Thread: Problem: Compatibility breaks between OS and device releases
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DaveP1 is offline DaveP1
2009-10-21 , 16:17
Posts: 607 | Thanked: 450 times | Joined on Sep 2009 @ Washington, DC
#26
Originally Posted by UCOMM View Post
based on past history it'll be supported by nokia for about a year, you know this, i know this, everyone knows this, its not some hidden fact its how they do business, look at how they support their phones for example

there is nothing wrong with this by me, as i've preordered with this knowledge in mind
I would question that "everyone knows this" and I haven't seen any official Nokia pronouncement that Maemo 5 will only be supported for X number of years or that the N900 will not be upgradable to Maemo 6. In fact, the phrase "Maemo 6" exists on only two pages within the site www.nokia.com; both being a press release about Qt. This information may exist but it certainly isn't easily accessible to the consumer.

This isn't a problem for the cell phone market. Cell phones are purchased with the assumption that if you want a newer OS in a year you buy a newer phone. For the smartphone market, this is assumption may change depending upon how backward compatible the new set of OS upgrades are. For the portable computer market, this has never been the assumption.

Whether it will hurt Nokia at the high end remains to be seen. It certainly doesn't help.