Microsoft has announced that Windows Phone 8 Apollo will not arrive for older Windows Phone 7 handsets, breaking the bad news to Nokia Lumia 900 owners.

The Redmond-based software maker said at the Windows Phone 8 developer conference in San Francisco that existing Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices will not receive an upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

As a remedy, Microsoft revealed that several features in Apollo would still make its way to these smartphones through a Windows Phone 7.8 update.

Windows Phone 8. (Image: Microsoft)

The update will push the restyled Windows Phone start screen, which is one of the main selling points of Windows Phone 8, the new resizable widgets and improved color options, to existing phones.

“When you pull that Lumia out of your pocket after you’ve received that 7.8 update, it will look and feel the same as a Windows Phone 8 device,” said Greg Sullivan, senior Windows Phone product manager, to The Verge.

“Because you don’t have a multicore chip and don’t have some of these other elements, it didn’t make sense for us to make those investments for devices that couldn’t really exploit them,” he added.

Microsoft has yet to confirm what other Apollo features will come to existing Windows Phone 7 devices, and when it will release the Windows Phone 7.8 update.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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