Fail? WP7 apps will work with WP8 but WP8 apps will not work on WP7
This feels a little bit like when I moved from N97 to N8. Some of the S60 5th apps worked on the N8 but the HD games stuff was a no no for N97. How big of an issue was this?
I can understand that perhaps it’s because the hardware can’t handle it. But it just might be because they’re incompatible.
However, there is one tiny ray of hope that you can still install WP8 on WP7 devices (if Phonescoop’s info is correct). The apps may perform poorly, given the hardware requirements, but they may still at least run.
Up until announcement, Nokia will still be trying to push current gen Lumia. How are they going to feel if they knew that new apps may not even work on their phone? :/
On the bright side (as we shall always try to look for one) current user base is small and negligible. There are currently 100,000 apps available for current gen WP. The future of the new base of apps is one coherent core for future desktop/tablet/phone apps that should hopefully see a flurry of even more apps being created for WP and W8.
Source: ZDNet
Update: WP8 apps may work if recoded for WP7.5? Still some effort from the developer side. Like having to make certain apps 256MB compatible for the 610 :/
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
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That seems.. weird? I don’t think Android or iOS ever had this issue?
Was that a serious comment? There are apps on iOS that only work with latest versions of the OS. Same for Android.
Yes it was a serious comment. I still don’t think that all Android 2.3 built apps wont work on 2.2. Some wont of course, but from your article it seems that all WP 8 apps wont work for earlier versions..
Anyway, sorry for the confusion.
Turns out that I was wrong. It seems that 2.3 built apps wont work on 2.2..
I never realized that, lol.
No, they always had this issue. People, including Jay it seems, had some completely unfounded and unrealistic expectations.
Ok, thanks for correcting me.
They do. This is no different.
Android has about a dozen levels of fragmentation if you count the API level fragmentation in addition to the OS version fragmentation.
wow. this is stupid to the extreme.
Did you seriously think that WP7 would be forward compatible? It’s not like you can run iOS 4 software on an iOS 3 device, nor like you can run Vista software on XP…
Good discussion point. But this title will be one used frequently against WP so it’s good to have this side of the argument too.
Actually, you can – if you don’t use APIs only available in the future version. The binary and hooks are cross-version compatible for all Windows desktop (NT kernel and to an extent, if using old WinAPIs, with 9x versions as well) and iOS devices.
Same goes for Android with one small exception – if you use NDK, you have to compile your NDK part for each targeted platform specifically.
If you’re not making use of the newer APIs, then it’s an app for the previous version. So when you’ve got newer software that’s compatible with iOS4/Vista/WP8 but also runs on iOS3/XP/WP7 then it’s an iOS3/XP/WP7 app, not an iOS4/Vista/WP8 app.
Not necessarily – you can utilize the new APIs if they are present, or forgo using them on run-time.
Think of it like this – the old APIs allowed you to take a picture, while the new (but completely different!) APIs allow you to also control the focus, ISO and so on. If you want to build an app that utilizes those new APIs you won’t be able to run it on the old devices with a check if the API is present and fallback to the old API if not.
You can do that on Android (2.3+ versions), iOS (since the public release of 3rd party support), Linux, Windows desktop, Symbian^3+ (unfortunately binary compatibility was broken with previous versions), MaemoMeeGo (UI might be problematic), and – ironically – with Windows Mobile 5.x+…
It would still be an app for the earlier OS, with support for features in the new OS, like what Belfiore was talking about with a current WP7 app scaling perfectly to the new resolutions without any changes, but if you wanted to add additional support for the higher resolutions, you could. That wouldn’t suddenly make it a WP8 app and not a WP7 app.
Or like the 2009 released 3GS isn’t updateable to iOS6 – oh wait….
