Like any mobile platform, Windows Mobile has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the weakest areas is the upgrade story, or rather, the lack of much of a story at all. I can just about count on one hand the number of devices graced with an upgrade from one WinMo version to another, but that will be changing with WinMo 7.I Started Something had a discussion with Loke Uie Tan, a technical program manager for Windows Mobile and the update story has been confirmed. It originally surfaced back in April when Microsoft posted a job description that mentioned the update.

Currently, users are at the mercy of their carrier or OEM to release an upgrade. Even if the phone manufacturer does issue an upgrade, like HTC, that is no guarantee the cellular company will offer it. This is even when the upgrade is free. For example, when the WinMo 5 devices started shipping in 2005, they lacked the ability to use the new push email feature that Exchange 2003 SP2 had. Instead it relied on the old method of waiting for the server to send an SMS to the device to wake it up and initiate a sync. Microsoft offered the update for free in the hopes that all WinMo 5 users would get the upgrade, but they didn't. I know first hand T-Mobile didn't bother releasing an update for their brand new SDA.

I guess that even if the update was free, the testing, deployment and subsequent support in the event of a problem aren't free. The upgrade scenario from one version to the next is worse because it isn't just a minor update but an entirely new OS and Microsoft doesn't give those away for free.

In the future, this will be changing. From the article:

Recognizing the current barriers with the process of upgrading Windows phones today, it can be confirmed that the Windows Mobile team are indeed working towards modifying the system architecture to potentially enable delivery of OS updates without affecting and/or requiring the phone ROM - effectively cutting out the OEMs, telcos that currently and unnecessary slow down the update cycle.

This will mirror what happens on the desktop. Buy your computer from whomever you want but when Microsoft releases an update or upgrade, you can apply it at your discretion. Apple has been doing this since the iPhone launched and Android and WebOS also have this model.

This won't happen tomorrow though. I suspect this change requires substantial modification in how the OS is built and would be something that makes more sense to include in WinMo 7 than in WinMo 6.5, which still shares be basic underpinnings of the other WinMo 6.x family.

WinMo 7 should be out in 2010, so we don't have too much longer to wait for this. It is good to see Microsoft is pushing back against the carriers on this and taking matters into their own hands. The carrier's attitude has basically been that you got what you paid for when you purchased the device and there are no promises of upgrades. That might work with a $50 feature phone but not with a smartphone. The carriers don't get that a smartphone is a computer and people expect upgrades.