6 ms·

"... will arrive on new phones later this year." New phones? So WP7 ones are not upgradable then... I think this is yet again bad news for Nokia, as it deepens

by Maakuth 14y ago

"... will arrive on new phones later this year." New phones? So WP7 ones are not upgradable then... I think this is yet again bad news for Nokia, as it deepens their situation of everyone knowing the devices they are selling are soon going to be obsolete.

cooldeal 14y ago
There is something called Windows Phone 7.8. http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-unveils-windows-phone-78-update-legacy-hardware http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-unveils-windows-phone-78-... I don't know what is with the comments on tech sites, but I just read this story on Slashdot and the summary was misleading and omitted Windows Phone 7.8 completely. There were a whole bunch of comments like yours and many were modded up. And not one comment pointing out the existence of version 7.8 was modded up. It's like the crowd wants Nokia to fail and wants to ignore the real news or something.
- jsnell 14y ago
  So at least that post makes 7.8 appear like nothing but a minor skin upgrade. Why is that interesting in any way? Any poor buyer of current Lumia phones is still never getting an upgrade that fills in all those gaping holes in the feature set.
  - jimbobimbo 14y ago
    How bringing features like NFC or multi-core support to current Lumias help anyone, if hardware pieces are missing?
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      Having 7.8 doesn't make them look any less dead-end phones. Would you buy a new Android phone that can't be upgraded to ICS? Would you buy a new iPhone that cannot be upgraded to iOS 6?
      - jimbobimbo 14y ago
        I bought Lumia 900 the day it was released and no, I don't feel it's a "dead-end phone". Given that Microsoft backports many of software features of WP8 to WP7.8 (which BTW was under big question in Lumia 900 launch time frame), I'm even less inclined to think so. Will I be getting WP8 device any time soon, just because it's there? I don't think so - I'm pretty happy with my phone.
        rbanffy 14y ago
        How many WP8 features will be eventually backported? Will there be a 7.9? 7.10? It's a current phone, much like my Macbook is a fairly current (as in "non-vintage") Lion-running Mac. Like my Macbook, it won't run the next major version. The difference is that my Macbook is 6 years old.
        barranger 14y ago
        Unfortunately I think your kidding yourself. Native applications will not be making it to the Lumia 900 and as such your going to start seeing more and more apps (and especially games), not be able to run on the phone.
        jimbobimbo 14y ago
        It's OK, I think I could survive that.
        barista 14y ago
        Isn't this true about applications/games with dependence on hardware capabilities also? How's this different?
        barranger 14y ago
        This is different in that it's nothing to do with hardware. A super simple contrived example would be if someone builds a calculator using c++, you can't install it even though there is no hardware reason that you couldn't
    - jsnell 14y ago
      Of course nobody expects that the existing phones will magically grow new hardware :-) But there are plenty of software-only features like native code applications, better multitasking, sensible VoIP support, or a more modern browser. Some of these are filling in really major gaps. Also if the current phones can't be upgraded, it seems virtually guaranteed that Nokia will continue to release new low end devices running WP7 for a long time. This means that those phones couldn't e.g. support NFC, and would be rather unappealing devices if NFC finally takes off.
      - jimbobimbo 14y ago
        I'd rather wait with jumping to conclusions about feature set of WP7.8. It's still not released yet, is it?
mgkimsal 14y ago
Many device makers seem to have no problem selling Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 phones that have no chance in hell of ever getting upgraded. Not sure why that would be much of an issue for Nokia, although, personally, I'd like to see MS enforce upgrades from manufacturers vs allowing a 'wild-west' Android-style ecosystem.
- stonemetal 14y ago
  However, enthusiasts will have the ability to opt out of the carrier restrictions—likely with some kind of "this will void your warranty" disclaimer, as their phone will probably cease to be eligible for carrier-provided tech support—and manually install updates as they become available. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/windows-phone-8-to-provide-an-escape-from-carrier-update-tyranny/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/windows-phone-8-to-pr...
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    This is good news. There are very capable, fairly new phones that wouldn't get OS updates if it weren't for this unlock switch.
chj 14y ago
Yes, that shows MS is actually quite hostile to hardware vendors. There is no need to complete drop support on existing hardwares, you can at least provide a lite version if the old hardware (actually not that old) isn't powerful enough.
- rhplus 14y ago
  This isn't really hostile to hardware vendors if you think about their incentives. They're the parties who would benefit most from a user buying a brand new phone once the 18 months of support expires. There's zero incentive for most hardware vendors to support old hardware with software updates, because unlike Apple, they don't see any additional revenue once the phone is in the customer's hands. Apple even gets revenue from customers of second-hand iPhones years after initial release, thanks to their cut of the app store sales.
  - chj 14y ago
    Let's hope Nokia doesn't have too many Lumia800 in stock. Because they won't sell any now.