More relevantly as those 2009 devices are falling out of realistic upgrade cycle is the support level for the iPhone4 and 4S and this is a let down for all L900 purchasers. In fact they’ve just been made fools. Better to have bought a 4S for support cycles.
it is upgradeble but you lack a ton of the new features. you don’t get siri, the maps integration and aton of other stuff. you just get the new ui and some extra bits. just like ms is doing now with the mango devicdes. they will give you the features and start screen with all of it’s customization
Big difference WP7 is still work in progress as admitted by almost every fan site and is not fully feature complete the other OS’s are ahead of that state. Secondly what chances of support after 7.8 ? None I would say, lucky me and my 2 week out L710, actually I’m not to hassled, but if it was L900 I’d be mighty aggrieved, but then I’d have had to be stupid enough to trust MS and Nokia and spent that much on such a precarious device I’d be quite annoyed to say the least and spend alot of time feeling really good about the support and warm feelings owning a Nokia device was giving me – NAHT
Are you saying that the Lumias were actually the beta-test phones?
(Whoever thought of that ad campaign should be shot in the head and left in a ditch to rot.)
Good one
The Google Nexus One was released in 2010. It’s still on Android 2.3.
What was your point?
So basically don’t get any of the present lumias
Not really. If it gets many of the software feature from Apollo, the underlying kernel doesn’t matter much to me. This is if you’re not that much into Direct 3D games
Nope according to Paul Thurrott (and really he probably is one of the best to draw the conclusion, see Win Super Site) it’s only getting three, Start Screen, Tile Customisation and Forced Delivery by-passing the carriers.
As he says “Nice”. V pro MS blog remember.
Lumia buyers just got whacked.
That depends. If you need a new phone now, I’d say it’s a great idea to get the Lumia 710 right now, it’s in the $200-$250 range, and far better than anything else you could get even up into the $300-$350 range.
Paying $500+ (after tax) for a Lumia 900 does seem a bit high though, at that price a Galaxy Note (if you can handle the size) seems like a much better deal.
I’m not too disappointed that my Lumia 710 won’t get everything from WP8, I was just barely getting by with my Curve 9300 crashing (only slightly less than my Nokia 5230 prior to that), so when the Lumia 710 was available, I jumped on it to get a phone that was actually stable.
Although, my lack of disappointment probably also has something to do with BB10 being far more exciting to me than WP8. After seeing what BB10 is like on my PlayBook, I’ll probably go to a new BB10 phone. Probably will make a jump back to WP8 once a PureView model comes out that otherwise is designed in a way I like (symmetrical design, no pentile display, ideally no AMOLED).
It would be foolish to assume that this won’t affect current Nokia sales. Still, if you’re into WP, can’t wait for the fall, and get a great deal – you can buy it with upfront knowledge that it is DOA – just like many of us did with the N9.
Not really DOA, I would guess that most non-game apps will still be made using C# and the old APIs.
Most of those were already made – apart from games, the native will allow for easier porting from other platforms, so most of the new apps would probably come as WP7.x incompatible. Expecting a surge of new apps to be available for the WP7.x is, IMHO, baseless…
+1 As I’ve also repeatedly said too.
Nah, wasn’t expecting a surge of new apps, just saying I doubt the current 300 apps / day is likely to even slow down for the next 6 months.
The focus of windows 8 phone is the corporate environment – coporate hubs, corporate marketplaces etc.
That’s one focus, there’s also a big focus on gaming, which is very not corporate at all.
That’s actually one of rare significant additions to it – Microsoft is strong in the corporate world, why not take advantage of it? They didn’t mention anything about Active Directory and such support, tho…
Microsoft had to do this once, to breakaway from CE and unify the kernel across all platforms.
It is evident that Direct 3D games cannot work on anything less than Windows Phone 8.
If WP8 does take off, this will be a momentary blip of a disappointment.
I don’t recall hearing much in the way of complaints that the likes of the 5800 or N97 or N97 mini did not have the S^3 HD games.
I think it was more complaints that the 5800/5230 didn’t get games that the C6-00 got.
uhmm, i don’t remember seeing any c6-00 game not working on 5800. In fact, C6 firmware was ported to 5800 and other devices. The comparison Jay made was accurate. The new symbian3 devices had hardware accelerated bcm2727 processor that was absent in s60v5 devices, hence lack of old device capabilities of running new games.
I remember being frustrated about quite a few of them.
iOS and latest Androids have risen the bar higher. People expect more these days than they did 2 years ago.
Judging from the sales, the expected more 2 years ago too.
Current games do make use of Direct 3D (it’s not like XNA uses something else), just not the same range of features as you’d see on the 360 or new PC games.
