Why No Upgrades?

[Jerry Raia]

It seems at this point that none of the Smartphone manufacturers are going to be offering upgrades to WM 5.0. I have a few ideas about why. The obvious one of course is that they want you to buy a new phone. Beyond that, there is another thing at work here. There are too many players between you and Microsoft. You have the manufacturer AND then you have the carrier. Who takes the blame when the upgrade goes south? Who supports the upgrade process? Who provides it to begin with? Those of you (myself included) who had the i600 and upgraded it to 2003 know what a mess this can be. Granted it was maybe the first Smartphone upgrade done but what a logistical nightmare. First, you had to get an older version of ActiveSync, uninstall the current one, install the old one and then install the installer. If you got that far you had a 50/50 chance of just having the OS update and not the phone side. Then you had phones that turned into paperweights. If that happened who did you call first? Verizon? Samsung? If you called Verizon it was a miracle to get hold of a human who even knew what the i600 was. While upgrading a Pocket PC can go south too it is not the same as when a phone upgrade goes wrong. You can live without a Pocket PC for a bit (ducks) but when your phone does not work it is another matter altogether. The panic calls to the carrier would be apocalyptic! Personally, I enjoy watching such chaos but living it is another matter. Bottom line in my opinion? They are AFRAID to offer the upgrade. What do you think?

[fulltilt]

I just noticed that O2 are marketing the XphoneIIm that mirrors the SDA music. At least it has WMP10.
I'm languishing on WMP9 with my XphoneII. It's frustrating to say the least without a clear communication on upgrade strategy. You almost have to assume what you get out of the box is basically it..... :?

[Santa Fe]

I think they would run a great and expensive risk to offer the update. I'll just wait this one out if it is offered (which I doubt).

[Mike Temporale]

I think it's just short sightedness on the manufacturers/carriers. They have an opportunity to spend a little time and effort on building and deploying an upgrade, but the customer satisfaction would be huge. All they see is Expense, Time, Hassle, and loss of new handset sale. :(

[Sven Johannsen]

I think it's just short sightedness on the manufacturers/carriers. They have an opportunity to spend a little time and effort on building and deploying an upgrade, but the customer satisfaction would be huge. All they see is Expense, Time, Hassle, and loss of new handset sale. :(

Of course you know they aren't making money off the handsets. It's the service. Insted of the question over on the PPC side, How much would you pay for an upgrade? How long a service commitment would you go for for an upgrade over here?

Would you sign up for (extend) another year for an OS upgrade? That would be cheaper for the carrier than subsidizing a new phone for you.

[Slacker]

I think it sucks. I spend the same for a PocketPC device as for a new computer. I can get new OS upgrades for my computer, why not my PPC device? Same for the Smartphones. When I buy them they are bleeding edge and typically cost $300-$400 each. I can go to Dell and buy a new computer for that price, and the dell is upgradeable. Why not my phone which runs a subset (basically) of the same OS?

They want my money is the reason some give. Fine. CHARGE ME FOR THE UPDATE!

[cinimod1000]

Here we go again....
First I buy a MPx200, then SEVERAL MPx220's, then a SMT5600. Sold all and bought another NON BRANDED MPx200, this spring, with WM2k2 loaded. This phone, as we all know, has never seen an official upgrade to wm2k3, let-alone WM2k5. My phone is (as was my first) an UNBRANDED model. That makes it Motorola's responsibility to provide an upgrade - no carrier involved!!!! Seems pretty cut and dry to me. I'll even pay for it....
I have even e-mailed one VP at Motorola several times, and as of this date, have yet to receive the courtesy of a reply.......
So, I will be VERY surprised if anyone sees an upgrade.

[Kris Kumar]

I think lot of it is to do with the appliance approach.

I believe the official story is that the firmware is upgradeable for bug fixes. But when it comes to new release of the OS, since it offers a new set of features, it is seen as a new appliance.

Soon we will have toaster, fridge, microwave etc with a decent upgradeable OS/software on them. Wonder if the manufacturers will offer upgrades for those?

I like Sven's idea a lot. Carriers should offer upgrades with a one year service contract or something similar. :-)

[SnozBerries]

I like Sven's idea a lot. Carriers should offer upgrades with a one year service contract or something similar. :-)

<playing devils advocate>
If they did that, and budgeted their support costs based on the one year contract, all it would take is one person (possibly a disgruntled employee) to release the upgrade tools and OS images to the internet. Doing so would hurt the carriers as they won’t see any money from the upgrades, but will need to support the phones.

Since the phone flashing of this proposed idea would likely occur at the various retail stores, the chance of this happening is amplified as opposed to having customers send the phone into a central location where a select number of employees would perform the upgrade in a controlled environment.

[SassKwatch]

I think I really don't care any longer. It will be a L-O-N-G time before I consider purchasing another Windows Mobile equipped device.

I'm jst totally fed up with the neverending hassles. But it all starts with the disaster known as ActiveStink. If Billy G thinks the 'problems' with the WM platform are that devices haven't caught up with the s/w (as alluded to in aonther article here), then he is just TOTALLY clueless.

[Jason Dunn]

It's unfortunate, and frustrating, but it does seem that the carriers are taking the approach that the phones are appliances and not computers. That might be fine if the phones were free or $99, but when you're paying $300+ for the phone, it's brutal that there's no upgrade. :evil:

[Mr.Phil]

I think slacker is onto something here. If you want an upgrade, you should be able to pay for it, similar to your PC O/S upgrades. The integrating/testing/bug fixing cycle for a phone that realistically speaking has a very limited lifetime ( how often do people replace their phones? I remember reading it averages 6 months in Asia ) costs time and money that can be spent building the next generation of phone with Hard drives/EDGE/UMTS/wifi/other hardware goodies that you don't have now.

There are a few market forces at work here which make things complex. Firstly, the carriers wish to put their own branding/applications/ lockdowns onto the phones they sell. They will not allow the manufacturers to issue updates for phones that would essentially replace or work around their customizations. In addition it costs more money/time for the carrier to approve the new firmware on their network/updating support personnel etc. Next is licensing issues. Don't know here, but I suspect MS doesn't give the upgrades to manufacturers for free.