WM 2005 upgrades

[stevelam]

I was just wondering what people thought.

[stevelam]

In the poll I meant RX NOT RS

[axe]

I think that based on their recent track record, I would be shocked if they released ROM updates unless they really had their arms twisted by business. When I upgraded from my cpq3630 (which I happily paid and had upgraded to ppc2002) to my next device, I intentionally chose the higher model 2215 rather than the 19xx series knowing that the 2215 was aimed more as a 'workhorse' machine rather than it's cheaper counterpart. The 41xx series had been released as well, but I felt I needed the CF slot and its wider range of devices more than wireless at the time (no regrets so far). Dell's cheaper prices didn't figure into my decision.
HPs upgradability was also key in my decision. I figured the lower end machine would get by-passed based on its pricepoint. Well I was right on one account :roll: .
When WM2003SE was released I expected HP to follow Compaq's previous amazing service level and provide an upgrade. Not only was it not available, but even the 41xx series was orphanned as well! Even the WiMP upgrade is not available from HP lately.
I have gone from being a loyal customer of CPQ/HP with regards to mobile devices (my wife has had a 3650 and now has a 2215 as well, I influenced my co-worker to go with the HP2215 at the time as well) to buying a Dell for another family member just a couple months ago. HP wasn't even in the running. I suspect the Dell machines will be in my upgrade future, rather than HP. While Dell doesn't guarantee the upgrade, I figure if I need to upgrade within a short timeframe, I might as well have saved the money buying the equally equiped Dell.

my 2cents
AXE

[peterg]

It has been my suspicion that the device manufacturers are primarily concerned with the number of shipping units as opposed to supporting legacy devices. I believe that the financial model, in order to offer the price points today, is to ship quantities of physical units.

If this is the case then companies such as HP and especially DELL would be hesitant to provide upgrades for which there is not longer any revenue stream.

[delfuhd]

maybe for the 4700 because that has VGA, but not for any other ppc's, and that reason will be because "the aspects brought to the table in WM2005 are not used to their full potential in those devices" or some crap like that.

i say they'd better give me an update for my 2200 though, i dont give a hoot that it doesnt have VGA.

[jimski]

OS Upgrades are nice but not essential. There are still lots of people using Win 98 out there. And by contrast, there are people with Pentium I machines (and 128MB RAM) trying to run Win XP Professional and wondering what's wrong.

The upgrade is really only the beginning. I think what really scares manufacturers is the support that follows. If they could charge $35 per call, like Microsoft does, I think you would see more willingness to create upgrades.

I presume that when I purchase a device it has been optimized to work with the existing OS and while an upgrade would be nice, I would not expect my current device to be optimized, and might even become buggy, running a new OS.

Now ROM fixes are another story and I think HP has been VERY slow in getting those out. I very well may be purchasing a next generation PPC before HP releases a ROM fix for my 4705. Now that's sad.

[stevelam]

I am quite shocked to see that there is not a huge differance between people that do think it will come out and those that dont.