Windows Phone 9 Questions

[Vectraat]

So I'm a little confused about what this means for people with Windows Phone 8 devices.

1.) I was looking into getting the Lumia 920, but is that a bad idea being that WP9 is now being tested?

2.) Will you be able to upgrade WP8 to WP9?

3.) I'm still learning about Windows Phone, and from what I understand certain applications that were made for Windows Phone 7/7.5 don't work for Windows Phone 8? I wonder if
the same will be true of WP8/9?

4.) Any idea when WP9 will be launched? I would assume it'll be launched with newer Windows Phones mid/late this year?

This is really confusing to the consumer...

 

[stevethenerd]

Microsoft has "promised" we should not see another WP7-WP8 situation again.

 

[a5cent]

Microsoft has "promised" we should not see another WP7-WP8 situation again.

Not true. MS has promised only that WP8 will receive OS updates for 18 months. I don't know what exactly MS plans to call WP9, but whatever happens, WP8 support duration expires about one year from now.

 

[Vectraat]

So what is that "situation"
Can you elaborate?

And the other questions?

I'm trying to figure out if I want to invest in this platform. I really love the UI, but if I'm going to get screwed then no thanks.

 

[ttsoldier]

So I'm a little confused about what this means for people with Windows Phone 8 devices.

1.) I was looking into getting the Lumia 920, but is that a bad idea being that WP9 is now being tested?

2.) Will you be able to upgrade WP8 to WP9?

3.) I'm still learning about Windows Phone, and from what I understand certain applications that were made for Windows Phone 7/7.5 don't work for Windows Phone 8? I wonder if
the same will be true of WP8/9?

4.) Any idea when WP9 will be launched? I would assume it'll be launched with newer Windows Phones mid/late this year?

This is really confusing to the consumer...

1)No
2)Yes
3)No
4)Correct

 

[stmav]

Unless you are wanting a phone with more features than the 920, no reason not to look into one.

According to the article on the news page about 9 says that current Windows Phone 8 devices are expected to be fully upgradable to Windows Phone 9.

We can hope that apps made for 8 will work on 9, but there are no guarantees at the moment.

It's not known yet if Windows Phone 9 is Blue or not. No set date as of yet. But rumors have it at end of 2013 or early 2014.

 

[casab1anca]

WP9 is still a long way away (at least another 12-18 months), so if you want a WP, get WP8 right now. I'm pretty sure you can upgrade WP8 devices to WP9 when it comes out (minus any new hardware features WP9 might have). Also, WP8 is fully compatible with WP7.x apps, but it requires the developers to update their app to enable the new WP8 screen resolutions.

 

[Vectraat]

How do you know if apps made in WP7 don't work on WP8? etc....
Does it say in the store or do you just download and install the app only to find out it doesn't function?

Because that would be terrible for the ecosystem if this happened with 8/9 ?

 

[lsmachado]

Usually, when you try to download, it will tell you that it's not compatible with your particular device.

 

[EasilyTheBest]

I tried downloading the new Spiderman game and the new car game and football game forget their names. I know i haven't got enough ram on my Nokia Lumia 620 but when trying to download it says there's a store problem or try later. Real stupid. It could at least say the real reason. I bet there's ppl out there returning they phones thinking there's a fault..

 

[astroXP]

I think what's on most people's minds is that we hope we can avoid another your-current-phone-won't-upgrade fiasco. I've read that MS plans on creating a new format for apps for Windows Phone next (other than .XAP) so apps work on both Windows/WP (no extra coding needed).

 

[Jason Wun]

Well, you should know that WP9 would be definitely launched at the end of the year or maybe later. We still don't know which and when the device could upgrade. I think the flagship devices such as Lumia920 or HTC 8X would do but I'm worry the phone with 512MB or even lower memory could not.

 

[casab1anca]

How do you know if apps made in WP7 don't work on WP8? etc....
Does it say in the store or do you just download and install the app only to find out it doesn't function?

It says in the store whether it supports WP7, WP7.x, WP8.

 

[sentimentGX4]

Everything is all up in the air. Admittedly, Windows Phone is officially worst OS in terms of upgrades.

Microsoft did not promise WP9 for WP8s. They merely promised support for a duration of time. WP7s are technically still "supported". Seeing some apps already fail to run on low end WP8s, it would not be surprising if some or all WP8s are unupgradable.

 

[Samst22]

All WP8 phones will be upgradable to WP9 or whatever the next iteration is. It would be suicide for Microsoft to pull that again. The iphone 3GS even runs on iOS 6. WP8 was a fresh start for Microsoft and windows phone. Switching the kernel to NT caused problems with WP7 phones.

I am absolutely certain that the 'blue' update will work on all current WP8 devices.

 

[Trainwreck_0532]

All I can say is if I have another brick for a phone this time next year and Xbox music doesn't get fixed soon (still can't listen to songs I've ripped from cds) I'm done, getting the s4, and I've been a windows guy since 94.