Windows Phone 7 Not Backwards Compatible
Not only will Windows 7 Phone require an entirely new device, it won't run previous Windows Mobile apps.
Today, Microsoft's Partner Group Program Manager Charlie Kindel dropped a bomb on current Windows Mobile users in his latest blog, revealing that applications developed prior to Windows 7 Phone will not work on the new platform. He cited the company as wanting a clean break from the past, to move from "good" to "great."
"To enable the fantastic user experiences you’ve seen in the Windows Phone 7 Series demos so far, we've had to break from the past," Kindel wrote in his blog. "To deliver what developers expect in the developer platform, we’ve had to change how phone apps were written." He added that Windows 7 Phone will support Silverlight and XNA.
But that doesn't mean Microsoft is forgetting its current Windows Mobile-based consumers. "To be clear, we will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come, so it’s not as though one line ends as soon as the other begins," he added.
Kindel isn't kidding when he refers to a "clean break." Apparently Windows 7 Phone will require meatier hardware than what's currently running Windows Mobile 6.5. This means that Windows Mobile 6.x users won't be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Phone on the software front when the OS launches later this year. Instead, users will be required to trade up for a newer, qualified device.
"Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable," Natasha Kwan, General Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific region, told APC Monday.
Sounds like Vista all over again.
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Why do I have the feeling that this is not a good idea....
This doesn't surprise me at all. Business 101: If you want to make a game changer, you may have to change the game. ;-)
"Sounds like Vista all over again."
You just couldn't help yourself, could you? No backwards compatibility, specific hardware requirements? Doesn't sound like Vista at all. Sounds a lot more like Zune's OS, only better.
Why do I have the feeling that this is not a good idea....
What killer must-have apps are on current WinMo phones that people can't live without? Is backwards compatibility with previous versions 5 and 6 worth it, if you end up with something bloated with old crappy code?
I like it Vista made RAM super cheap and spurred higher spec hardware. Hopefully this will get the phone hardware higher in spec and then they'll release a lighter weight version (just like Windows 7) and it'll run even faster on the faster hardware.
I am so happy that microsoft did away winmo 6.x and earlier. Winmo 6.x and earlier is junk.
What killer must-have apps are on current WinMo phones that people can't live without? Is backwards compatibility with previous versions 5 and 6 worth it, if you end up with something bloated with old crappy code?
Don't know. However businesses already using WinMo 6.x may feel so otherwise.
What killer must-have apps are on current WinMo phones that people can't live without? Is backwards compatibility with previous versions 5 and 6 worth it, if you end up with something bloated with old crappy code?
At least many of my GPS softwares (Igo8, Garmin Mobile XT, iGuidance) are worth it to make me stick w/ WM6.x if WM7 not backward compatible with them. MS's move seems to hurting sales of current 6.x devices and upcoming WM7 series.
Does this mean they start over with a base of 0 apps? Doesn't sound like a good deal to me. There are lots of apps still available for older WM phones and even the older PocketPC's. I run some of these on my Samsung WM phone.
I hope MS is releasing a real good SDK real soon, so developers have some time to convert their apps before the phones hit the market. I've tried to write apps for my old WM and PPC devices but never could find a SDK that was worthy of use. The iphone and even the android phones all seem to have pretty good SDK's available.
The specs of HTC HD2 are pretty advanced, so I can not imagine that phone not being able to run WM7 . WTF?......
Will I need a laptop for that? Even so, those specs are pretty much better than a 3 year old laptop.
The need to get a clean break with internet explorer make a browser from scratch maybe also keep IE around also. Probably develop it in the same language firefox is developed in. Cause its no good if it did not come installed default it would be the least used browser no doubt.
I just hope that the phone will not be restrictive. Given that one can write a game for free using XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio Express, if he is allowed to distribute the game freely, wouldn't that be interesting?
Win 7 is new.. how many ppl really used to upgrade the OS on their mobile? have any one even bothered to remember how the prev versions of Win M OS used to look like? so lets take it as a welcome change. App dev will continue to port and support their applications on win 6.5 Mobile os as well.
No backwards compatibility? This is the greatest thing that could happen to Windows Mobile. I only hope something like this will happen in Windows 8 for the desktop. If Microsoft can make Windows XP mode as good as Mac OS 9 compatibility mode was on PowerPC Mac's then nobody will need any additional backwards compatibility.
Anyways, back on topic. WM 6.5.x and earlier versions were very unstable. The amount of "illegal operation" messages were equal to the amount of GPF's I got in Windows 3.0. WM 6.5.x and earlier also ran very slow even on the best hardware. On HTC's Fuze phone WM 6.1 Pro took forever to turn on the 3G radio so I could make phone calls. I frequently got a "waiting for modem" message and had to reboot several times to get the phone part working.
why go backwards? the future is forward
The specs of HTC HD2 are pretty advanced, so I can not imagine that phone not being able to run WM7 . WTF?
Unless there is something that physically stops it from installing, then it may still work.. If anyone can get it to work it would be the guys at xda-developers.com.. Before I got my iPhone 2 years ago, I got everything I needed to hack my last few WinMo phones there..
Now all we need is for MS to do this with their OS
This will force manufacturers to move up in hardware specs on phones. Ever compared Japan's phones to the rest of the world's?
This will force manufacturers to move up in hardware specs on phones. Ever compared Japan's phones to the rest of the world's?
I agree. Kudos to M$ for this. Up until recently our most powerful smartphones have been stuck on the same damn 528 MHZ and 256 MB of RAM.
I have friends who use portable, hand held, all-in-one devices that use Windows Mobile 6.5. My friends tell me it is not very good. Lets hope MS comes up with something better.
i'd give anything to get rid of winmo 6 on my HTC diamond. its too freaking slow and eats up battery power like crazy
"He cited the company as wanting a clean break from the past, to move from "good" to "great.""
no, you want to move from "good" to "locked and controlled".
its bad enough that you would do this, but doing so just to copy Apple? I have lost all respect for you microsoft, needing to use c# will make it really hard to make cross platform apps. but of course that's what you want, isn't it. people to be lured in by your simple dev platforms and then be put off of porting to other platforms because they have to change languages, effectively buying you "exclusives"... this will make it really hard to have multi platform engines. even the Iphone has c++! I never thought I'd look on the iPhone dev chain favourably! by using Microsoft languages, its even more controlled than the iPhone is. not to mention that c# is highly managed, adding a lot of bloat to these still fairly underpowered devices!
This when we say "we hate the way the iPhone works" and fanboy's respond "so don't buy it" we get pissed. its the precedent that is set. now everyone is doing it, so what do we buy now you idiots?
Don't know. However businesses already using WinMo 6.x may feel so otherwise.
Business use Explorer and Word on their phones, not as if MS wont release new version of those for WIndows Phone 7......
Having said that, I will be waiting for a new version of Phone 7 before upgrading - as 1st issues of a new gen OS always have issues (regardless of who makes the OS).
make that "1st editions"
Except it's nothing like Vista all over again.
Except you can't put it on your POS $15 wal-mart go phone, they are effectively trying to idiot proof it from you doing that.
Like everyone that tried putting Vista on their Pentium 3 and wondered why it wouldn't go fast, or their lowest end celeron machine running 512MB of RAM.