When Windows Mobile 5.0 was announced, we all turned to the device manufacturers to see which devices would be upgradeable and which would not. A lot of people have been unhappy since then. Now, a post on the Windows Mobile Team Blog provides some background as to why some devices will not be upgradeable (either by choice from the manufacturer and/or because of physical limitations). Essentially, it comes down to a simple formula that looks at the total cost of developing the upgrade and how many people can be expected to upgrade. I guess there’s a fine line between “economics” and “greed” but that line does exist.
With Windows Mobile 5.0, Microsoft aimed to build an infrastructure that will allow updates to be delivered in a fashion similar to what happens with Windows Update. I guess we will know how successful this plan is when Microsoft releases the next version of Windows Mobile.