WinMo 6.5 devices will not be upgraded to Windows Phone 7

After lot of speculations on whether Windows Mobile 6.5 devices can be upgraded to the new Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft has confirmed that you will not be able to do that. The reason – most of the 6.5 devices doesn’t meet the (very) strict guidelines that Microsoft has imposed for its new phone software.

From the original article from APC magazine,

That’s the official line from Microsoft, at any rate. Natasha Kwan, General Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific region, told APC that the HD2 “doesn’t qualify because it doesn’t have the three buttons”.

HTC’s slick HD2 smartphone seems to have most of what Microsoft wants in a
Windows Phone 7 device, except for two buttons too many…

Not that Microsoft is singling our the HD2 as a phone or even HTC as a manufacturer. “Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable”, Kwan explained.

This could see a decrease in the sales of WinMob 6.5 phones as customers might wait till the year end for the Windows Phone 7 series. The news is that the very first WP7 series mobile will be released by september this year.