Lorenzo Barbieri @ Weblogs.Asp.Net

Shake your thoughts... Confessions of a MSF and .NET addicted
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What I really don't like from PocketPC... Unability to ugrade!

If you buy a Microsoft product, you know that it will have releases from time to time... And if you decide, you pay the upgrade price and you have the latest release.

But this is quite impossible with PocketPC.

I bought a PocketPC 2002 device in 2002, and I wanted to upgrade to WM2003, but I can't... and I can't update also to WS2003SE...

I was prepared to pay something, but I can't.

Perhaps the distribution model of PPC OS (built in Rom, updatable only by OEM and not by the user buying something from Microsoft itself) is too limited for today's rapid evolutions.

What do you think?

Posted: Mar 31 2004, 10:07 PM by barbilor | with 9 comment(s)
Filed under: ,

Comments

Doug Reilly said:

Even having availability of an upgrade does not assure success:

http://blog.mobilizedsoftware.com/archives/000752.html

This tells my tale of woe, where the T-Mobile update to Windows Mobile 2003 fries my Pocket PC Phone.

Sigh.
# March 31, 2004 4:24 PM

Paolo Marcucci said:

It depends, Lorenzo. My Toshiba E740 is NOT user upgradable, while many HP models are. It's all in the hands of the manufacturer...

Actually, the E740 has all the capabilities to run WM2k3, but Toshiba decided to sell the E750 and E800 instead of providing an upgrade path to existing owners. Needless to say, my next one won't be a Toshiba (a pity, because it's a very nice device)
# March 31, 2004 5:12 PM

Lorenzo Barbieri said:

I have a Compaq/HP 3800 (Italian version) and this model (with many other from HP) was upgradable, but they've decided to don't allow it.
Neither to the EEU4 version of PPC2002... or whatever is called...
# March 31, 2004 5:19 PM

Josh said:

It is a limitation of your vendor, not the OS.

Dell offers a WM2K3 upgrade for its PocketPC 2002 Axims. Of course, it costs $29 (which I'm pretty sure was set by MS, not Dell). I haven't upgraded yet, it isn't clear that it provides much more than a service pack, and I don't like to pay for service packs.

I think the REAL problem with the PocketPC is that it hangs so often, requiring soft boots, or hard boots. This is not specific to my Dell, I've seen it on many models. I never had that problem with my Palm, unless I was doing something really funky (development).
# March 31, 2004 5:33 PM

Lorenzo Barbieri said:

What I really mean is that I want to be able to upgrade the OS from Microsoft itself, non being left in the hands of this or that OEM...
# March 31, 2004 5:35 PM

Lorenzo Barbieri said:

I think that is a problem with the licensing of the OS.
# March 31, 2004 5:37 PM

Chad said:

I was able to upgrade my iPaq with a $100 new rom that I slapped in the back
# March 31, 2004 6:21 PM

Carl said:

What totally sucks is that Toshiba doesn't even offer the 2003 upgrade anymore.

I stopped using my e750 for a while and recently tried to upgrade it but no dice. Toshiba stopped offering the upgrade.

Does anyone know if the upgrades are the same from manufacturer to manufacturer? Can I buy the Dell upgrade and use it on my Toshiba?
# April 13, 2004 4:16 PM

Walter said:

Is there a way to buy the tech specs from Toshiba so as to develop a means to program e740s? It seems like such a waste of fertile hardware to have simply die the 'planned obsolesence' route Toshiba has laid for it.

I'm thinking like today's auto tuner market. There has to be those whom can take this platform to a new level. Sheesh...its got expandability up the whazooo.
# June 15, 2004 11:15 PM
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