Q2 and Q3 sales are gonna be amazing
and Q4…. there will be no more nokia on Q4
Well here he is. Mister Misery.
“Misery” are Lumia sales number sir, only to get worse now…
That actually makes you happy, doesn’t it, you horrible little man?
Ugh.
That’s right-by Q4 there will only be Super Nokia!
It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, @noki. But some people here, they’re just too thin where it should matter and too thick where it shouldn’t.
So, this major update thing turned out exactly as expected. Talk of no upgrade was bullshit, but two-prong approach and separate kernels (and thus separation in the app path) was true. Not good, of course, but not nearly as bad as some people anticipated. Most importantly, the speculation from the sane sites turned out to be very accurate. This is how I expected it to play out.
The big question is, of course, will the market find this an acceptable solution. Time will tell.
It is what I was thinking of too. Now the big question is how are the sales for the current gen going to be handled until WP8 is ready? Presumably Microosft/Nokia/OEMs have a plan for that? Mabye buy now with with upgrade incentives–I would certainly go for that myself because I’m still really wanting to get a Lumia 900 but I’m on about the worse major carrier in the world for WP–Bell. I would gladly buy an unlocked, unbranded, cyan Lumia 900 if I could get one but now I would expect some kind of WP8 upgrade incentive.
I think what they need to do is just drive prices down. Use WP7.5/7.8 to compete with the single core GB phones that are being sold. There’s still LG Optimus Ones selling in the $100-$150 range, so the Lumia 710, 610 and ZTE Orbit (I think that’s the official name for the Tania) and similar devices are going to be key.
If Nokia can get the 610NFC down to $150 street price, I don’t think anyone will be complaining that it only gets WP7.8. A 605/620 or something like that with a slightly different physical design also wouldn’t hurt.
The Lumia 800 and 900 though are the ones where it’s a bit more of a problem (although since a lot of people got their 900s for $100 or $0, they won’t have too much to complain about either).
They didn’t get them for $100 or $0 that was what they had to pay up front (or didn’t have to) on their 2yr Hire-Purchase agreements (contracts), they’re paying for them alright. And is why TMobile in Germany refused to range the L900 and everyone who has bought one in the UK since it’s release only 1-2months ago has been made a complete fool of. Even with 7.8 update (which is barely acceptable) what about their chances of updates after that – none whatsoever. Hardly the treatment MS is now promising (as in 18 months minimum of support OTA to WP8 purchasers) which I guess is what they had to do having just made anyone who purchased a high end Lumia against phone store or friends advice to get an iPhone or Android look like an idiot.
They’d be paying for a monthly fee anyway.
But less in some cases and outside the USA massively less
@Janne Actually this is about as bad as it could be for current owners. We both know they had to fling some fig leaf out but according to Paul Thurrott (and his accuracy on this topic has been exemplary and ahead of the curve despite many apologists disbelief and splutterings to the contrary) the WP7.8 update doesn’t consist of much more than three things.
New Start Screen
Customizable Tiles
The update will by-pass the carriers and will be force delivered.
And that seems to be pretty much it according to him.
As far as I can see no improvements to backgrounding or multitasking (not even at mom to Nokia drive as far as I can see) no catch up TV apps zip nada. And that will be it nothing more I reckon so unless your Lumia device is more than 6+ months old it represents a really poor investment – the more so the higher up it was. Way to go Nokia – drill the high end adopters again after N97 fiasco because that had no impact on your fortunes at all.
Comparing the 900 to the N97 is specious. The N97 was a badly designed, buggy, underpowered piece of embarrassing crap. The 900 is a highly rated smartphone that works seamlessly.
The reality is that no-one outside the nerd community will know or care about the current generation handsets not getting WP8 if their WP7.5 phones get upgraded to WP7.8 with the new screen.
What this might do is make people hold off buying an 800 or 900 but then sales for these phones are probably getting close to exhaustion in most markets, the 800 has, after all, been out for 7 months. Will it stop them buying a bargain 610? Probably not because the new WP8 phones will almost certainly, at least to begin with, be higher end – dual core, larger resolutions, etc.
What about updates in 2013 ? Which for the price they paid they have every right to expect.
What about BBC iPlayer and it’s ilk for all current Lumias? Of interest well outside the nerd community I would say.
