Why WP8 not coming to WP7 devices makes sense.

[anon(5335899)]

With the announcement that WP8 will not come to current devices MSFT dropped a bombshell which anyone who has a brain should have seen coming and especially anyone who watched the summit keynote up to the actual announcement must have known would come.

Rationally I can completely understand this. It is fairly obvious that current devices simply will not be able to cope wit the WP8 core in a way that the end-user experience would be at an acceptable level. This is where the argument we'll see a lot; 'Apple updates the 3GS to iOS6' is exactly what we need to bring home the reason why WP8 will not be available for current hardware. On the iPhone 3GS iOS6 will crawl to a point where it's not usable. In fact the argument can be made that Apple is making this move to force users to update to next-gen hardware. And iOS6 is 'just' en evolutionary OS update. A more suitable comparison would be to basically ask Apple to run Mountain Lion on iPhone..

All current Windows Phone hardware is based on the original specs for WP7, while 2nd generation devices add some extra stuff it's the same in principle. Devices like the Lumia 800 and 710 would qualify as 1st gen hardware which happened to be released just in time for them to ship with WP7.5 and there's nothing wrong with that, I love my Lumia 800.

It would probably have been possible to implement WP8 on these devices, but it would be like running Windows 8 on Pentium4 hardware. I run Windows 8 on my Asus 1001PX netbook and while it runs well enough for me to use it it's a tad sluggish. Fine with me, but I can see how MSFT would not want the general user base to experience this. It seems MSFT decided to maintain user experience over running the risk of user ending up with crawling bricks. Seems to me a this is a sensible choice.

I personally would have liked to be able to at least update my Lumia 800 to WP8 to try it and see if I could live with the performance with the option to fall back if I wanted to. But that is not going to happen and to be honest I can live with that. WP7.8 will bring most of the visual stuff and hopefully some 'under the hood' improvement from WP8 to my Lumia. It'll be fine and certainly the phone will not stop working overnight.

WP8 is coming this fall, I'l happily let MSFT work out the kinks and upgrade to a new phone early next year. By that time there will also be a Surface Pro to keep my Windows Phone company..

Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary

 

[Winterfang]

Off course it makes sense. Doesn't mean that people have to like this. Some are taking this pretty hard and understandably so.

 

[mase123987]

Look at it this way. Microsoft obviously doesn't want to tell the direction it is going ahead of time to keep competition at bay. That said, it also means the while the 900 and Titan 2 were first being release, they knew it wasn't getting WP8 but weren't about to tell customers. It is about money and I get it. But I really don't like it.

 

[cckgz4]

I think people need to wait until they try 7.8 and see what's missing before they get on their soapbox. If you haven't tried it, you're not in a fair place to cry foul

 

[jfa1]

I think people need to wait until they try 7.8 and see what's missing before they get on their soapbox. If you haven't tried it, you're not in a fair place to cry foul

I agree with you. I think what MS did was a reasonable step to give older devices th elook and feel of WP8 while keeping the older hardware. I was pretty much expecting that. I have no problem with that. Those of you who do I understand but hey you dont have any control over it. You can moan and groan and be unhappy or look at the details and get it to work for you its an improvement over Mango more available screen space and more customizable tiles. I have had my Lumia 900 abou three weeks and I am still happy I bought it and will be even happier when the Nokia updates and Tango and 7.8 roll out. The best thing for me is OTA updates carriers wont control that GREAT! No more whing about ATT or some other carrier delaying updates to the OS HOORAY

 

[baseballbert]

I dont want wp8 on my 900 if it would do to it what ios4 did to my 3GS.

They are doing the right thing by not fully upgrading.

 

[mb-dape]

Just interesting to see that threads that are negative to WP8 not coming to current devices is moved at once. But positive threads are allowed to stay. :dry

Well, whatever...

 

[theefman]

I think people need to wait until they try 7.8 and see what's missing before they get on their soapbox. If you haven't tried it, you're not in a fair place to cry foul

The guys at allaboutwindowsphone.com seem to think there'll be more stuff in the update. Maybe the guys here at wpcentral.com will give us a clue if true or not if they can.

