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Microsoft Scraps 'Where's My Phone Update?' Site
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft disappointed some Windows Phone users on Friday by saying it would stop providing specifics about who will get software updates and when, and announcing vaguely that a new update is 'available to all carriers that request it.' The update fixes a few issues, including one that caused the on-screen keyboard to disappear and another that caused problems with synching Gmail. Eric Hautala, general manager of customer experience engineering for Windows Phone, said Microsoft will no longer say when people will get updates based on their country, phone model and carrier."
I have been preaching for years that a Corporate Monopoly on phones such as Microsoft would never be able to stand the test of time against an open platform such as Android. There is no way that I would allow such proprietary lock in on something so important such as my phone. I'd rather control my data, thank you.
Sig: I stole this sig.
When did they sell the third phone?
They took the phone manufacturers and carries out of the update process. When they release their updates, users of current and recently released devices get the update which they can apply. The other mobile OS makers need to make the same sort of change or they fear annoying what users they have left.
Microsoft just discovered that carriers prefer to NOT update phone software. Just like with android phones.
Better questions, since when is Microsoft disappointing Windows Phone users news?
Just speaking from my experiences with Blackberries, the slowdown always seems to be on the Telco's end. There had been many important updates which were put out by Blackberry... but ATT wouldn't release them for a month, or sometimes a few months, after Blackberry released it.
This is, once again, another example of why these companies need to be "dumb pipes" through which we access the internet. There's no practial reason we can't have a phone which simply connects to the internet for all it's needs, aside from the Telco's blocking it from happening.
What happened to phones that Just Work? I don't want to update my phone. It must be reliable, just like an analogue wire line phone used to be.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
"OS updates manditory" was one of the great selling points they had over Android, now it's "OS updates available to carrier on request". Yeah.
I predict Windows Mobile "fragmentation" stories and much gnashing of teeth.
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-activations-2011-12
"The other mobile OS makers need to make the same sort of change or they fear annoying what users they have left."
Boggle.
What's with the AC posting? Tired of making new troll accounts just to have them modded into oblivion?
Microsoft ran some spreadsheets and determined their 0.23% marketshare by default means that an update was neither urgent nor financially justified.
the first update affected by this policy change benefits a competitor. what severity is the gmail bug which this patch claims to address?
Better questions, since when is Microsoft disappointing Windows Phone users news?
If the reviews on Amazon are any indication, most people are pretty happy with their Windows Phones. The top 3 highest reviewed phones are all Windows Phones.
They're counting all the people who bought a Kin as well...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
If the sales on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Cell-Phones-Accessories-Service-Plans/zgbs/wireless/2407747011 are any indication the top three selling are all Android phones.
McDonalds is the top selling food in the country, that doesn't mean it's the best.
The Ford F-150 is the top selling car in the country, does that make it better than an Infiniti G37?
The fact that lots of people buy product A is largely irrelevant to whether or not people who purchased product B are dissapointed with it. Put another way, the fact that Bud Light is the top selling beer does nothing to make craft beer less delicious ;)
also, there should not have staged update for their phones. one of their big selling point was that every update was to be delivered to anyone on the release day
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/11/windows-phone-7-updates-can-carriers-block-them.ars
and then carriers bitched and moaned until it all changed for worse.
MS isn't the problem, but they are neither the solution.
Better questions, since when is Microsoft disappointing Windows Phone users news?
If the reviews on Amazon are any indication, most people are pretty happy with their Windows Phones. The top 3 highest reviewed phones are all Windows Phones.
Hmmm. Think those may be astroturfing?
If the sales on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Cell-Phones-Accessories-Service-Plans/zgbs/wireless/2407747011 are any indication the top three selling are all Android phones.
And perhaps the reason for that is because Amazon appears not to sell subsidized iPhones.
Just sayin'...
Nope, more like this.
5-star reviews are useless, as always. Representative line:
One of my friends had only held it for literally five seconds before commenting on how amazing it was.
Or this HTC Titan review:
i love my wp7 its just the best phone ever the os is the best i have usaed on any cell phone. i got my wp7 phone in feb of 2011 and i have no problem with my lg Quantum and if the HTC Titan is that good i have to get my wife one.becouse my wife is geting it in feb of this year.
