Microsoft's Windows Phone 'mango' update to miss 2011 target? (updated)

Paul Thurrott has been a trusted insider on all things Microsoft for as long as we can remember. As such, it's worth paying attention to a recent article he published on Windows IT Pro that calls for Microsoft's first "NoDo" Windows Phone 7 feature update to hit as early as this week. Of course, Steve Ballmer said it was coming in "early March" so that's not much of a prediction. What really caught our attention are Paul's comments about "Mango" -- the big WP7 feature update that Microsoft says will bring multitasking, IE9, and Twitter integration to Windows Phone handsets later in 2011. According to Thurott's sources, Mango won't be finalized until the end of the year making a release to consumers in 2011 a "near impossibility." Ouch. How this might affect Nokia's Windows Phone 2011 launch plans hopes -- rumored to be waiting for Mango -- remains to be seen.

Update: Mary Jo Foley, who's got a few Microsofties in her own back pocket, says that she's hearing that Microsoft recently promised OEMs and carriers Mango by "early fall at the latest" -- just in time for a holiday consumer launch. It's real life he-said she-said rumor flagellation folks!