Question

I recently got a Windows mobile phone and was wondering how often I should update the OS, is it as important to update the phone's OS as it is to update a PC's OS?

Answer 1

With today's security problems the answer should be : "as often as possible".
Mobile phones are starting to have their own viruses, so that I would recommend that newly discovered security holes be plugged as soon as possible.
It's not fun to find that your phone was infected just because you sat next to the wrong guy on the bus/metro/restaurant. And unlike the PC, I don't know of any antivirus products that scan mobile phones.

Answer 2

Usually WinMo updates are really upgrades to a new version and come out whenever MS gets around to cooking up a new one. However, not all phones will be eligible for the upgrade. Some older phones won't get upgraded at all.

After a certain amount of time, you will have to buy a new phone with the newest OS or just live with the one you have because your phone won't qualify for any OS upgrades.

Answer 3

My experience and listening to other people's stories is that this depends on the mobile device. I would like to think you could just upgrade at any time, but it seems like people have had issues upgrading older windows mobile devices to newer versions. I would love to be proved wrong on this, but it seems really dependant on the device (hardware) and the phone features. I would think most things would be backwards compatible, but like with most OS upgrades, it does take more resources to run.

None the less, I think minor updates are important if they are security or bug fixes. Microsoft seems to kind of ignore windows mobile IMHO though.

Answer 4

My Mobile phone with Windows Mobile is about 2 years old. Can't remember when I did an update, but I never did an upgrade because I'd never be sure the upgrade would work. Besides, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Of course, it also depends on how you use your phone. Next to making phone calls, I generally just use it to maintain my contact list, some notes, a few games, as a simple camera and that's basically it. I know I can access the Internet with it, but that's a feature I don't use. (Too expensive, since I use prepaid, which costs me about $50 per year...)

Answer 5

I update my phone whenever it starts to slow down. There are huge communities that create custom "cooked" roms. I've been running 6.5 with some much better finger-friendly modifications. It made my phone useable without a stylus. I use the ppcgeeks.com forums to look for roms and other troubleshooting.