Rated 5-stars without even actually buying the phone yet.
This is just yet another case haters on the internet moving the goalposts in order to hate on MS. IT also shows why no matter how good MS's products are, they simply can't when.
When WP7 forced carriers to update, all the digerati ignored WP7's great reviews and made fun of it. "The two people that bought Windows Phones seem to like them hahahaha. Guess they don't mind the BSODs LOLOLLOl!". According to Slashdot posters, Android is the BEST (even though you have to deal with fragmentation, etc).
MS desperately wants their (good) products to be more successful, so now they drop their update requirements and be more like people'es beloved Android... and now people hate on WP7 FOR THAT.
MS is always damned if they do and damned if they don't because people don't give them a fair shake. Focus on everything bad about MS while focusing on everything good about MS's competitors.
McDonalds is the top selling food in the country, that doesn't mean it's the best.
The Ford F-150 is the top selling car in the country, does that make it better than an Infiniti G37?
Depends on how many sheets of drywall you need to take to a jobsite or home improvement project.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I don't think you thought that through. WP7 isn't the top selling but it is rated as the best. So that makes it the Infiniti G37 in your analogy?
Well you can hardly compare the situation in Android with that in WP7. When Google released ICS it took 3 months for any old phone to get an upgrade, some will never get an upgrade and some will get wait more than 6 months. By contrast it took less than 3 months for each and every WP7 device in the world to get the Mango - the most important WP7 update.
How in the HELL does anyone manage to manipulate real world facts, to the extent that Windows has not one, not two, but the THREE top rated phones? FFS, I don't know of one single person in real life who is carrying around a Windows phone. Not one. iPhones are a dime a dozen, and Androids are about twenty cents per gross. Other proprietary OS's are common as lice in a prison. Window? If I want to actually see, and touch a Windows phone, I have to find a store where one is on display, collecting dust.
Top rated? They probably went to a nursing home, where no one had ever owned a cell phone, and distributed 20 Windows phone, and one broken Android. The old folks were then asked to rate those phones. The broken Android beat out the other 17 Windows phones.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I have a Windows Phone and I will rate it pretty high. What is your point? Even if I am the only person in the world who owns Windows Phone that will still make the average rating pretty high. It will not mean that a lot of devices were sold, it will not mean that it is better than Android or iPhone. It will only mean that the average satisfaction of people who have WP7 is pretty high. Of course Amazon probably has some minimum number of reviews needed to rank the phone but I imagine this number is something like 20 and surely MS managed to sell 20 phones.
My point is, they are obviously not making comparisons to the entire pool of cell phone purchasers. Surveying a select subclass of cell phone purchasers can almost guarantee the results you are looking for.
If slashdot included a polling mechanism such as is available on VBB, we could post a survey for all slashdot users to respond to. "How would you rank x model phone?" Or, "What is your favorite phone?" Or, "Which phone do you think is the most technologically advanced?"
On the other hand, asking "Which Windows phone is your favorite?" would guarantee that Android couldn't win the poll.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Statistics are just confusing numbers to you right? Do a little search on the number of models of Android phones versus WP7 devices and also note that this is ONLY WP7 and not any earlier version of MS mobile while some Android phones have gotten multiple updates.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You jest, but Windows Phone is actually more popular than slashdotters think. On top of that it's predicted that with the help of Nokia, Windows Phone will have 12% market share in 2012.
You do realize that 3/4 of those "reviews" (all 81 or so of them) are all from Microsoft shills, right?
Of course they are not, neither do they claim to compare the entire pool of cell phone purchasers. They compare reviews by people who wrote reviews. At this point WP users are mainly WP enthusiasts and they are really excited about the platform. As such they are more likely to write a review and their reviews are more likely to be favorable. This is a measure that should be taken for what is - a customer satisfaction, not popularity of the platform, not some kind of grade on the OS. The only thing it means is that WP7 buyers are not disappointed.
