Current devices WILL NOT get Apollo.

[canesfan625]

Sorry, wrong link before. Here's the thurrott post where he retracts his statements about carriers being required to release wp7 updates:

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windowsphone75/windows-phone-software-updates-revisited-142382

Carriers will not block Windows Phone 7 updates | MobileTechWorld

We know they might not care about minor updates but let see how major updates trend.

 

[pikacz]

guys, apollo is scheduled to be released in Q4 this year and the new phones (e.g. Lumia 900 or Titan II) are just coming out. do you really think that MS will drop support for them only a couple of months before the big event?

 

[Fuzzy John]

guys, apollo is scheduled to be released in Q4 this year and the new phones (e.g. Lumia 900 or Titan II) are just coming out. do you really think that MS will drop support for them only a couple of months before the big event?

I don't think that would be a first.

 

[canesfan625]

I don't think that would be a first.

What windows phone has Microsoft dropped support for? I'm assuming you're going to say windows mobile?

 

[mparker]

Carriers will not block Windows Phone 7 updates | MobileTechWorld

He's not really arguing that they won't block the update, he's arguing that they can't (i.e. that they won't because they can't) - from the linked article:

I don?t think that Carriers can or will block OS Windows Phone 7 updates. Why? Because they technically shouldn?t be able to do so given that everything is ?owned? by Microsoft. Every update or notifications is done by Microsoft via their own server.

This is an impressively blinkered analysis of the situation. There are multiple ways a carrier block might be implemented, and the article only dismisses one of them (and the one that was never really in question anyway). I don't think that anyone has ever claimed that the carrier block was done via technical means; it's always been known that the updates were coming from Microsoft's servers, and it's been known since the NoDo/Focus v4 fiasco that Microsoft was where the radio roms and os code were integrated. But just because the carrier block isn't accomplished via this particular technical method doesn't mean that carrier blocks doesn't exist. We've seen far too many instances where updates never go out for some carrier's but do for others. Whether the "carrier block" is implemented via controlling the distribution, or whether it's implemented by sternly-worded threat to block devices with that particular version, or whether it's implemented via a politely-worded request, it doesn't really matter to the end-user who doesn't get that update.

 

[Fuzzy John]

What windows phone has Microsoft dropped support for? I'm assuming you're going to say windows mobile?

What is "support"? Microsoft will support WP7 by providing fixes or updates if serious issues are found. Support does not mean providing a newer OS to replace the older one.
Remember the various versions of Windows Mobile? Basically the same thing happened there, albeit the fixes and updates were far and few in between once the newer version of WM was released.
Then if you step outside of the phone area, Microsoft had many products that later they dropped completely.

 

[mparker]

do you really think that MS will drop support for them only a couple of months before the big event?

Yes - if they go to the Win8 kernel (which is not yet confirmed). I'm sure they'll continue to issue bugfixes and minor updates, which will continue being blocked by the carriers.