There's been plenty of speculation surrounding Windows Phone 7's first major update and just when it'll arrive, but today Microsoft finally gave us the official release date as well as a few other goodies. Microsoft announced that the first major WP7 update, which will include copy/paste, increased app performance, and other improvements, will be rolled out in the first two weeks of March. Microsoft also reiterated the fact that CDMA WP7 handsets would be coming to Verizon and Sprint in the first half of 2011, although they wouldn't give up any more precise launch info. Moving on to the second half of the year, WP7 owners will be given Twitter integration with the People Hub, cloud sharing and storage for Office documents, a new version of Internet Explorer, and "additional multi-tasking capabilities."

While we still don't know exactly how well WP7 has been doing up until now, 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty awesome year for Microsoft's mobile OS. They've already announced a partnership with Nokia, there's a big update coming in the next month, and Verizon and Sprint will begin offering WP7 phones by summer. I'm sure plenty of owners are disappointed by the fact that they'll have to wait until the second half of 2011 to get more multitasking options, but at least copy/paste will be here in no time, right?