There was a bit of a dust up earlier this week when a Portuguese employee of Microsoft said in a video interview that all current Windows Phone devices would be able to be updated to Windows Phone 8. That quickly got the Internet speculation engine going but unfortunately, that same person later admitted he had made a mistake. He now claims that he meant to say that all current Windows Phone software would run on Windows Phone 8 when it comes out later this year.
So what's really going on? Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows claims that he finally got some real information on the Windows Phone 8 upgrade story via anonymous sources at Microsoft (officially, Microsoft is still not talking about their Windows Phone 8 plans).
In short, Thurrott says that according to his sources, a Windows Phone 8 upgrade for current Windows Phone 7.x devices, including the just released and very popular Nokia Lumia 900, won't happen for a number of reasons. One is pure economics; there are simply not enough Windows Phone devices out there to justify a very expensive software upgrade.
Another reason is technological; Windows Phone 8 will be based on the Windows 8 kernel and the story claims it will have much higher system requirements than Windows Phone 7.x devices.
Smartphone makers and wireless carriers also both want to sell new phones, not support older devices with a new upgrade, according to the story's sources. Finally, the wireless carriers won't ever support releasing such a software update on their networks.
So when you decide to buy that new Lumia 900, keep in mind that it's more than likely that you may be stuck with Windows Phone 7.x upgrades rather than Windows Phone 8.
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