Microsoft has taken a few punches over the Windows Phone 7 update situation, and rightly so. The company made control of the update process an early selling point to combat complaints from long-time Windows Mobile customers. The new WP7 platform would have updates pushed out by Microsoft itself, so customers could count on getting them, and in a timely manner. That hasn’t happened yet, and early adopters of WP7 are not happy about the lack of updates, and information offering when they can expect it. The company responded late yesterday with a “detailed” schedule outlining the update release schedule for every handset in customer’s hands. The problem is it doesn’t tell a single owner when they will definitely get the WP7 update pushed to their phone.
So what does this tell the U.S. WP7 phone owner? According to Hardware 2.0, the “Testing” stage (where half of the phones fall) means that “the software update is undergoing mobile operator network and quality tests”. History tells us that can take a long time, and it might be the stage where carriers decide they don’t like a given update and decide not to offer it to customers at all. Yes, according to Microsoft carriers have the option to not offer any update based on its internal testing. Maybe these phones will get the update and soon, but maybe not.
The “Scheduling” stage means an update has been approved by the carrier/operator, and Microsoft is deciding when to start pushing it out to phones. This process normally takes “less than 10 days” according to Microsoft; the update is in Microsoft’s hands and will indeed happen. So if Microsoft is in control of the update for the phones indicated, why not give a real release date? That’s all the WP7 phone owners really want to know with a detailed schedule. When, exactly?
The entire Windows Phone 7 situation has been an embarrassment to Microsoft, with the first attempt killing phones and the update process halted by the company. Things are supposedly back on track and Microsoft published this “schedule” to communicate to owners that the process is in progress and phones will soon get the big update that brings copy/paste to the platform. So why do owners still not know when they will get the update? Am I missing the release dates?
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