Microsoft Windows Phone 7 upgrades to be determined by OEMs

There’s nothing worse than plunking down a wad of cash and investing some emotional currency into a shiny new Windows Mobile smartphone, only to have it become nearly obsolete a few months later when Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 Series comes rolling through town. Microsoft knows this, and they’re apparently going to allow certain handsets to be upgraded to Windows Phone 7 at some point after the mobile OS’s launch later this year. The only catch? It’ll be up to Windows Phone OEMs to determine if they want to spend the extra cash in licensing and porting Windows Phone 7 to work with existing hardware.

The news comes from a thoughtfully worded tweet from Microsoft’s Director of the company’s UK Mobile Business Group, Alex Reeve. In response to a question that was posted to Twitter, asking if recently Windows Mobile 6.5 phones would be getting some upgrade love from Microsoft, Reeve stated that:

It’s early days yet, and that’s really for our hardware partners to think about.

In those few words, Microsoft has basically confirmed that WP7 upgrades will be available on more smartphones than just the HTC HD2. It will be up to the likes of HTC and Samsung to bless their smartphones with the new Windows Phone platform – as long as they meet Microsoft’s minimum specs for WP7 phones.

So, don’t worry too much about your high-end smartphone getting left behind when Windows Phone 7 goes live. It’ll probably depend on just how “high-end” (read: expensive) your Windows Phone is, but there’s a chance you might be getting upgraded to the new hotness from Microsoft later this year or early next year.

[Via: MyMicrosoftLife]