No Windows Phone 8 upgrade for you?

Will Windows Phone 7 device owners be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8? Sources are saying no, while Microsoft itself has yet to provide a straight answer.

The controversy erupted yesterday after a Microsoft developer evangelist stated in an interview that all current Windows Phone 7 (aka Mango) devices will receive the Windows Phone 8 (aka Apollo) upgrade, as reported by WMPower User. The interview was conducted in Portuguese, so the English translation may not be exact. But the translated comments seemed to confirm the upgrade path.

However, sources are saying there will be no Windows Phone 8 upgrade for devices running Windows Phone 7.

A "trusted source close to Microsoft" shared the "no upgrade" tidbit with the Verge late yesterday. That echoed a report early last month from blogging site Unwired in which device makers at Mobile World Congress were purposely mum about Windows Phone upgrade plans.

Mary Jo Foley of CNET sister site ZDNet expressed concerns last month over the lack of an upgrade path from Mango. Foley's own sources have told her that Apollo won't be pushed out to existing Windows Phone users. And Microsoft itself made no mention of any upgrades in a conversation with Foley.

Microsoft has so far been cagey about the controversy, releasing the following statement to CNET that focused on application compatibility rather than device upgrades:

"We have stated publicly that all apps in our marketplace today will run on the next version of Windows Phone. Beyond that, we have nothing to share about future releases."

If the sources are correct, why won't Mango devices be able to handle Apollo?

The answer seems to lie in the hardware requirements, according to Unwired. Windows Phone 7 currently supports only single-core processors and WVGA screens. But sources say that Microsoft will jump to dual-core chips and higher-resolution screens in Windows Phone 8. Foley also tweeted about the inability to upgrade, saying she thinks the platform changes from Mango to Apollo will be too deep.

So all those people now buying Nokia Lumia handsets and other Windows Phone 7 devices will be out of luck when Apollo likely lifts off later this year.

Microsoft has revealed little about Windows Phone 8. But a video leaked in February unveiled support for multicore processors, four different screen resolutions, a removable microSD card, and near-field communications.

                                                                                                                                       (courtesy:www.cnet.com)