Tuesday 19 March 2013

Microsoft to end Windows Phone 8 support in 2014


Microsoft Support document lists that mainstream support for Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 will end in the year 2014.

Microsoft sets a product life cycle support end date for all its software as well as hardware products. This end date basically represents that the company will not provide any official support or updates for the concerned product. It turns out that support for Windows Phone 8 will end in August 2014. Italian website Plaffo found out the Product Life Cycle Support end dates for Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 platforms.

Microsoft has just started rolling out the new Windows Phone 7.8 update for devices running Windows Phone 7.5, and now we discover the date when official support for Windows Phone 7.8 ends-September 9, 2014. Therefore it leaves about a year and a half for consumers to enjoy Windows Phone 7.8 officially.

The Windows Phone 8 platform was announced on October 29, 2012. This platform will be supported by Microsoft till July 8, 2014, which is about less than a two year life cycle. However, do note that these are estimated dates and the company may extend them if there is huge uproar or need.

It is quite honest of Microsoft to make such information available to the public. Based on these details, one can estimate that a typical smartphone's software will get updates for two years. So the idea is to get consumers to buy freshly launched software-based smartphones as early as possible. Gone are those days when one could use a smartphone beyond two years.

No comments:

Post a Comment