Microsoft may be rolling out an incremental upgrade to its Windows Mobile operating system for PDAs and cellphones, but it's up to device manufacturers and wireless carriers to decide whether to offer Windows Mobile 6.1 to existing customers. And it looks like HP has decided that customers who have already bought current generation iPaq devices can live without the update. One of the things that has long set mobile operating systems apart from desktop OSes is the fact that users can't just walk into the store, but a software upgrade and apply it themselves. In the olden days, OS upgrades came on ROM chips and you literally had to update a device's hardware in order to update the OS. Now most Windows Mobile devices can be upgraded via a software-only update process. But because the OS is typically customized to run on various devices, it's up to the device makers to decide whether to release an update.
HP apparently has decided to offer Windows Mobile 6.1 on new units, but will not be offering an upgrade option for current iPaq owners. Of course, when hardware makers don't step up, we've often seen that 3rd party developers will come up with their own solutions. Will we eventually see an unofficial upgrade path for iPaq users? Only time will tell.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2008 @ 2:57PM
James said...
I'd really like to see somebody start a ratings site that specifically addresses hardware manufacturers that do this. I got a Dell Axim back in the day, and about a month later they released WM 2003 SE, where the "SE" let you landscape your display (among other things). Dell decided it wasn't worth the trouble to offer an upgrade (despite a massive petition drive to try to change their mind) and said that if you wanted the new OS, you could always buy the newer hardware. So basically "fuck you"...
If I had known ahead of time that Dell has a history of doing the same thing, I might not have made the purchase in the first place.
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4-10-2008 @ 7:29PM
BlackCoffeeNoSugar said...
To be fair Dell did offer Axim 50/50v customers the chance to buy an upgrade from Windows Mobile 2003SE to Windows Mobile 5.0. But HP never offered any upgrade, as far as I can remember.
4-11-2008 @ 9:11AM
superrrguy said...
F'd up.
6.1 adds threaded texting which makes a huge difference but I think the HP's are just WinMo Classic with 6.0
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