Microsoft and Blu advertised the ineligible Blu Win JR as being eligible for Windows 10 for nearly a year
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There’s been a lot of drama around Windows 10 Mobile in the past few days, and while some of it is unearned some of it is not.
If you recall, Microsoft’s Windows partner, Blu , created a set of Windows Phone devices roughly a year and a but ago. The Blu Win HD and the Blu Win JR, later superseded by the Blu Win HD LTE and the Blu win JR LTE.
The Blu Win JR LTE debuted after the announcement of Windows 10 Mobile – then known as Windows 10 for phones – and was widely advertised as being compatible for Windows 10 update. Except, this was impossible and no one seemed to notice.
Microsoft had earlier put up the requirements for the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade earlier in the year and had specified from the very beginning (February) that 8GB of storage was the minimum requirement for being able to successfully process the update, while the Lumia 530 was initially able to update, it was soon blocked from being able to download as the update files would render the device unusable. Now, somewhere between Microsoft releasing the specs for Windows 10 Mobile and blocking the Lumia 530, Blu released a 4GB ROM, 512 MB RAM device and advertised it as being able to run Windows 10 Mobile. This was one of the selling points of the phone, and even the Microsoft store took this phone in and marked it as upgradeable for Windows 10.
While anyone following Windows Phone news would have noticed the discrepancy between the claim and the reality, it seems at least one user still went ahead to buy the device expecting the Windows 10 Mobile update as advertised by the Microsoft Store and by Blu themselves. This is simply a false and misleading advert, both Microsoft and Blu should have reasonably known that the Blu Win Jr had no way to update to Windows 10 prior to listing the product. It’s impossible to give them the benefit of the doubt and say “plans changed” in this case, the 4 GB requirement has been in place from the very start.
Microsoft has so far refused to refund the price of the device and has gone as far as to remove the Windows 10 sticker a day after the aggrieved user took to reddit to publicise his case, this is just not the way to handle things.
We’re reaching out to Microsoft and Blu for comment on this issue, and will update if anything new surfaces.
