Microsoft's top Windows Phone exec today denied rumors that the next version of the mobile operating system will debut on September 1.
"#mango Sept 1? Just a rumor," tweeted Joe Belfiore, head of the Windows Phone 7 product team.
Reports about the September 1 release date got started when the Pocket-lint blog reported the date on Thursday.
"Microsoft will roll out its latest phone operating system, currently codenamed Mango, to Windows Phone 7 users starting on 1 September, Pocket-lint has exclusively learnt," the blog wrote. "Therefore, that will be the date that the company will start its fightback against Android and the iPhone."
Pocket-lint cited "multiple trusted sources," and said September 1 was selected because it coincides with the IFA trade show in Berlin.
Did no one tell Belfiore about this, or are those trusted sources not as in-the-know as they'd like to think? PCMag will be at IFA, so stay tuned for any Mango-related news.
Until now, Microsoft has just said that Mango, the first major overhaul for the Windows Phone platform, will be available in the fall. In a Wednesday blog post, Eric Hautala, general manager for Microsoft's customer experience engineering, said the team is in "heads down [mode] right now, putting all our energy into preparing for this major update."
As a result, Hautala said he won't be actively posting to the blog "until that work is done." His next post, he said, will be "to let you know Mango is making its way to your phone," though he didn't provide any details on when that might happen.
In late July, Mango was released to manufacturing and Microsoft also provided developers with an updated version of its beta Mango software development kit.
The first Windows Phone running Mango, meanwhile, was unveiled last month, but the Fujitsu IS12T will only be available in Japan.
For more, see PCMag's preview of Mango and the slideshow below.