Microsoft announced some business features of the upcoming “Mango” update to Windows Phone, widely expected to be called Windows Phone 7.5.  There’s nothing terribly exciting here, but the new features will be welcome additions to Microsoft’s smartphone OS.

Email Conversations: Essentially a new threaded view, this will allow you to view email back-and-forths in a grouped thread rather than scattered throughout your inbox according to time sent/received. 

Pinnable Email Folders: If you’re working on a project and want to keep email messages regarding these tasks in one easy-to-find location, you can place email folders on the on the Home Screen for quick access.

Server Search: If you search for an email on the phone, the search will go beyond locally stored messages and include those stored on the server.

Office 365: Mango will bring integration with Microsoft’s Office 365 service (currently in beta).  The ability to save and share Office documents through the service will be added along with, we assume, more direct access to the service from the handset.

Lync Mobile: Bringing Lync-based communication, this app will allow collaboration and other activities via the Microsoft Lync service.

Other features like complex passwords, protection of email and documents, HTML5, multitasking and native Twitter support are also expected.  Microsoft hopes to release this update by the end of the year.

Further Reading:

Productivity Takes a Big Step Forward in Mango

Microsoft Announces New Business Features in Windows Phone 7.5