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.'"

Comments

NOK is in trouble.

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

This is the user experience with Windows Phone 7?

Seriously?

Nokia's in serious serious shit.

I hope that Nokia can help iron out problems like this before they launch WP7 devices.

Re:NOK is in trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the user experience with Windows Phone 7?

Seriously?

Nokia's in serious serious shit.

I hope that Nokia can help iron out problems like this before they launch WP7 devices.

What did people expect? Microsoft's been promising that WP7 would "bring the Windows experience" to your phone; I can't think of a more quintessentially "Windows experience" than getting completely fucked by a random update.

For once, Microsoft support gave good advice ...

[tomhudson]

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.'"

After all, that's where the Returns counter is, right?

According to some comments on the mini microsoft blog, between 50% and 80% of what few WP7 phones are being bought end up being returned, so take a number, and get in line ...

Re:For once, Microsoft support gave good advice ..

[Anonymous Coward]

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."

Re:Is it bricked or is it really bricked?

[rritterson]

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.