Microsoft Japan prepares for Windows Phone Mango with new website

Inside the Mango update to the Windows Phone 7 platform is support for 17 new languages, one of which is Japanese.

In preparation for that upgrade, Microsoft Japan today launched a website to inform customers about Mango, and Windows Phone 7 in general. Other newly supported languages are: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish.

You can visit the site here, or simply imbibe the following screenshot:

Mango will also include a new keyboard option to support typing in Japanese. A total of 20 new keyboards will be coming in Mango, to help diversify the potential userbase of the phone line.

Mango is set to debut no later than September, with many indicators pointing to an August release. At this time, there is no known formal release date. However, Microsoft appears to be making good on its promise to release the update before the Holiday season.

Given that the company seems set on making Mango available as quickly as possible, it could be that their strategy is to allow as much time as possible to both sell phones that run Mango before and through the holiday season, and also to provide time for carriers to test and roll out the update before the new year.

For now, Microsoft Japan is gearing up for the next several months. Microsoft depends on the global availability of Windows Phone 7 devices to bolster sales, a strategy that has yet to see real fruit. If Mango can turn that around is a question that will be answered by the end of 2011.

Update: According to friend of TNWmicrosoft, Tom Warren, this website is not quite as new as thought. As it turns out, it was released on VIP Mango day. The rest of the post is, of course, correct.