I also imagine that if Apple were to pull a similar stunt that many commenters here would lose relatively little time in proclaiming their imminent demise.
I don’t care about iPlayer. Some may, soem may not but let’s not focus on one application. Zynga have just announced Draw Something and Words with Friends after all.
As an iPhone user – 3GS – I can assure you that Apple did pull a similar stunt. The 3GS can support navigation and Siri but gets neither. No-one really cares about that either.
Except the 3GS is a June/July 2009 device and the Lumia 900 is a May/June 2012 device (in Europe) and they both have the same upgrade outlook as of now.
lumia phones out in the market have 100,000 apps to chose from, whats the problem ?
No problem I’m sure this announcement will finally boost LUMIA sales, now that they know that its a dead end…
ms has stated it will support any device for at least 18 months after sale
Yeah I’m sure app developers will will jump into doing all the new apps for the old platform….
Dude its that simple this will further stop sales numbers of LUMIA range..
no new apps sure, no problem, 100,000 wp7x apps is enough,
so why would lumia sales stop?
wp8 lumia’s will still have to use wp7 apps until wp8 apps are available,
iPhone sales were also dropping when everyone was anticipating an iPhone 5.
Yeah, there’ll be some decrease for current Lumias (particularly 800 and 900), but it’ll spike when the new WP8 Lumias get launched.
Sure wishful thinking is great, but will nokia reach that far?… Might I remind you guys that its currently selling its IP portfolio for survival….
They’re slimming down. Nokia was a behemoth, too slow moving to adapt to iOS and Android. They’re getting more focused now. Selling off extra weight helps them adapt better.
Hahahahaha – slimming – more like Bulimia. Slimming as in sub Saharan Africans are suffering a famine at the moment.
Still missing loads and loads of localised services and Apps, like in UK various Transport Apps (very limited selection and none are official) Apps like for Westfield shopping malls, Betfair and massively important for mindshare still no BBC iPlayer app and it doesn’t look like any of these will come to WP7.x devices. Oh they may be introduced in time but many if not all of them won’t be compatible down to WP7.x. So anyone who bought a Lumia device can forget right now ever getting BBC iPlayer.
Not exactly the proposition being sold in the stores for the last 6 months is it? How do you think those purchasers are going to feel about Nokia when they find out they’ve been cut off? Especially when they compare with their iPhone and Android toting mates.
“software updates will be over the air.” WOW amazing hahahahahaha
So you complain when a feature is absent, and then you criticise them for bringing it in?
No its just all the new amazing things they bring that nokia never had.
Yeah. He’s a hypocrite.
You are incapable of criticizing your love (i.e. Microsoft) for anything.
And I wouldn’t get too excited. When “wireless sync” for Microsoft means first connecting your phone to a PC with a datacable, I don’t know what OTA might possibly mean.
I don’t love Microsoft. I’ve gone on record as saying the inability to upload documents to emails in WP7.5 is stupid. The limit of one attachment is also stupid.
Windows Mobile – not Windows Phone – is unbelievably awful.
Windows XP is hateful. The Xbox is good but a bit boring after a while. Desktop Internet Explorer sucks balls.
So the first point of your post is bullshit. People who ‘love’ multinational companies or operating systems are either retarded or weird. Period.
But what I do is buy and try things out. I have or have had an iPhone 3GS, a ZTE Blade, an N95 ,N86, 5800, X6 N8 and now a Lumia 800. The Lumia 800 is by far the best Nokia phone I have owned. Frankly, it’s nice to have a phone that doesn’t randomly crash or offer out of error messages or have a terrible keyboard and browser.
People like you on the other hand have a fanatical attachment to one particular OS and brand and seem to spend more time trolling articles about things they don’t even own or have tried out because, like the spoiled little children they are, they can’t take the fact that they’re not going to get their way.
As for OTA, I suspect that it means over WiFi or data connection in much the same way as you can download or update apps through Marketplace. But then if you’d been paying attention you would know that.
Go away, child. This is not for you.
Not tied to the desktop.
OTA OTA
So at least 18 months support for the o/s.
You can get the o/s updates before mainstream release.
I want to punch Kevin Shields. He still talks like an MS employee. His demeanor sickens me.
