We are live at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 event, learning about thenew featuresthat the Redmond-based company has baked into the next iteration of its Windows Phone 7 software, codenamed Mango.

Not only has Microsoft embedded over 500 new features but it has also announced partnerships with three new manufacturers which will launch devices later this year. Vendors adding to a prestigious list including Samsung, Dell, HTC and LG are new OEMs Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

The three vendors will deliver devices to help consumers interact with the 17,000 apps currently available on Windows Phone Marketplace aadding to Microsoft’s recently announced partnership with Nokia. When these devices launch, the software will support additional languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish.

Acer joins the list having initially been announced as one of Microsoft’s launch partners when the operating system was first announced. ZTE, traditionally associated with Android devices obviously believes there is a future in working with Microsoft’s updated software and ecosystem. Fujitsu is relatively unknown as a phone manufacturer, although we do assume that its devices could feature some pretty powerful image sensors to produce high-quality photo and video.

Our Microsoft coverage has just started, stay tuned on ourMicrosoft channelfor all the latest updates.

Story byMatt Brian

Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him on Twitter, subscribe to his updates on Facebook and catch up with him(show all)Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him onTwitter, subscribe to his updates onFacebookand catch up with him onGoogle+.

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