There’s a video that’s circulating around the internet staring Nuno Silva, Developer Evangelist at Microsoft Portugal, where he “confirms” that today’s Windows Phones will be getting an update to the next major version of the OS. We’re of course talking about Windows Phone 8, codename Apollo. Is he telling the truth? We don’t think so. In fact, we have two independent sources (both Nokia employees) who tell us that what Nuno said was a downright lie. The folks at The Verge have their own source, someone “close to Microsoft”, who is saying the same thing. Who should you believe? Well, that’s up to you. Microsoft’s official statement regarding this situation is: “We have nothing to share about future releases.”
The bigger and more important question: Should you buy a Windows Phone today? Nokia fans are not going to like this answer … but here it goes: We don’t think today’s version of Windows Phone is competitive enough when compared to Android and iOS. If you’re thinking of snatching up a Nokia Lumia 900 for free with a two year contract because you think it’ll get a software update to Apollo, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
What device should you buy? That depends a lot on your budget and what you plan on doing with your phone. It’s easy to say “just buy an iPhone!”, but there’s also the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Samsung Galaxy Note, and even the Samsung Galaxy S II, despite being a year old, is still a device we wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen carrying.
If you do decide to wait for Windows Phone 8, what can you expect? Phones with 720p resolution screens, dual core processors, applications that can share data with each other, the newest version of “Internet Explorer”, NFC, encryption, and the list just goes on and on.
Oh and one more thing. Back in January of this year we published what’s pretty much this exact same story, except the source was Eldar Murtazin, Editor in Chief of Mobile-Review.
Update: This tweet just in from Eldar:
@verge they have Apollo style update in pipeline for wp7 (ui, some apps, tweaks). But it isn’t Apollo. People will like it I think
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 18, 2012
Update: Nuno Silva retracted his comments, says: “The point I was attempting to make was simply that existing Windows Phone applications will run on the next version of Windows Phone. This is the same guidance that Microsoft shared late last year. I mistakenly confused app compatibility with phone updateability, which caused the rumors we saw yesterday.”