Paul Thurrott confirms no Windows Phone 8 for any current handsets
No. It won’t happen. Not for the Lumia 900, and not for any other existing phone. It won’t happen partially, through an update that will deliver just some features, and it won’t happen for those who wish to pay for such an update. It simply isn’t happening.
You can't get any more clear than that. Thurrott forced a contact with Microsoft to reveal this info and has three reasons why it won't be happening. First, the economics aren't worth it. The current Windows Phone ecosystem is pretty small, and will probably have fewer than 20 million handsets sold by the time Windows Phone 8 is planned to launch. The small size of the ecosystem compared with the cost of building Windows Phone 8 to support those handsets apparently isn't worthwhile for Microsoft.
Lastly, Thurott claims that carriers simply would "never, ever, ever, ever deliver this update to users." Thurrott doesn't really explain this claim, just saying that he knows for a fact that it will never happen.
Of course, Thurrott has been known to be wrong in the past, but he also does have some very solid contacts with Microsoft, so it's hard to say whether this is all true or not. It does make sense, and we've seen similar things happen with both iOS and Android, where older hardware had to be left behind in order to push forward the platform. We'll just have to wait and see if it's true.
source: WindowsITPro via WMPU
