No Upgrading to Windows Phone 7 from Windows Mobile 6

Susana Polo

Published: Mar 1, 2010 11:34 am

This article is over 14 years old and may contain outdated information

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The word is out. Natasha Kwan, Microsoft‘s

(deep breath) General Manager for Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific market

(deep breath) has announced that phones currently running the Windows Mobile 6 OS will not be upgradable to Windows Phone 7; stating “Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable.”

This will include popular smart phones like the recently launched HTC HD2, which apparently doesn’t meet hardware qualifications for Windows Phone 7 “because it doesn’t have the three buttons”.

Microsoft will not abandon Windows Mobile 6.x, but simply repackage it as Windows Classic, a cheaper operating system for a cheaper smart phone. The OS will be updated to 6.5.3, to improve the 6.x users experience somewhat.

Says Kwan:

A lot of 6.5 applications have been built very much from the old paradigm of the stylus. Those legacy apps will be a lot more compatible on 6.5.3 because we have magnifier technology which lets you use your finger for navigating, even though it has a much bigger surface area.

Via APC.

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Author

Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.