Look, I'm HOPING, like most people, that WP7.5 will get the upgrade to WP8, but when I sift through the tea leaves I can only come to the conclusion that it won't.
Paul started his sentence with "We don't know, but my guess is..."
Keep in mind though, time and again Mr. Thurrott has shown that he has seen documents that confirm pieces of information long before it eventually gets released or leaked through some other source. My guess is that he gets these early looks based upon the trust he has built because he keeps his mouth shut. With that in mind, when he couches a statement with "pure speculation", my guess is he's trying to say what he can't say in a deniable way.
99% of the posts I see about WP7.5 getting WP8 are nothing more than simple assertions that it will happen, that is HAS to happen. Every now and again I see an arguement
against the upgrade that seem to be based upon an understanding of the different "kernels" being used between the two OS's. That kind of stuff is WAY above my head, but I don't recall seeing a "kernel" arguement that supports the upgrade.
Either way, if the 710 comes to Fido here in the Great White North, I'm jumping on it, AND I'll jump again in 6-10 months when the Apollo phones hit after that. With the kinds of prices they are rolling the Gen2/WP7.5 devices out at, even if they don't get WP8 consumers really shouldn't have much of a reason to complain. That's not to say that they won't, but I don't think they should.