USA withhold from buying Motorola MPx200 until ROM upgrade

[Guest peekie]

the wanting of the 2003 os for the motorola seems to be getting the americans angry

  While people in Asia (dopod515, O2 Xphone) and EU (Orange SPV e200, Qtek 8080) already enjoy benefits of the Smartphone 2003 operating system, the users in USA still are stuck in middle ages and forced to use old Smartphone 2002 - an outdated OS that lacks .NET technology and many other features of the contemporary version. 

Motorola proposed lately to AT&T Wireless carrier (soon to be Cingular) a ROM upgrade to Smartphone 2003, but AT&T Wireless still has doubts whether to go this way at all! Soon AT&T Wireless is to decide which way to go: ROM upgrade to Smartphone 2003 or small patches for Smartphone 2002. Until now the common practice at AT&T Wireless was just to switch to the new phone model and not to upgrade the software. In the business model imposed by Microsoft it is operator, not vendor, that provides software upgrades. So if operator decides not to make the upgrade, the users will be left in limbo by this whole messy business model that involves Motorola (hardware vendor), AT&T Wireless (operator/carrier) and Microsoft (software vendor). Our advice to users is clear: dont buy Microsoft smartphones powered by an oudated operating system - Smartphone 2002 - but just wait till operators (or vendors) will release ROM upgrade to Smartphone 2003, or just dont buy it! Interestingly renowned ZDNet has similar opinions: 

The phone I want to add--the physical device--is Motorolas MPx200, which runs Microsofts Smartphone OS. The shiny black plastic looks cheap to me, but the phone is really easy to use and has been a good performer. Right now, my demo unit is on AT&T Wireless, so I need to see whether Sprint PCS or Verizon sells this phone. Or maybe Ill buy in when the 2003 operating system comes to devices at a carrier I like.

to read more and come to your own conclusions go here

http://www.smartphone.net