Windows Phone Thoughts: Internet Explorer 6 For Windows Mobile Devices - No Upgrades or Updates - New Devices Only

Recently the Windows Mobile team blogged a few bits about the upcoming Internet Explorer engine on Windows Mobile devices that will give you close to the full desktop experience on your device, sort of like the iPhone users have had since mid-2007. Microsoft has decided to only make this available on new devices, a factoid only revealed way down in the comments. There will be no upgrades, direct from MS or an OEM, to put this on your fancy new Windows Mobile device. It apparently can't handle it.

"Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones."

On the one hand, this stinks. On the other, I figured it would be this way anyway. MS rarely ever provides updates to the user directly, instead relying on the OEM partner to dole them out, and the OEM partners tend to offer updates such as this as often as my son picks up his clothes off of the floor voluntarily. At least this way, the OEMs won't take the heat for not providing it, which is I suspect part of the motivation behind it. OEMs are likely to be sick and tired of us users wanting cool new things on the device and calling asking for the updates, either free or for a nominal fee. This way, the OEM can now say MS isn't offering it. Pure speculation on my part of course, but I suspect there is merit to it. Wouldn't have posted it if I didn't think so.