He sucks at presentation.
You think all Nokia employees should have a funny accent and have board meetings in a sauna?
I actually enjoyed listening to Blanca Juti. Also Ahtisaari was excellent presenting N9, or?
She might also have a sauna since living in Finland. I dont think there is much difference having a business talk in a sauna or at a golf course, or? But true, Finnish culture is horrid. (The previous guys talked about Shields sounding like MS employee still9
Come on, after the presentation on Nokia World do you really want such a guy on stage? He’s not a good presenter, accent and sauna or not, and Nokia would be wise to keep him off the stage.
At least he didn’t yell like a lunatic impersonating Ballmer this time.
18 months is all you get in terms of support.. its all ya get. Its amazing that people find this surprising … WP7 was a half job, those phones were never going to get updated
Oh, there we go.. 7.8, new tiles
A Lumia 900 running 7.8 will be an awesome phone and arguably the best smartphone out there until the WP8′s arrive.
Depends on when RIM launches their BB10 phones.
Also, I’d say a well done ICS phone would be a solid contender for better than the Lumia 900, depending on your usage. Of course, hardly any ICS phones available yet, and you can’t count on your GB phone getting an official ICS upgrade.
Except of course there almost certainly aren’t any updates after 7.8 – fine news indeed for someone paying GBP499 for a phone that’s 1-2 months old at most in UK. How is that purchaser gonna feel next year and indeed into 2014 (when in all probability they’ll still be on contract) having had nothing whilst everyone around them with iPhones are still getting updates (to whatever degree). Gonna give them that warm proud feeling they chose Nokia or make them feel foolish and angry??
The iPhone users getting updates are getting updates that pooch their phone. iPhone 3G users got hosed with the iOS4 update, having a completely broken phone for 3 months that they couldn’t even downgrade. iPhone 3GS users get a horrible experience with iOS 5, it’s slow and laggy and you might as well get a new phone once that’s out. If you stay on iOS 4, stuff that used to work stops working. Apps stop working with the older OS and you have to JB and install an older IPA to be able to continue using software. It’s quite a mess over there.
The virtue Android has is that the phone will always work at least as well as it did when you bought it, and most likely better when you finally get an update. That’s also the case with Windows Phone, except you’re more likely to get an update.
Compare someone purchasing an iPhone 3GS to a Lumia 710 – the 710 is cheaper and it has very smooth performance. The 3GS costs more and is already laggy and will only get worse with updates. The Lumia 710 will keep getting updates that provide minor improvements, but none that actually make the experience worse.
The 710 is a far better purchase than the iPhone 3GS. As for the iPhone 4, it evens out a bit, but you can be sure that iOS 6 will make the iPhone 4 a laggy experience, and when you’re talking the iPhone 4, the comparable Lumia for price is a 900, which also won’t ever get upgraded into uselessness.
I’d rather have a phone that gets less updates but still works fine after 3-4 years (good backup phone or to pass on to family) than one that’s useless after 3-4 years.
Already upgraded my Mother’s iPhone4 twice and that’s not the experience, iPhone 3GS is three years old now, when iOS6 comes most iPhone4 users will be looking at buying the new iPhone5. When WP7.8 is the last update you receive on a Lumia900 you’ll have another 18months to run on a standard UK two contract.
We’ll let the marketplace decide, but us doubters and naysayers have been proven continuously right.
It’s already happened to me and other people. It’ll happen again. They might be slowing down a bit now as the iPod touch 4G only has 256MB RAM and the 5G is the same as the 4G, but that’ll only last for so long. Apple wants the upgrade treadmill.
Anyone buying phones on the leading edge does not plan on keeping them for that long and quite frankly any techie buying a Windows Phone should have known about the possiblity of them not being upgraded to WP8 and any non-techie will be perfectly happy with 7.5/7.8.
Don’t think Nokia’s USA Lumia 900 promotions or MS “smoked by da Winows Phone” is exactly aimed a bleeding edge techie early adopters. Nor have their campaigns in UK (including discounts, headphone give-aways, booths in rail stations, malls etc.). I would imagine 90% of the sales resultant form these activities and indeed most Lumia slaes in 2012 are to those completely unaware that they were buying into (as Paul Thurrott describes it whilst saying he was aware of it since Dec 2011 but decided to let Nokia and MS try to get on with selling) an already “Orphaned” device.
hah.. Nokia is announcing new apps.. this is just sad.. I can’t watch this.
