This news comes from Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Location and Commerce - Michael Halbherr. He also said that Apollo will be a "very different game" when compared to Mango. This makes us wonder if Apollo will be a major release Windows Phone 8 instead of an interim release as it was first rumored to be.
Apollo is rumored to bring support for dual-core processors, which iOS 5 and Android 4.0 already do. While Halbherr didnt make a reference to dual core support he also hinted that NFC (Near Field Communication) and better compatibility with Nokia's Navteq mapping platform were features which should be in the works for Windows Phone Apollo.
The Nokia Microsoft partnership may be the most important element in giving Windows Phone a fighting chance against the Android - iOS dominance. But with the head start that their competitors have, Microsoft has to work overtime to even play catch up let alone get passed their competitors.