Enterprising hackers on XDA Developers have managed to install the latest beta version of Windows Phone 7 Mango onto the last major Windows Mobile 6.5 flagship smartphone in the HTC HD2. Microsoft has even acknowledged the ingenuity of the team responsible and has given its tacit approval, while not completely endorsing the practice as it does require voiding the warranty by unlocking the phone’s original bootloader in order to install the new operating system.
Microsoft spokesman Bill Cox said in a statement to AllThingsD, “We say tinker away with Mango and enjoy the juice, but beware the fine print — unlocking phones may void your warranty.â€
The HTC HD2 was one of the first Windows Mobile smartphones to meet the original Windows Phone 7 hardware specification with a 4.3 inch display and 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which would technically qualify it for the current spec too, were it not for the inclusion of one more button than necessary according to the revised hardware spec.
Since the HD2 had four hardware buttons and the Fall 2010 devices were limited to three as a hard specification, the HD2 was excluded from receiving its previously promised update to Windows Phone 7 despite meeting the Chassis 1 minimum hardware specifications to begin with. This has led to an increasingly resurgent community of HD2 hackers that have made it a point to keep the hardware viable in the face of forced obsolescence by Microsoft and HTC.
I don’t recall anyone ever promising that the HD2 would be upgradable. And I say that as an owner of one!
Yes, HD2 was never supposed to be updated to Windows Phone 7. There was suggestions it might be but nothing was ever confirmed.
Too late MS, I’m running Android Cyanogen in my HD2 w/o problems. I bought my HD2 thinking that if I didn’t like WM6.5 MS will give me WP7, instead they slapped me in the face with a mean comment “By the time WP7 is released, more desirable phones will be available”. You lost a big Fan here MS
HD2android user – Did Google ever promise an Android update for your HD2? Neither did MS. Why blame MS for not delivering on something they never promised in the first place?
You seem content to have modded your HD2 with android…yet it’s just as easy to mod it with WP7. Seems like misplaced anger and you’re only robbing yourself of the experience of running one of the best smartphone OS’s out there.
I’ve run numerous WinMo ROMs, Android ROMs and now WP7 Mango on my HD2. There’s a lot to like about Android and I can say from experience that there’s a lot to like about Mango.
Microsoft is taking the right approach by requiring hardware standards…that HTC didn’t know what those standards were when they designed the HD2 isn’t Microsoft or HTC’s fault – it’s just the way things worked out. MS did the right thing by choosing hardware standards and continues to do the right thing by not trying to prevent us from running WP7 on our HD2s.