Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 Will Co-exist for Quite Some Time

I would expect both platforms to exist for quite some time, from a global point of view. Windows Phone 7.8 devices will span much lower price points than Windows Phone 8 devices, initially, and given the application compatibility across the platforms, it makes the ecosystem stronger to have more device and more price points. We value every 7 and 7.8 customer we have; we’ll continue to work for them as well but it is true that Windows Phone 8 is our future platform. The bottom-line is that Microsoft is attempting to leverage both platforms to cover the low, mid and high-end market. While the United States and other major markets will probably start to see less of Windows Phone 7, and more of the newest OS, this won’t be the case in many markets in Asia, Africa and elsewhere across the globe. This isn’t that much different from Android, when you think about it. Most of the Android users with newer handsets have ICS or Jelly Bean, but there are quite a few with lower-cost handsets that are still running on the much older Android Gingerbread. Do you currently own a Windows Phone 7 device? Are you planning on rushing out and upgrading to Windows Phone 8 hardware as soon as possible or are you happy with your current Windows Phone 7.x handset as long as it gets reasonably decent support with Windows Phone 7.8? [ source ]]]>