Scalado, another thing to give to Microsoft
That’s not what’s going to be happening at all, they’ll be bringing that in with PureView, and will probably continue acquiring good camera startups to provide the best camera experience on any smartphone going forward.
why is the nokia presenter such an ass !!
why..? because he doesn’t believe in what he is saying
Nokia’s approach to this has been awkward from day 1.
It takes too much effort from him to talk about Nokia and not slip Microsoft
Is this pureview for WP ?
Byebye Nokia. You might still be alive when you are ready to launch WP8 devices despite the fact that you sold almost no WP Mango devices after June 20th after resellers started to avoid having them in stock and the incompetent (as Elop put it) sales guys are not promoting them.
Then you wait probably 1 year to get the low end devices out, which might run the old version of WP creating the very mess he said he wanted to avoid.
In a month you have nothing else to sell than bunch of Ashas and a camera.
Next up – implementing the next billion… wait… next 10 000 firing strategy. I sure hope that someone leaks the name of the change management consulting company that you’ve been using.
Microsoft might have to pump some cash in there if they want to get the best out of them, before letting them sink into bankruptcy.
The money does not maintain the logistics chain or presense at the stores, just for survival.
And Im not saying that WP didnt look good, it does. It would be better with Swipe skin, but there is not going to be one, I guess.
Well, they had to set the record straight sooner or later – at least they’ve kept quiet throughout most of the Q2. Q3 will be a disaster for Nokia, but they’re playing their strategy now… We can only watch and weep.
+1 . How those suckers gonna feel when contracts come up agian. Yet another wave of satisfied consumers after the N97 mugs spreading the good word about Nokia.
The N97 is a completely different beast, the objections weren’t due to the lack of upgradability (that was already a grumble point for the N95), but that it just sucked.
Correct. It’s a dumb analogy.
No it’s about long term customer satisfaction pride of ownership and making them feel good about their purchase – not techno wonk.
And by the way owing to it’s terrible hardware the N97 wasn’t updated (last meaningful update was 7months after intro, final firmware 11months after launch) it didn’t even receive features that were ported onto X6 and 5800. In some ways because of it’s limited hardware (not Nokia’s choice this time) the L900 won’t be offered a full two years upgrade support (not even the 18months+ MS is promising for WP8). The choice not to upgrade it is more deliberate this time rather than force of circumstance however the end effect is still the same for recent Lumia purchasers. In fact can argue it’s even more cynical in that they have recently introduced a highly priced flagship device that has an accelerated obsolescence integral to it.
Happy customers not angry customers that’s what’ll keep the wolf from Nokia’s door.
Long term, any Lumia will still be good. It won’t be upgraded to the bleeding edge, but that isn’t the most important.
You miss the point. The 900 is currently a fine piece of hardware with a good OS which will now be improved. The N97 was and always will be a turd right from day one.
It amazes me that anyone thinks this is going to be an issue for the average consumer given that WP8 won’t be out for four months by which time the Lumia 900 will be six months old.
Microsoft clearly think long term support and upgrades are important otherwise why make such a point of emphasising 18moths+ of upgrade support for WP8 and upwards devices. And a Lumia 900 purchased fresh after introduction in Germany gets? Yep not quite the 18 months – in fact as far as revealed not even 8 months.
I actually don’t like the new start screen that much. Seems more cluttered with the quarter icons.
And it seems the only feature coming to 7.8 from 8 is the start screen (according to the closing notes)
it can look exactly like the old one if you want to.
Ngh… But I don’t think it will have the golden ratio. (The little black space on the right) Shame they eliminated that. I like how you can resize the tiles, but I would prefer they keep the black space. TT_TT
More cluttered? But we like this clutter. Look at Android’s homescreen or Symbian. There is at least some form in this.
Is there any information on what features of WP8 will make it to WP7.8 except the start screen?
I would think anything that isn’t dependent on newer hardware. So probably the wallet feature as well.
