The silence at Microsoft is deafening.

As rumours spread across the web suggesting existing Windows Phone handsets won't be offered the upgrade to Windows Phone 8 when it launches later this year, Microsoft's official mouthpiece has botched its reply.

Instead of allaying such concerns – or even referencing that the issue exists – Microsoft's statement bizarrely focused on how all apps currently on Windows Phone Marketplace will be compatible with the new version of the OS.

That's an answer to a question nobody asked and suggests evasion is Microsoft's chosen course of action.

Avoiding the issue

It's a move that has backfired, however. Avoiding the issue has only served to fuel the rumour, with commentators now claiming there's more than a grain of truth in it.

And this is what worries me. Splitting Windows Phone's userbase in two for whatever reason would be disastrous for the platform.

Plenty of analysts predict a big future for the OS, thanks in the main to Nokia's Lumia range.

The Finnish firm's handsets aren't setting the world alight yet, but they have given the platform a presence at retail that was sorely lacking at Windows Phone's original launch back in late 2010.

The idea that all existing phones, including Nokia's Lumia 710, 800 and 900 (the latter of which has only just launched in the US) will be forever stuck on Windows Phone 7 is ridiculous, but it's a tactic that wouldn't be without logic.

If true, it's likely Windows Phone 8's closer ties to Windows 8 on a structural level mean the new OS simply won't be compatible with single-core devices – which all the current handsets on the market are.

Dropping support for Windows Phone 7 handsets, therefore, would appear to be the only response to this technical issue, but it's one that could have a major impact on the platform's momentum.

Middle of nowhere

Windows Phone 8 itself isn't due until much later in the year (indeed, it's not even the next update on the schedule), meaning the OS as it stands will be left in no man's land for the majority of 2012.

Retailers are unlikely to want to push devices they know will be out of date within a matter of months, and consumers savvy enough to have a handle on the ins and outs of Windows Phone will be equally resistant to paying out for a smartphone that - in almost Android fashion - will be locked out of any future updates.

Cutting off those who have already parted with their cash for a Windows Phone device will not only damage consumer relations, but it will also reset Microsoft's mobile userbase to zero for the second time in as many years.

Building on momentum that's been anything but easy to accumulate should be Microsoft and Nokia's priority right now.

Any suggestion that Windows Phone 7 owners are to be sacrificed as part of a repositioning exercise risks killing the platform's growth before it's even begun.