About half the Windows Phone 7 users who experienced update failures this week had weak Internet connections or insufficient storage on their PCs, Microsoft said Wednesday. And 90 percent of people who took advantage of the update had no issues.
But for one in 10 users, the result ranged from stalled updates to crashes or even bricked, or useless, phones — an embarrassing snafu for Microsoft as it struggles to increase adoption of its revamped mobile operating system. The most serious problems involved phones made by Samsung.
‘Learning from Our First Update’
While encouraging customers to make sure they have enough space and bandwidth before they begin the update, which requires a USB connection and the correct software for PCs or Macs, Windows Phone 7 blogger Michael Stroh admitted the company still has some work to do.
“Has the update process gone perfectly? No — but few large-scale software updates ever do, and the engineering team here was prepared. Of course, when it’s your phone that’s having a problem — or you’re the one waiting — it’s still aggravating. That’s why we’re committed to learning from our first update and improving the process. We know we have work to do, and we won’t be satisfied until you are.”
Stroh admitted that there is a technical issue involving Samsung handsets that led Microsoft to suspend the update to those devices. “We’re working to correct the problem as quickly as possible,” he wrote. “But as a precaution, we’ve briefly suspended updates to Samsung phones. We are continuing to update other Windows Phone models as scheduled.”
In addition to Samsung’s Focus and Omnia 7, Windows Phone 7 powers Dell’s Venue Pro, HTC’s range of HD7 devices and LG’s Optimus 7 and Quantum. The first CDMA Windows Phone 7 handset, the HTC Arrive, will be available through Sprint Nextel next…