It might not be just the Japanese who get to use Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed Mango, next month, as an international rollout is now being rumoured.

Pocket-lint reckons "multiple trusted sources" have told it that on 1 September, Microsoft will start rolling out the new version of its mobile OS to existing, as well as new, customers.

That version, known as Mango, has only been officially announced as powering a new handset from Toshiba-Fujitsu for the Japanese market, scheduled to launch in September. Manufacturers received the final version of Mango last month, for integrating into their products, so a 1 September launch would seem timely.

But it wouldn't let Nokia steal the march on the competition by having the first Mango handsets on US shelves, as many imagined Microsoft would allow. Nokia isn't expected to launch its first Windows Phone handset(s) until October, in plenty of time for Christmas, but if everyone else gets to download Mango first then Nokia will be entirely reliant on its new hardware to wow the market.

So either Nokia is going to rush handsets into shops in the next few weeks, or it will be forced to compete with competitors' handsets already running Mango... or Pocket-lint has got it wrong. ®

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