With the phone it is a bit different than the desktop. The desktop developer preview of Win8 was a very early release. They still worked on it for another year before releasing it. With the phone, they've already released 8.1 to manufacturers. There are still some fixes to be made, as has been reported on WPCentral Blog, but those will go to the OEMs as well. That's why we're not getting it today - they need to fix the bugs first. So next week, when they release it to us, we'll be getting the same build as the OEMs, because undoubtedly they will also release that updated version to the OEMs. With GDR3 and developer preview, I'd heard on a podcast by one of the Windows Phone higher-ups (don't remember off hand who it was) that the developer preview was the same as the RTM build. If you search the forums, you'll see that I was disputed, and I stood my ground, saying that the developer preview was the final build of that version. Time proved me right. The developer preview was the same as what the OEMs got. There was one small update that went to both OEMs and also preview users shortly before carriers released it, but that's not a surprise when you consider how much coding there is - if they find a bug, they'll fix it. In other words, the odds are good that what you get next week with the developer preview will be the same as what the carriers release weeks (and for some, months) later. There may be small updates to fix bugs, but nothing major.
Assuming things go just like they did with GDR3 and developer preview, if you install developer preview, you will be installing the same build as the public release, and when carriers release it, you will not need to update the OS. The other updates that carriers release along with the OS update will still install (Like Nokia Black did, for instance). There will be nothing different between your phone and the phone of someone who waited. In other words, after I updated my 928 to GDR3 with Preview for Developers, when Verizon released the update, all that installed at that time was Black, and I don't recall if there were any carrier updates with it or not. The OS didn't update because it was already on the same build.
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