What about 'us' WM2003SE device owners?

[dbob]

Am I the only smartphone (wm2003se) owner with 10 - 12 months left on
his/her contract with his/her carrier? Seems to me that there must 10s of thousands of us out there.

Are we being abandoned?
How about an upgrade for our existing phones to wm5?

Three requests for when the answer is no to an upgrade:

1. Editors, bloggers, users - please encourage developers to continue supporting our old programs and include us in 'some' of their new programs.

2. Users - make sure that we press our carriers to continue to offer our programs when our contract periods end. Some of us may not need or want to change to wm5 phones.

3. Editors, bloggers -please 'find something' to write about our wm2003se phones.

Yes, my self interests are evident.
How about yours? :!:

[Mike Temporale]

Are we being abandoned?
How about an upgrade for our existing phones to wm5?

I would love to upgrade my old 5600. Unfortunately, the carriers/manufacturers don't see this as feasable - for whatever reason. It's very frustrating and it's something that I along with numerous other MVPs continualy tell Microsoft. Something needs to change in the process - I just wish it was an easy thing to change. :(

1. Editors, bloggers, users - please encourage developers to continue supporting our old programs and include us in 'some' of their new programs.

It's certianly something to look for. It really depends on how the developer created the application. Depending on the tool they select it dictates the OS's they can target.

2. Users - make sure that we press our carriers to continue to offer our programs when our contract periods end. Some of us may not need or want to change to wm5 phones.

Well, you're phone should continue to function without issues. There's not much the carrier can do about the amount of programs being developed for your OS though. ;)

3. Editors, bloggers -please 'find something' to write about our wm2003se phones.

I hear ya. It's hard at times when a lot of the news is about Windows Mobile 5. I'm certianly not turning away any news because it's only related to 2003. :)

[Rocco Augusto]

2. Users - make sure that we press our carriers to continue to offer our programs when our contract periods end. Some of us may not need or want to change to wm5 phones.

once your contract is up you will still be supported through your carrier, at least service/coverage wise. you will basically be a "free agent", you will be able to port your number over to a different carrier if you want or resign a new contract with your provider or cancel your account all together. if you resign a new contract you should be able to receive a new handset at the new activation price. you'll also be able to receive any mail-in rebates associated with that phone and jump on to any promotional plans that your carrier might be offering.

some companies will even do things for you like throw in bonus minutes or free feature add-ons like 200 text messages or something.

also just because you have 10-12 months left on your contract doesn't mean you wont be eligable for an upgrade. Cingular offers what they call a VIP program. Verizon might have something similar.

-opti-