by Maakuth 14y ago

cooldeal 14y ago

There is something called Windows Phone 7.8. http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-unveils-windows-phone-78-update-legacy-hardware http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-unveils-windows-phone-78-... I don't know what is with the comments on tech sites, but I just read this story on Slashdot and the summary was misleading and omitted Windows Phone 7.8 completely. There were a whole bunch of comments like yours and many were modded up. And not one comment pointing out the existence of version 7.8 was modded up. It's like the crowd wants Nokia to fail and wants to ignore the real news or something.

jsnell 14y ago
So at least that post makes 7.8 appear like nothing but a minor skin upgrade. Why is that interesting in any way? Any poor buyer of current Lumia phones is still never getting an upgrade that fills in all those gaping holes in the feature set.
- jimbobimbo 14y ago
  How bringing features like NFC or multi-core support to current Lumias help anyone, if hardware pieces are missing?
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Having 7.8 doesn't make them look any less dead-end phones. Would you buy a new Android phone that can't be upgraded to ICS? Would you buy a new iPhone that cannot be upgraded to iOS 6?
    - jimbobimbo 14y ago
      I bought Lumia 900 the day it was released and no, I don't feel it's a "dead-end phone". Given that Microsoft backports many of software features of WP8 to WP7.8 (which BTW was under big question in Lumia 900 launch time frame), I'm even less inclined to think so. Will I be getting WP8 device any time soon, just because it's there? I don't think so - I'm pretty happy with my phone.
      - rbanffy 14y ago
        How many WP8 features will be eventually backported? Will there be a 7.9? 7.10? It's a current phone, much like my Macbook is a fairly current (as in "non-vintage") Lion-running Mac. Like my Macbook, it won't run the next major version. The difference is that my Macbook is 6 years old.
      - barranger 14y ago
        Unfortunately I think your kidding yourself. Native applications will not be making it to the Lumia 900 and as such your going to start seeing more and more apps (and especially games), not be able to run on the phone.
        jimbobimbo 14y ago
        It's OK, I think I could survive that.
        barista 14y ago
        Isn't this true about applications/games with dependence on hardware capabilities also? How's this different?
        barranger 14y ago
        This is different in that it's nothing to do with hardware. A super simple contrived example would be if someone builds a calculator using c++, you can't install it even though there is no hardware reason that you couldn't
  - jsnell 14y ago
    Of course nobody expects that the existing phones will magically grow new hardware :-) But there are plenty of software-only features like native code applications, better multitasking, sensible VoIP support, or a more modern browser. Some of these are filling in really major gaps. Also if the current phones can't be upgraded, it seems virtually guaranteed that Nokia will continue to release new low end devices running WP7 for a long time. This means that those phones couldn't e.g. support NFC, and would be rather unappealing devices if NFC finally takes off.
    - jimbobimbo 14y ago
      I'd rather wait with jumping to conclusions about feature set of WP7.8. It's still not released yet, is it?

mgkimsal 14y ago

Many device makers seem to have no problem selling Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 phones that have no chance in hell of ever getting upgraded. Not sure why that would be much of an issue for Nokia, although, personally, I'd like to see MS enforce upgrades from manufacturers vs allowing a 'wild-west' Android-style ecosystem.

stonemetal 14y ago
However, enthusiasts will have the ability to opt out of the carrier restrictions—likely with some kind of "this will void your warranty" disclaimer, as their phone will probably cease to be eligible for carrier-provided tech support—and manually install updates as they become available. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/windows-phone-8-to-provide-an-escape-from-carrier-update-tyranny/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/windows-phone-8-to-pr...
- rbanffy 14y ago
  This is good news. There are very capable, fairly new phones that wouldn't get OS updates if it weren't for this unlock switch.

chj 14y ago

Yes, that shows MS is actually quite hostile to hardware vendors. There is no need to complete drop support on existing hardwares, you can at least provide a lite version if the old hardware (actually not that old) isn't powerful enough.

rhplus 14y ago
This isn't really hostile to hardware vendors if you think about their incentives. They're the parties who would benefit most from a user buying a brand new phone once the 18 months of support expires. There's zero incentive for most hardware vendors to support old hardware with software updates, because unlike Apple, they don't see any additional revenue once the phone is in the customer's hands. Apple even gets revenue from customers of second-hand iPhones years after initial release, thanks to their cut of the app store sales.
- chj 14y ago
  Let's hope Nokia doesn't have too many Lumia800 in stock. Because they won't sell any now.