Some Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 device owners will be in big trouble when Windows 10 Mobile releases later in the year. From what we’ve come to understand, any handset with 4GB of internal storage will not be able to update to the new operating system.
This is a surprise and no doubt it will cause some device uses to launch in a fit of rage. After all, Microsoft did state that all Windows 8 and 8.1 devices will be able to get Windows 10 Mobile when the operating system becomes widely available.
Microsoft said that the operating system will take up a whopping 5GB of space on your smartphone, a number that is quite large for a smartphone operating system. It means that only devices with 8GB or more storage will be able to receive the Windows 10 Mobile update.
With the vast amount of things Windows 10 Mobile is capable of doing, we in some ways can understand why this is happening, but the many persons who have purchased these devices will not because a promise was made.
As we sit here thinking about this issue, we have to say that Microsoft must be planning a second version of Windows 10 Mobile that is less feature rich than the 5GB version. We say this because the low-end market is where Microsoft sell the most phones, so Windows 10 Mobile should be able to run on these low space handsets.
Unless the software giant is aiming to only release 8GB or more devices for Windows 10 Mobile in the future, something we would stand behind because 4GB internal storage is ants food these days.
At the end of the day, Microsoft is going down a troubling path because this could cause some Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users to jump ship. The most loyal will upgrade to newer handsets, but others, they might very well look to Android.
Source: Microsoft Germany.
5gb for a mobile OS? Really what is in it?
Microsoft! Who told you to dump Windows Desktop code bases to the mobile OS
That is no different to Android though. not uncommon for a 16gb phone to have 11gb free. See the Xperia M4 Aqua 8gb for a fine example. 8gb total, 3gb free from factory and once the google apps are updated, between 1.2-1.7 gb free.Even IOS won’t run on 8gb any more. This is a non story. As mobile OS’s have progressed, they have added more functionality and they get bigger.
Does it matter if a large proportion or even the whole of the phone’s storage is taken up with the OS if in addition there is a Memory Card with many GBs of additional storage available? A small handful of apps cannot be run from the Card, not many. I only ask.
I think this was available since mid August: http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/mobile/windows10/
“While we’re working hard to make Windows 10 available for other Lumia
devices, the following is a first list of Lumia smartphones that will
receive a free upgrade when available: Lumia 430, Lumia 435, Lumia 532,
Lumia 535, Lumia 540, Lumia 635 (1 GB RAM), Lumia 640, Lumia 640 XL,
Lumia 735, Lumia 830, and Lumia 930. Features may vary by device. 8 GB
of internal memory required”
In this case it matters because the OS is physically bigger than the entire emmc flash available. This rules out 4gb phones from getting the update at all.
Otherwise you are correct, the option introduced in windows phone 8.1 to run apps from the SD card by default takes care of phones with smaller flash sizes.