Microsoft To Support Windows Phone 8 Until July 2014
A support document on Microsoft’s website reveals that the company will end support of both Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 in the second half of 2014. For Windows Phone 8 the “Mainstream Support End Date” is July 8th, then Windows Phone 7.8 ends in September 9th – both revealing an 18-month support cycle.
The document also says Windows Phone 8 is already past its “lifecycle start date”, aka the point at which Microsoft starts counting down to the end of support.
Those who enjoy death riding Microsoft’s mobile efforts, which have never achieved success commensurate with the company’s size and influence, could see the short life of Windows Phone 8 as a sign Redmond is backing away from the mobile phone, the better to concentrate on its Surface hybrid tablet devices.
A more favourable and sensible interpretation could suggest the swift demise of Windows Phone 8 is actually a sign of strong ongoing support for Windows Phone, as if Microsoft already knows the day on which it will shut down support for Phone 8 it must have either Windows Phone 8.5 or Windows Phone 9 ready to go pretty soon now.
There has been rumours that Microsoft will unveil the “next release” Windows Phone, currently codenamed “Blue,” sometime during the holiday period of this year. However, there’s no indication of what new features will be included.
[Via Engadget]
