No early Mango software update for developers, but rather new phones

A new set of developer devices, like the HTC Mazaa, are coming for Mango.

Based on tweets from the Windows Phone 7 developer team we had expected developers to get early ROM updates for their phones to enable them to test their apps on real devices (and frankly so we could have a play also).

It appears now however this will not be the case.  On their App Hub the Windows Phone Developer team now updated this statement, saying they will in fact be delivering new developer devices instead, like the Samsung Taylor last year.

They write:

To update Joe’s tweet: We’re working on a plan. Just like last year, when we made developer phones available with the Windows Phone 7 OS, we plan to have developer phones this summer supporting new Mango features like the gyroscope. We don’t have any dates to share just yet, so stay tuned.

This approach has it advantages, like developers having hardware with the updated processors and new sensors.  The disadvantages however are pretty severe – either developers will have to pay for new hardware (likely several hundred dollars) or the distribution of the free handsets would be very limited. These special developer phones have also not received any recent updates, making them increasingly useless.

Giving developers early access to ROM updates would allow the widest distribution at the lowest cost, but of course will inevitably leak and may cause similar troubles as other Windows Phone hacks for users.

What do our readers think of this approach? Let us know below.

Thanks NotebookGrail for the tip.