Do you like downloading apps from Windows Phone Marketplace? Well, you’re not allowed to anymore, if you don’t have Windows Phone 7.5 installed. Yes, I’m looking at you lazy folks who bought a WP7 device early and didn’t bother to update it to Mango OS. Microsoft made the announcement early this week, meaning that if you don’t update you can’t get apps.
The requirement applies to both the phone and web Marketplace entries. Anyway that’s not much of a problem, since most WP devices already run Mango, launched last fall and users had enough time to get accustomed to the OS and update to it. If you do run WP7 and try to download or update apps from the Marketplace, you’ll get an error message. So, if you encounter that it’s only logical that a Windows Phone 7.5 update will remove it. Even if you don’t use the Marketplace, the update is still recommended, because it brings hundreds of improvements.
The multitasking is the first one that comes to mind, but there are tons more. This restriction makes me wonder if some day, Windows Phone 8 devices will be the only ones to access the Marketplace and those updated to that OS as well, while WP7.5 Mango users will be left in the dark…
