No Windows Mobile 6.1 Upgrades for Current iPAQs

[Ed Hardy]

Last week, Microsoft formally unveiled Windows Mobile 6.1, the latest version of its operating system for handhelds and smartphones.

Naturally, the owners of current devices are anxious to know if and when updates for their units will be released.

Unfortunately, there's bad news for users of HP's latest iPAQs. Responding to a question from Brighthand, Mike Hockey, Hewlett-Packard's Worldwide Public Relations Manager, said:

HP will not be offering an operating system upgrade for currently shipping HP iPAQ devices beyond what ships on the device today -- Microsoft Windows Mobile 6. 

This decision comes after having evaluated the potential for delays in firmware and software updates, device recertification, and carry-over costs to our customers that are often associated with an operating system upgrade.

HP is committed to continuing its long-standing relationship with Microsoft and will deliver HP iPAQs with Windows Mobile 6.1 at a future date.

Related Articles:

• Microsoft Announces Windows Mobile 6.1
• HP iPAQ 210 Enterprise Handheld Review
• HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld Review

[yildi]

As an old Hx4700 user, I was not counting on any reasonable policy by HP on this topic (the updates for Hx4700 were very late and nearly unusable, in comparison with cooked ROMs...). HP's customer policy definitely sucks but they produce the best pocketPCs... The competition does not aim at the same customer base and we are stuck with HP and its despising policies...

[TimothyP]

Unbelieveable. What was the point of putting the device out and delaying it. This sucks. Now we have to go with some cooked rom in order to get flash on our devices. Great

[SHC]

This is bad because this is not an upgrade from 2003SE to WM5 (as in the 4700) but just an incremental update from WM6 to WM6.1 What is in 6.1 that would make it difficult for HP to engineer? It makes me even more suspicious that they know there are problems with the 21x implementation of WM6.

And where would we get a cooked ROM from? Hp are just about the only one producing PDA's without phones. It would be some chef who could cook that up!

[wetsleet]

As an old Hx4700 user, I was not counting on any reasonable policy by HP on this topic (the updates for Hx4700 were very late and nearly unusable, in comparison with cooked ROMs...). HP's customer policy definitely sucks but they produce the best pocketPCs... The competition does not aim at the same customer base and we are stuck with HP and its despising policies...

so what value, if any, do we place on HP's promise of a 3 year support cycle?

[treynolds]

on exactly what the advantages of 6.1 would be on the Ipaq 210???

While we all want the latest and greatest, I would rather have a stable OS, than have one with quirks.

Additionally, I'm not certain that I have the patience to wait for an Ipaq with 6.1, especially given the uncertainty of whether they'd release another device with VGA or greater resolution.

That's my quandry now. Get the 210 soon and have a relatively nice, easy to use VGA device, or wait for a MID with roughly the same form-factor and greater resolution?

Tony

[adamz]

Unbelieveable. What was the point of putting the device out and delaying it. This sucks. Now we have to go with some cooked rom in order to get flash on our devices. Great

You don't need WM 6.1 to get Flash. Just install it. Here's how:
http://www.allshadow.com/2007/11/28/...-online-video/

Using TCPMP to play Flash video is 1000 times better than having it embedded in the browser like with Skyfire or Opera Mobile.

[Genjinaro]

AFAIK, never buy HP PDAs/Smartphones if you expect to get official upgrades. HP has done this sandbagging with WM6 and will continue this in the future.

[NamelessPlayer]

If HP won't do it, the community will. Given all those cooked ROMs for devices like the hx4700, the X50v and X51v, and all of those HTC phones, somebody's bound to try and bring WM6.1 to the 210.

[Adama D. Brown]

I'm rather surprised by this. With HP talking about a 3-year support cycle, I would have expected them to bother with at least the WM6.1 update rather than trying to slog along with 6.0 for all this time.