If you need to ship a Windows Phone to a friend overseas, you'll need to hurry if you plan on using the U.S. Postal Service. It's not that the US Post Office has anything against Windows Phone but rather the power source. You see after May 16, 2012 the USPS will prohibit the international shipping of packages containing lithium ion batteries.
That includes:
- Smartphones
- Cameras
- GPS devices
- MP3 Players
- Laptop computers
- Tablet computers
- Bluetooth headsets
- Power tools
While the USPS does not offer a reasoning behind this prohibition, it may be due to instances where these batteries caught on fire in transit when not packaged correctly. Third party carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc) will continue to ship such packages internationally.
The USPS will review the ban may change things on/after January 1, 2013 to allow customers to mail packages containing the lithium batteries when the batteries are properly installed in the device. For those wondering about orders from the Windows Phone Central Store, we use UPS for international shipping and you shouldn't see any interruptions.
