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Originally posted by JeffLewis
There's no compelling reason for Dell not to upgrade us to 2004 or 2005/6 as long as it fits into the same ROM space. The smaller 32MB space on the low end X5s still works because there are optional apps removed, so the ROM size is smaller...
Of course, they will charge for that - and that's perfectly ok.
Oh.. and of course, they'll announce it in June 2004 and we'll get it in November. :)
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Actually the reason is very simple, cost. It's true that if the ROM can hold it and the platform can run it would seem all go, but that was also true for most of the Toshiba handhelds for which there were no updates offered. They would need to license the OS from Microsoft and then modify it with all of the approriate drivers and apps for the X5, but this isn't the bad part, the part that will cost them is all of the tech support they will need to offer to those who choose to upgrade. I'm guessing that the WM2003 fiasco probably ended up costing Dell a lot when you think about all of the time they had to devote to dealing with that and all of the X5's they had to take back from people who messed up when flashing as well as those who simply could in order to get a device with WM2003.
I don't know if they would want to open a can of worms like that for a product that will most likely have been discontinued when WM2004 comes out. I'd be impressed if they do though. I doubt that HP or Toshiba will be doing the same for the handhelds that were released around the same time the X5 was. I don't expect that an upgrade will be offered, but I'll hope for the best anyway.