Windows Phone 7 Mango update to include Internet Explorer 9 Mobile

Back in December, we learned that the second update to Windows Phone 7 -- codenamed Mango -- would be adding HTML5 and Silverlight support. Mary Jo Foley's sources have now confirmed to her that Mango's improved HTML5 support will be due to the arrival of Internet Explorer 9 Mobile (or IE mobile 9 or mobile IE9, whatever Microsoft ultimately labels the browser). Silverlight, on the other hand, looks like it's been canned. Microsoft continues to push Silverlight as a development tool for WP7, but it looks like it will continue to downplay its role as a cross-platform runtime.

No date has been announced for the Mango update, but perhaps Microsoft will shed some light on the subject at Mobile Web Congress next week.

Tags: apps, browser, browsers, html5, ie9, internet explorer, internet explorer 9, InternetExplorer, InternetExplorer9, microsoft, mobile, silverlight, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, wp7