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Windows Phone 7 Update Jams Some Phones
CWmike writes "Microsoft's first Windows Phone 7 update is apparently causing some users' phones to not work. Microsoft has advised at least one person to take his device into a store for a fix. The company's WindowsPhoneSupport Twitter account shows the responses to a variety of queries from users who have experienced problems over the last half-day. Microsoft released the update on Monday but played it down. The update was designed only 'to improve the software update process itself,' wrote Michael Stroh on the Windows Team Blog. One user, Alex Roebuck, wrote on Twitter that the update had bricked his Samsung Omnia 7. 'We're very sorry for the inconvenience,' Microsoft responded on Twitter. 'For this issue we would suggest taking it to a store.'"
The only thing I found that said the return rate was 80% was from a comment from a Anonymous.
"The AT&T dude told me that WP7 phones had -- listen closely -- an 80% return rate."
http://www.examiner.com/gadgets-in-san-francisco/motorola-droid-owners-reporting-issues-with-android-2-2-update
http://www.androidcentral.com/evo-4g-update-pulled-over-problems
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20019676-85.html
Just a few quick search examples.
It's really bricked. See here:
"... If this is successful, it should allow the handset to recover its original firmware and resume operation. But not everyone can get this to work, indicating that the devices are truly bricked, with the only option being to return them to the network operator and have them replaced under warranty."
The article has more details; the problems appear to be restricted to a few samsung firmware versions. Given how religious MS is about testing every combination of everything come patch time (how many times have we bitched about the slowness of a patch), I'm going to speculate the source of the cock-up is a miscommunication regarding which firmware versions are out there (MS didn't know they existed) or what the differences between them are (MS thought the differences were irrelevant come patch time) and at least half the blame lies with Samsung.
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
This is because carriers aren't sending out Android updates.
Second, Microsoft has been trying to puff up the disappointing numbers by quoting units shipped to stores, and not units activated.
So, since Microsoft won't release hard numbers, we have to go with what we can find elsewhere; the fact that Microsoft doesn't want to talk about activations and return numbers is a good indicator that the anecdotal evidence is, if not 100% accurate, at least in the ballpark.
Of course, if your product only had lost 50% market share in the last year, and was down to 3%, and Android in the same time went from 2% to #1, you wouldn't want to give out the real numbers either.
Ballmer has said that the mobile phone industry needs WP7 because it needs a 3rd option. WP7 isn't 3rd, or even 4th, in terms of sales. 3% is 5th place, and a drop from the previous year's market share of almost 7%.
Why do you think that Microsoft had to pay Nokia so much to get on board?
His numbers are just as good as the ones Microsoft pulls out of their behind. LG have told us that sales are abysmal and every other hint says that sales are very dissapointing. When everything leans towards bad sales and Microsoft wont release any numbers, its a safe bet that sales are really that bad.
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