Fujitsu is planning to offer the first device powered by the Mango release of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, with availability from late August 2011, reports originating from Japanese business publication Nikkei said. Apparently, the device will be for Japanese CDMA operator KDDI, which will sell it as the IS12T. A Mango terminal from Fujitsu was showcased recently at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, alongside new smartphones from Samsung, Acer and ZTE, all of which ran pre-production versions of Mango. The Japanese device had a bright pink case and was described as waterproof.

Microsoft named Fujitsu as a Windows Phone partner in May 2011, at the same time it took the wraps off Mango. The platform update is said to deliver “more than 500” new features, including the addition of Japanese language support. Previous reports suggested that devices powered by Mango would reach the market in the fourth quarter of 2011, the same timeframe in which Nokia is expected to launch its first Windows Phone product. Fujitsu has something of a track record with leading with the introduction of new smartphone technologies: despite the close links between Nokia and Symbian OS, it was Fujitsu that was the first vendor to offer a 3G device supporting this smartphone platform, debuting the F2051 for NTT Docomo late in 2002. This was also the first Symbian OS device for Japan, where the platform achieved significant market share for a number of years, with support from a number of vendors.