 

[cckgz4]

Just interesting to see that threads that are negative to WP8 not coming to current devices is moved at once. But positive threads are allowed to stay. :dry

Well, whatever...

It's a sticky at the top of the forum. And have you been to the Lumia 900 section, which is full of complaints?



Yeah..................

 

[Winterfang]

I dont want wp8 on my 900 if it would do to it what ios4 did to my 3GS.

They are doing the right thing by not fully upgrading.

They are doing the same thing, not fully upgrading it. Except that the Lumia is months old instead of having 3 years of life.

 

[oldpueblo]

If the choice is between WP8 being a mediocre less feature-rich product that we all get, or the next badass phone that will push ahead of the competition, then not getting WP8 is well worth it. What good would it be to have a minor update and have the ecosystem continue to be mediocre? This is best for the platform as a whole, and anyone that had fears about this should've just waited. I've enjoyed my 900 for months now and will continue to do so till the end of the year at least if not longer. My 900 did not magically start to suck during the WP8 announcement. And when I decide I'm done with it, I'll have an even better device to look forward to. Not just a mildly faster one with a few tweaks.

 

[Winterfang]

Yeah this is the logical decision but Windows Phone 8 comes out this year. This year man, sure right now as a 900 user most are pretty happy but what about June 2013? What about June 2014? The iPhone 4Gs would probably still be getting updates by that time and the Lumia a distant memory.

7.8 better get most of the new features, so far people are saying the only thing that will change is the main screen. That's downright insulting.

That being said, I'm all about Windows Phone 8 getting rid of mediocre hardware and trying to come out as a legitimate competitor. But how do you guys dare telling angry Lumia 900 owners to act like this is nothing? What kind of attitude is that?

 

[cckgz4]

There's no such thing as an iPhone 4G. And being that iOS has not overly-changed anything in their OS since the notification pane, I don't see why they wouldn't keep feeding some features to older phones. If and when they do revamp, it won't be like that

 

[Winterfang]

The Iphone 4Gs is the actual name. Do Microsoft pays or something? Stop being a ******.

 

[mb-dape]

It's a sticky at the top of the forum. And have you been to the Lumia 900 section, which is full of complaints?



Yeah..................

Yes, exactly. I wrote a thread just like this one, why WP8 not coming to current devices does NOT make sense. And I saw another thread in which someone was questioning it. They got moved to the sticky right away.

While this one and the "Why is so many disappointed?" thread is not moved.

It doesnt really matter to me, just interesting to see.

 

[rdubmu]

The Iphone 4Gs is the actual name. Do Microsoft pays or something? Stop being a ******.

It is the iPhone 4s.

there is no G in there

Apple - iPhone 4S - The most amazing iPhone yet.

 

[jimski]

I wouldn't be surprised if WP8 could not run just fine on any WP7.5 device, minus the new hardware elements. But it would require a full wipe of the device. Just think how complicated that would be explaining to end users. So WP7.8 is the easy way out.

I am confident that the good folks at XDA-Developers will prove me right. Actually, I expect to see an HD2 running WP8 before the end of summer.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[pedenske]

At least they aren't doing what people were fearing and just saying "Sorry for buying our phone but we are ditching you for our new platform so please trust us and buy this one instead."

 

[rluka]

Why can't they do this for mobile device too

Confirmed: Windows 8 Upgrades for $15 | PCWorld


Understand why the new owners are pissed off.
I use 1st gen device and thiink it's about time to change to new device anyway even if WP8 can be upgraded. It might buy some more time, but eventually this phone will go especially for the newer hardware functions.

 

[anon(5335877)]

Why can't they do this for mobile device too

Confirmed: Windows 8 Upgrades for $15 | PCWorld


Understand why the new owners are pissed off.
I use 1st gen device and thiink it's about time to change to new device anyway even if WP8 can be upgraded. It might buy some more time, but eventually this phone will go especially for the newer hardware functions.

Then people would complain about how iOS and Android doesn't charge for updates, but if I remember correctly, Apple did charge early iPod Touch users for updates.