Mango traveling abroad, learning 17 new languages and adding 20 new keyboards

  

We keep saying it and we'll continue to repeat it: Windows Phone Mango is so much more than just the consumer-end features. There's thousands of new APIs being added for developers to tinker with, completely new app submission types, and now we're learning of Mango's ambitions to expand Windows Phone's global footprint. In a new post on the Windows Phone Blog John McConnell, the Principal Program Manager of Windows Phone Engineering, detailed a lot of new add-ins that should make the globally-adventurous Windows Phone user a lot happier. Here are the hard numbers for you to swallow:

• 17 new display languages (which Zune will also receive) - Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish.
• 4 new East Asian fonts - Simplified Chinese (DengXian), Traditional Chinese (Microsoft MHei), Japanese (Yu Gothic), Korean (Microsoft NeoGothic).
• 20 new keyboard languages - Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
• 35 total Marketplace countries - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States
• Expanded support for Xbox Live and Zune Marketplace (no specifics yet)

There are a couple of disclaimers that go along with all of this language goodness, such as not every phone will have every single language pack installed due to carrier support limitations and device storage limitations. After all of the lists, McConnell went on to clear up any confusion regarding international support for Bing services:

• Bing search (accessed from the phone’s hardware Search button) is available in 33 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States. (Elsewhere, handset and mobile operators can configure the hardware search button to a locally-relevant search site).
• Local search results show up in 6 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Maps is supported in 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Voice-to-text and Voice-to-dial is available in 6 countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and the Unites States.
• Voice search is supported in 4 countries: France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Are there any foreign language Windows Phone fans out there excited to see expanded support coming to their country? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Source: Windows Phone Blog