I have a Windows phone, and like it. Windows Mobile, though -- I've no experience of WP7.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
And here I thought I was the only one on Slashdot who have actually liked the good old Windows Mobile.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Everybody step right up. It's InsightingPony with this week's alias, pushing MS.
I believe the two sites, applerumors.com and androidrumors.com both say that WinPhone will have less than 2% market share in 2012.
Your guess is as good as mine, tho'
It's predicted that DCTech with have 52 more aliases in 2012.
This might just means Microsoft hired more bloggers than Google to boost their ratings. Also they don't have any iOS devices that I can see. Also note the top three unlocked phones are all running Android.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
> Focus on everything bad about MS while focusing on everything good about MS's competitors.
Good thing there are still competitors, because the DOJ could not stop M$ from its psycho tendency to kill them.
Now you want us to love M$? Give them fair treatment after the knifing of babies? Hellooo?
I don't believe you're a shill, because even a shill would have a better training.
So stop being stupid.
I'll give a fair treatment to them after they get a reputation of being a good corporation, like Google. Such reputation cannot be bought with cakes, it has to be earned -- and sometimes it takes 30 years for that to happen. Oh, wait, M$ is just as old and has always been evil (see Gates' manifesto).
So, thanks, but no, thanks.
Actually it's likely much worse. In Q3 ex Nokia CEO now mobile analyst Tomi Ahonen says worldwide market share is currently as low as 1-2%.
The Lumia launch isn't looking all too optimistic either.
If Amazon is to be believed, people are generally happy with Windows phones.
Right there is the problem for microsoft vs apple in phoneland- ms keeps crumbling under other demands (carriers, people making fun of the kin) whereas apple just ignores a peoblem they dont want to deal with until it goes away... (flash, antennas, batteries etc...)
I've often wondered why people put so much confidence in online product reviews. I don't personally known anyone who regularly reviews things that they buy online and personally the only time I review is if I had a notably poor experience. I would have to imagine that the majority of the good reviews on anything would likely be a combination of paid astroturfers and people who review for a perks. Likewise I would imagine that the majority of the bad reviews were only posted because the reviewer had a notably bad experience (and either wanted revenge on the product or felt a need to caution others). Thus it is my habit to totally ignore positive reviews and look at bad reviews for widespread issues.
So, you claim that Windows phones are common place because they will have 12% market share by [the end of?] this year? I notice a small difference on the time of those verbs... And I notice you are quite certain of things you don't know.
Rethinking email
What would be most useful is an independent site listing which phones (on which networks) are missing updates, also listing the phones' state when not in a network subsidised form (often the lack of updates is down to the manufacturer, not the network provider).
That would allow buyers to see which manufacturer is most likely to leave them in the dust six months after they buy a given phone, and which network is more secure with regard to releasing updates (when available from the manufacturers) compared to the others.
Unfortunately any such site would face legal battles as companies try to stop them posting information that does not show them in the best light, and funding it would be a problem: providing accurate information would require some research and information verification effort which will not be cheap.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/dec/19/nokia-microsoft-lumia-comments
I do read the reviews, but they have to be checked for credibility. The high ratings have to be screened for astroturfers and true believers. The low ratings have to be filtered for people who think the manual is a courtesy table leveler and the silica gel is a complementary instant drink mix.
ICS was released on Nov 17 with the arrival of the Galaxy Nexus; source code was released Nov 14. We're not even three months in since that point. Furthermore, Google obviously wanted the Galaxy Nexus to have some form of exclusivity with ICS so as to drive sales. Even then, the Nexus S got the ICS update roughly a month later (my phone was updated on Dec 16, if I recall correctly).
Third-parties are slower, yes, but even then Samsung should be rolling out the update early 2012. I'm guessing a lot of the delay comes from porting all of their UI stuff (whether you like it is another question entirely).
I'm not a Windows 7 user, but I wonder; can you buy Windows 7 phones unlocked and download updates directly from Microsoft? That might provide some relief.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I tend to look at the low-rated reviews, too. Often, the reviewer is an idiot but there are also legitimate problems.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
WP7 will be like Android when it drops the walled garden and lets people sideload apps without restrictions.
