A few handsets are upgradeable to Windows Phone

Rating: And the first one off the stocks is the Samsung Jack

A little gem that popped into our email letterbox on Xmas eve. The news comes that some existing Windows Mobile handsets can be updated to Windows Phone (6.5). The first such update is for the Samsung Jack (SGH-i637) but others will follow.

The advantage for Microsoft here, of course, is that those who bother to update immediately get support for its store -Marketplace for Mobile – built-in.

GoMo News wonders whether that’s an indication that only a few owners of Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 have bothered to download the Marketplace client from here.

The other benefit Microsoft claims that Windows Phone provides is to “enjoy the same high-quality browsing and media-viewing experience that you’ve come to expect on your desktop computer.”

Strange that because we’ve all loaded Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome to improve the Windows browsing experience, rather than use Internet Explorer.

A quick look at the update to 6.5 page shows that nine handsets should eventually be upgradeable. The majority of these are HTC or Samsung handsets but there’s also something called a Pharos Traveler 137 . Pharos appears to be a GPS device specialist.

This snippet was gleaned from Microsoft’s ‘Insider News’ which is free for anyone interested in Windows Phone. The newsletter also promotes ‘Holiday’ ringtones here.

These free ringtones include one with dogs barking along to Christmas carols and one called a Hawaiian Christmas luau. Shouldn’t be hard to guess what the Windows Bells ringtone does, should it?

Incidentally, if you visit that page, you’ll be able to sign up for the Insider newsletter.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran comms journalist. Tony also writes on the UK market… contact him here tony@mobileinsight.co.uk