Sunday, March 28, 2004
More Windows Mobile 2003, Second Edition Upgrading Goodness from HP?
Posted by Jonathon Watkins in "NEWS" @ 01:00 PM
IPAQabilities have a Windows Mobile 2003, Second Edition Overview, with a sting in the tail. They report the following: "My contact at HP has informed me that HP will be releasing a ROM update for current iPAQ Pocket PC's from the H2200 series and up (H2200, H4100, H4300, H5100, and H5500 series). Even though I asked, there was no timeline given to me as to when we can expect the ROM updates to become available at HP's Support website.” So far so good, but……..
”Yes, that means the H1900, H3600, H3700, H3800, H3900, and H5400 series are being left out since these are not current models. This will quite potentially upset owners of those iPAQ's, especially the one's looking forward to these enhancements provided by Microsoft. Even though the H193x and H194x are current models, they are being left out because of memory limitations on its ROM. Furthermore, future iPAQ Pocket PC's that will get released by HP will ship with Windows Mobile 2003, Second Edition pre-installed.” Note that this is not currently official, but it does not look good. :|
Is this more OEMs testing the water, or a worrying sign of things to come? First Toshiba, then Dell and now HP are leaving their users without an upgrade path for really very recent devices. If there is not enough Flash ROM available then that’s one thing, but there is enough for a lot of these devices that are not going to be supported. These are *Pocket PCs* we’re talking about here. :roll: They are designed and marketed to be upgradeable. PPC2003 was faster and more stable than PPC2002 for me, and like most of you, I was looking forward to the enhancements of PPC2003SE. Toshiba learned, will Dell & HP learn it time as well? :?: It's not like we want these for free for slightly older devices. We are willing to pay a reasonable fee for the upgrade - it's only fair.
Let’s hope that there is still time to change the manufacturer’s minds about this. :?
”Yes, that means the H1900, H3600, H3700, H3800, H3900, and H5400 series are being left out since these are not current models. This will quite potentially upset owners of those iPAQ's, especially the one's looking forward to these enhancements provided by Microsoft. Even though the H193x and H194x are current models, they are being left out because of memory limitations on its ROM. Furthermore, future iPAQ Pocket PC's that will get released by HP will ship with Windows Mobile 2003, Second Edition pre-installed.” Note that this is not currently official, but it does not look good. :|
Is this more OEMs testing the water, or a worrying sign of things to come? First Toshiba, then Dell and now HP are leaving their users without an upgrade path for really very recent devices. If there is not enough Flash ROM available then that’s one thing, but there is enough for a lot of these devices that are not going to be supported. These are *Pocket PCs* we’re talking about here. :roll: They are designed and marketed to be upgradeable. PPC2003 was faster and more stable than PPC2002 for me, and like most of you, I was looking forward to the enhancements of PPC2003SE. Toshiba learned, will Dell & HP learn it time as well? :?: It's not like we want these for free for slightly older devices. We are willing to pay a reasonable fee for the upgrade - it's only fair.
Let’s hope that there is still time to change the manufacturer’s minds about this. :?