As it is, with this change, it ends up being just as locked as iOS, but without all the benefits of Apple fully controlling OS updates. I.e. the worst of both worlds.
Metro is the only UI on the market that is truly designed from grounds up for touch and touch alone, but when everything else is broken, it's not going to be enough (hence the sales).
Well, considering that WP7 is a critical success ith a high satisfaction rate... I think that it IS news.
Of course, this is Slashdot... people here don't seem to actually care about quality technology. Instead they only care about fanboy favorites.
The updates always come from Microsoft - they are actually downloaded (transparently, by the Zune software) from the Windows Update site.
However, Microsoft doesn't actually build the full updates themselves. They provide a basic kit that the OEM then customizes for their model - things like adding the required drivers for the hardware and system utiltiies, adding the built-in application packages for those utilities, and adding branding customizations and so forth. They then test those updates, a process which apparently takes weeks. It's a little surprising how long it takes for many updates, considering the simplicity of the customizations which the OEMs are permitted to make.
In theory, it should be a quick process, with the OEMs simply taking Microsoft's kit and sending back the update CAB file. In practice, even for simple updates which have almost no impact on the OEM (see 7392, a security update that revoked some bad root certificates and had no other impact), some phones got it before others. The OEMs can also push updates themselves (which still go through Windows Update) independently of the Microsoft-developed OS updates, or bundle their own updates into the Microsoft ones.
After the OEM signs off on an update, it can go out to open-market phones immediately, or to the mobile operators for a carrier-specific round of customizing and testing. This is where having an "unbranded" phone comes in handy (and, at least for the first significant update, a common tactic was to modify the phone's registry so it reported itself as non-branded and got the update before AT&T approved it).
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
I've had both Windows Mobile Phones and (currently) a Windows Phone 7 and have been happy with them all. Capacitative touch screen is obviously superior to stylus navigation, but the range of software for Windows Mobile was fantastic.
It's true! I also heard a win rumor that the Kin will kill the iPhone. MS held a funeral for the iPhone, so you know it's serious.
I predict they'll start including Windows phones with "other operating systems" ...
McDonalds is the top selling food in the country, that doesn't mean it's the best.
I'd have problems with your describing it as food.
Which would make the sales figure less biased.
Look at how many bad reviews there are, and if the system provides it, a review of reviews. (aka "how helpful was this review")
Yes, it does. The grandparent post was arguing that Android was better because it had higher sales numbers. That makes Android the F-150 in this analogy.
Is it that impossible for you to believe that Microsoft may have released a product that people like? Have you read any of the professional reviews? They're generally pretty positive.
Exactly the point. Sales numbers are not enough context to judge best. "Best" may even be context sensitive.
Is it that impossible for you to believe that Microsoft may have released a product that people like?
Yes. If that were to happen, a singularity would have ripped open in the space-time continuum and swallowed the Earth whole.
RTFA is Known to the State of California to cause cancer.
Just as bad (for Android Market), if an app has ever been preloaded on a phone, you will never get a good idea of its value by review. Almost all of them are just complaining that they can't remove it, and have never actually tried the app.
RTFA is Known to the State of California to cause cancer.
A whole lot of people seem to genuinely like Xbox 360. Are we through the looking glass?
My reasons for buying my WP7 device was to check out the Xbox Live integration specifically and general curiosity about the OS. (Disclosure: I am an Xbox geek and phone/handheld/mobile geek, so the merge could not be passed up without investigation.
I was impressed with device and rated it high, right out of the box.
-calls were good, even on at&t network.
-easy to text
-easy to connect to personal AND work email
-I find the Office apps easy to use if viewing apps and making minor changes. I would not recommend writing your business proposal or powerpoint slides, duh.
-bing search works fine
-speech recognition worked well for me on text, email, and searches. somewhat less so on the maps
I rate the same device higher now, with the type of quality apps available that make the phone better/cooler/more fun for me personally.
-itunes connector
-xbox companion which lets me control my xbox 360.
-the best casual games I have ever seen on a handheld device
I still wish the map application was better with directions and some of the speech recognition. "Union City" not "King City" come on!
All in all I am looking forward to new diverse hardware coming out for the WP7 OS.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson