Microsoft extending Windows Phone 8 support to 36 months, as if you'll keep your device that long
Windows Phone has had a big week so far. Yesterday, T-Mobile announced the release of the Nokia Lumia 925. Today, Nokia made the official announcement for the Lumia 1020. And, Steve Ballmer laid out his plan to reorganize Microsoft's corporate structure. But, there is also news that Microsoft is extending Windows Phone 8 support to 36 months.
Previously, Windows Phone 8 support was 18 months, which was a bit too short considering the tendency for 24-month contracts. And now, Microsoft is extending the support time to 36 months, which seems a bit long to us, because we don't expect that too many people keep their devices for 3 years. Although, the decision makes more sense when you consider that it is aimed at enterprise users, and not the average consumer.
Additionally, Microsoft is planning an enterprise feature pack for WP8 that will be released in the first half of 2014, which will add:
- S/MIME to sign and encrypt email
- Access to corporate resources behind the firewall with app aware, auto-triggered VPN
- Enterprise Wi-Fi support with EAP-TLS
- Enhanced MDM policies to lock down functionality on the phone for more enterprise control, in addition to richer application management such as allowing or denying installation of certain apps
- Certificate management to enroll, update, and revoke certificates for user authentication
source: Windows Phone Blog via IntoMobile
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