HTC has announced that on October 31, they will remove all Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrades from their web site. This does not affect Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades, and does not affect most U.S. customers.
The majority of HTC phones which were offered an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0, originated in European markets. HTC is required to report back to Microsoft, and pay a trival licensing fee, for each device upgraded. This process, as we have noted in the past, stifles device makers from offering Windows Mobile upgrades for all devices (which in turn, artificially inflates the market share of Windows Mobile… at the severe cost of consumers). There is no reason a Windows Mobile 2003 phone, could not run Windows Mobile 6.1 today.
The two U.S. devices impacted are the HTC Hermes (AT&T 8525), and the S621 (T-Mobile Dash). It is not clear if T-Mobile will continue to offer the Dash upgrade from their web site. Despite HTC’s promise to upgrade all Windows Mobile 6 devices to 6.1… HTC has decided to not keep their word, and not update these two phones.
Hackers have, however, broken through HTC’s lack of reason, and published unofficial Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades for both phones.
To upgrade either device, visit our pages for the two phones (linked below) on the PhoneNews.com Phone Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia: HTC Hermes / AT&T 8525
Encyclopedia: HTC S621 / T-Mobile Dash
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Out of curiosity, do they get charged per download or per individual device, and if per device, how do they count?
It depends on the agreement. Palm records your serial number when you download the update, for them it is per device.
Because HTC has devices re-branded on so many different carriers, I suspect they have negotiated a special one-time payment. Either way, it’s trivial.. Microsoft just charges it so that they can justify the anti-competitive business practice.
(And, that anti-competitive business practice would be refusing to offer upgrades for all devices that can run the upgraded version of Windows Mobile).
[...] you need to worry about are the AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes) and the T-Mobile Dash (S621). As PhoneNews points out, neither of these handsets have been given the 6.1 treatment yet (at least, not [...]