Microsoft Reassures Users: Windows Phone 8 Devices Are Upgradeable

When Microsoft revealed Windows Phone 7 devices would not be capable of receiving an upgrade, many customers were quite unhappy. Thankfully, Microsoft learned a lesson and doesn't intend to repeat this policy with Windows Phone 8.

Greg Sullivan, a senior marketing manager at Microsoft, recently confirmed to PC Magazine that the company has an upgrade path for Windows Phone 8 devices moving forward. He also suggested Microsoft's current mobile OS is powerful enough to adopt to new hardware components.

“Windows Phone 8 can evolve. We have an architecture that enables portability and is fundamentally hardware independent,” he said. “As the market evolves and customer requirements demand it, we’ll evaluate options.”

Instead of announcing the next version of Windows Phone at Mobile World Congress and taking advantage of the buzz surrounding the show, Microsoft has developed a new policy. As Sullivan put it, the company now has a "shut up and ship" philosophy. In other words, Microsoft doesn't plan to announce a new version of Windows Phone months before it's ready to ship. The next version of Windows Phone 8 is rumored to be codenamed Windows Phone Blue.

Although we didn't see any formal announcements from Microsoft at Mobile World Congress this year, Sullivan suggested there are exciting new devices and greater interoperability coming in the future.