I am not a fan of this lower spec. Sorry but work on the customer experience and not worry about price points all the time. Apple got around the price points by selling older generaton hardware at lower prices. It gives confidence to consumers to know that even after 2 years the table or phone they bought it still being sold and supported.
Of course they’re in for a nasty surprise when they buy an iPhone 3GS that ships with iOS5, with no further updates and a laggy experience.
There are huge risks associated with this approach. I think the response from Microsoft and Nokia was sort of adequate, the 7.8 and the host of future updates coming from Nokia for current Lumias are still a major attraction to look forward to – but only barely, anything less would have been a complete PR suicide.
Still even though it played out exactly as we expected already in the spring, this will be a tough pill for the market to swallow. I don’t know it will play out, but at least we understood why it will happen and had the right speculation early on – many of us can say those “I told you sos” today, ever so important here on MNB.
But good to hear updates are still coming. Leaving current devices completely without would have been a disaster.
So, I told you so.
I think it’ll definitely impact upper end sales, and might result in some pretty unhappy Lumia 800 and 900 customers, but Lumia 710 and 610 customers likely won’t mind.
Nokia has in the past offered trade in options to get newer phones, so they could very easily do that for all Lumia owners, while offering better trade in values for the 800 and 900 to get a new WP8 phone. Hell, even throw Symbian users a bone too.
Sure, there are plenty of marketing activities that might still happen too, such as offering U.S AT&T customers free upgrades come fall. Nokia being on stage at the Microsoft event not only about maps, but also about their Lumia-specific updates tells us that they are understanding the issue.
Still, tricky. Time will tell how will it work out.
I agree but not just AT&T, any 900 purchaser.
Well, some discount on upgrade would be welcome, but it depends if Nokia can afford it atm. Somebody has to sit and calculate what will cost them more – negative PR or providing upgrade incentives.
Still, if there is something positive that can be taken out of this – at most a couple of million users, mostly far more forgiving early adopters, will be affected, if that came at later time it could be even more of a disaster to both Nokia and Microsoft. Q3 will be though for Nokia, tho. 808PV ain’t gonna raise the sales enough to avoid a deep loss.
808 is premium.. very few will go for it at that price point. And.. they will never tell us how many they’ve sold, just like they didn’t with the N8. But I agree with you, 808 won’t contribute much to the overall sales.. but it will be better than nothing at all I guess.
Looks like current Lumia owners (like me) never going to get Apps like BBC iPlayer (despite shrouded hints from Nokia and never ending assurance from MS astroturfers here WPCentral, WMPuser et al – not including you in this).
This is the real knee to the groin as most Apps now built will probably be aimed at WP8 and higher. Frankly there must be few enough for Nokia and MS to take them out onto the ice and abandon them so why should developers make the extra effort to include them? Anyone who bought a Lumia 900 is now a fool or rich or both.
Guys what about Bluetooth file transfer, phone to pc internet using usb?
BTF probably won’t show up… you really want USB internet sharing instead of WiFi?
Do you know what they call NFC… You guys should forget about bluethooth no one cares about it. No company will build a phone for fanboys!!! IPhone don’t have by but people buy them. No company care about the fanboys they just want to sell their device to people not fanboys!!! Because fanboys doesn’t make half a percent in the world.
You sound like an unbelievable douche. NFC is not a file sharing technology, file sharing via NFC essentially relies on bluetooth/wifi. It allows for near field connectivity, for short amounts of time and small amounts of data. Not full fledged file sharing.
I am all for this move. Nokia will continue to build around the cheaper devices and if they sell there will still be apps for them as well!
Tmobile germany already refuses to sell the lumia 900.
Whilst being happy to sell the 800 and 710. Nice try though, troll.
http://www.t-mobile.de/windows-phone/0,21767,25055-_,00.html
Actually Tmobile service were quoted giving that as the reason why they weren’t ranging the L900, of course it’s a quote translated badly from the German original (source WMP IIRC) and it is only from a service desk.
Still Lumia 710 for GBP99-129 (actually it’s just been delisted over last couple of days at CPW and Voda some left at P4U, replaced by L610) is completely different proposition in expectations from Lumia 900 at GBP499 or whatever the equivalent prices are in Germany.
Loving the winner’s picture