Why Can't I Upgrade My Device?

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/10/06/477999.aspx' target='_blank'>http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/10/06/477999.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I know that it's frustrating to want to upgrade and hear me say, "But no one upgrades." Obviously you want to upgrade. You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. And, I'll bet you know a bunch of people who want to upgrade as well. Please understand, the companies involved do not say, "Hey, let's not bother to upgrade the device. We won't piss off too many people." Everyone wants to upgrade your devices. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that we know that providing upgrades makes customers happy. And, yes, we all like happy customers."</i><br /><br />Mike Calligaro brings up a number of really good points to explain why we don't tend to see much in the way of upgrades being released for Windows Mobile devices. While I agree with his points, it doesn't make me feel any better about the situation. What are your thoughts on this?

[Kris Kumar]

I think this statement says it all...

The Mobile Operator needs to make a conscious decision to test an upgrade that few people will use instead of testing a sexy new phone that potentially many more will buy.

[Lorenzo]

I personally think that as long as the market operators will keep being anally retentive they will obtain the exact same effect that the showbiz majors are producing on the world of music, movies, games: People will feel encouraged to steal.

While pirating copyrighted stuff may be deemed as ethically questionable the sorry thruth is that this is not going to produce any undesirable side effect on the majors. They'll keep on making big money and eventually even benefit from the development of a "black market" which will help pushing their products on the face of people even more.

So we can cry all our tears because our "old" WM phone is not receiving an upgrade but, we will sooner or later make our minds up and buy a new gizmo sporting the latest WM flavor. If we don't want to do so we'll eventually succeed in pumping the new software on our device but, while this will make us happy for a time, it will make us even more eager to lay our greedy hands on that brand new model which runs WM 101.3 natively, has got BT, WiFi ice dispenser and does your errands for you.

So why bother in the first place? Carriers and hardware/software producers know that you want a new phone and that even if you now refuse this truth you will accept it sooner or later; then why in the world should they help you refraining from shelling your hard earned money on their hands as often as possible?

That said there's nothing new here. The romans knew better and that's why two thousands years ago they gave their citizens "panem et circenses"... :cry:

[Jerry Raia]

I've always thought the carriers were the biggest obstacle to upgrades and I still do. In my case I want to be able to upgrade and I will still buy the new device. I think one of the reasons people don't upgrade is they don't know there is an upgrade available! If they don't come to a site like this where would they find out? I've never gotten a notice from my carrier that an OS upgrade is available.

[Sven Johannsen]

I think one of the reasons people don't upgrade is they don't know there is an upgrade available.

I think that is the case throughout the tech industry. How many consumers go to ATI or NVidia's site to see if there are new drivers for their video card, unless something doesn't work? Many MP3 players can be flashed. How many general consumers have even gone to their MP3 OEMs web page?

I think the vast majority of owners use things the way they came out of the box. I think there is a surprising number of folks that even use their PCs that way, with possibly the addition of one or two software titles (but lots of games).

Even if they somehow find out about an upgrade, how many take the trouble to load it, if they don't see anything broken. MS even has to push Security updates, because folks won't do them on their own. It'll be neat when mobile platforms get something similar. Their are some ISVs for PPC playing with that now, for their apps. Sync and get a notice of an update and offer to install.

I certainly don't expect this sort of thing to happen for the OS, but would love to see it for Pocket MP 10 to Pocket MP 12 (or whatever) just like it happens on the desktop.