WindowsITPro‘s Paul Thurrott is the latest to wade into the Windows Phone 8 upgrade discussion. His position is much the same as ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley, his sources tell him that Microsoft will not offer Windows Phone 8 upgrades to existing devices.
Allow me to set the record straight. No. It won’t happen. Not for the Lumia 900, and not for any other existing phone. It won’t happen partially, through an update that will deliver just some features, and it won’t happen for those who wish to pay for such an update. It simply isn’t happening. Sorry.
His confirmation came via anonymous sources at Microsoft after his attempts to get a statement from Windows Phone’s PR team got him no further than a “No comment.”
Thurrott gives a number of reasons why the upgrade will not occur. Among these are the low number of Windows Phone devices sold and the cost of supporting legacy hardware, a terrible experience as Windows Phone 8 is expected to have higher system requirements, and lack of support from manufacturers and carriers who want to sell new devices rather than support old ones.
I suspect that these reasons will not hold much water with its current users. While they may not be as numerous as Android and iOS users, there are still several million of them out there. A lot of them will be very disappointed (and likely very vocal about it) if they cannot upgrade. And with Microsoft having just made Windows Phone accessible to lower-end devices with its Tango release, would it really then turn around and once again shut those devices out?
The question of Windows Phone 8 upgrades is not going to go away. With new devices such as the Nokia Lumia 900 just hitting the market, more and more will wonder about this before and after purchasing their devices. A Microsoft confirmation one way or another now blunt the future backlash and even perhaps convince more to pick up a device now knowing that the upgrade path is clear.
Read more: WindowsITPro