device. It was really exciting for me."
Was Ballmer hinting at a delay in the Mango release date? No. The hardware release cycle has always been much more flexible and is not directly connected to the software release date. Also the 1st generation of devices have been reported to be running Mango smoothly without any problems, so Microsoft don't need to rush OEMs to pump out half-baked 2nd generation devices.
Rumors have been hinting at new devices (HTC Nokia Samsung) coming soon with Mango running. The timing was not known but this sort of conforms it.
