Microsoft 'NoDo' Windows Phone 7 update to be a no-show until early March

Even though Microsoft delivered updated Windows Phone 7 development tools to testers in early February, the first software update to Windows Phone 7 isn't here yet. In fact, according to various testers and other sources with whom I've spoken, it won't be here next week, either. Or the week after that.

The first "NoDo" update for Windows Phone 7 is now slated for early March, my sources are saying. (Neowin is reporting they're hearing March 8, the same date cited by an individual who asked not to be named with whom I've conversed.)

What's the holdup? Microsoft has been talking up plans to release its first Windows Phone 7 update for weeks. That update is slated to deliver copy-and-paste functionality, Windows Phone Marketplace search improvements and various stability/performance updates, among other features.

Some are blaming the carriers for the delay. Others are pointing fingers at handset makers requiring last-minute changes that require Microsoft to provide new ROMs (which one source said the Redmondians are planning to deliver to partners in mid-February). All this is even more maddening, given I've heard from one of my contacts that Microsoft actually put the finishing touches on NoDo before the end of calendar 2010.

(This "herding many cats" problem is the downside to providing phones provided by multiple carriers and built by multiple suppliers.)

Supposedly, Microsoft is going to come clean at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona next week and acknowledge the first Windows Phone 7 update (since the phones began shipping in October 2010) won't hit until March 2011.

I've asked company officials for comment and will update this post with Microsoft's response, if any. Update: "No further information as to timing has been released beyond what we already shared at CES," a company spokesperson said. At CES, CEO Steve Ballmer said there would be a series of updates released for the phone over the "next few months."

Meanwhile, I'm curious if any readers know more about why it's taking the Softies so long to start providing updates for Windows Phone 7. Yes, I know that good things take time. But in the consumer market, the tolerance for updates and new features is far shorter than it is in the business world -- something that Microsoft execs seem to be discounting....