back to article Microsoft man riles update-hungry Windows Phone 7 users

Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore has been forced to apologise after making light of the plight suffered by Windows Phone 7 users who've had to wait several days for the latest OS update. During a 10-minute interview on Microsoft's inhouse TV network the good Mr Belfiore clearly misjudges the mood of the planet and expresses pleasure …

COMMENTS

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  1. Flossie
    Black Helicopters

    Nokia

    and Nokia want to use this software?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      WP7 ain't bad

      There's nothing wrong with the software, well other than some missing features. The failure seems to be the usual problem of having a good release process and keeping the customer updated.

      Either that of the Eye of Sauron is currently focussed on some other cash raking opportunity that Microsoft is missing out on. They do seem to be rather poor at doing more than one thing at a time.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Hmmmmmmmmm....

    I guess Microsoft phone users are much more impatient and intolerant than us Android users...

    ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and by

      patient and tolerant you mean glutton for punishment seeing that most Android manufacturers don't even bother putting out updates for their phones or are many months behind.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re: and by

        lrn2sarcasm

      2. dssf

        Why thumbs-down this?

        I have the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, still running on Android 2.2 I attempted to update JUST Saturday, and no updates are available. I've had the fsking phone (pretty nice, actually) since January, and it's been out since April or so of 2010. IN WANT THE FSCKING UPDATE NOW! Stop kvetching about AT&T/T-Mobile, Sprint!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    When will people learn

    not to play with Microsoft?

    1. The Fuzzy Wotnot
      Pint

      Oh come on!

      As someone on the brink of being a Mac fanboi I genuinely believe there is nothing much wrong with MS that a decent bit of direction and some solid management wouldn't put right. Products are reasonably sound, they work 99% of the time without issue, users are in the main a happy bunch, what's not to like about MS? We just get to hear about the 1% when it all goes a little bit Pete Tong, give 'em a break eh?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    What?

    People are in such a mindless frothing rage after a mere 24 hours? Sounds like a bunch of crybabies :|

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Exactly...

      Especially when this was advertised as being a slow, rollout, to make sure that any problems encountered in the rollout would be of minimal impact to the userbase. This is a responsible manner for MS to behave in, especially considering 10% of one hanset had issues on their last rollout.

  5. hplasm
    Coat

    NoDo?

    Did not do.

    What's the problem- just as described 'on the tin'.

  6. IT specialist
    Happy

    Windows Phone 7 is doomed. Microsoft is about to do another platform reset

    Windows 8 will run on 3 screens: PC, Tablet and Phone. There is no room for Windows Phone 7 in here.

    It won't be long before Windows Phone 7 gets cancelled. See how enraged those customers are after their phone platform gets axed.

    1. dotnetguy
      Gates Halo

      Except we won't care...

      ...because our it'll still look and feel basically the same and our existing apps will run on it.

      Why do you think Microsoft is insisting on apps being written for Silverlight and refusing to give access to the native API to anyone bar the likes of Adobe? 'Cos then the apps you write now will run just as well on the Windows 8 Silverlight runtime, even though the core OS is different.

      1. The First Dave
        Boffin

        Correction

        "the apps you write now will run just as BADLY on the Windows 8 Silverlight runtime"

        Fixed.

  7. John Styles

    I understand...

    ... that cut / copy is coming in one update and paste in a second one. Inbetween everything you copy will be stored in a special new Cloud enabled server farm in Redmond ready to be pasted when the second update is successfully installed.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    it's a critical update...

    I can understand the annoyance, the update nearly doubles the phone features ;)

    1. zanto
      Troll

      simple math

      two times zero is still zero

  9. Bilgepipe
    Gates Horns

    Gasp

    Microsoft in "Doesn't Give Jack Shit About Customers" Shocker. News at eleven.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Or...

      MS want to rollout slowly, because they had unexpected problems last update and they don't want to screw around with their customers if there are similar problems this time.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Dear "Early Adoptor"...

    You come across like a crack addict short of cash for his next fix trying to shake his dealer down for a freebie. It might be wise to see seek medical advice.

  11. Miffo

    Vocal minority

    I don't think Microsoft has misjudged the mood of its customers. I'll bet that the majority are not bothered about a 24 hour delay. The ones that are bothered are the sort that will be making comments on the internet. My wife doesn't even know what version of Android she's on - never mind that it's a whole year out of date - that's a typical user (she's not thick!).

    1. Martin Lyne

      Or

      Or its some clever astroturfing from Microsoft. "Make it sound like we have hoards of super-geek impatient followers!"

      How many have installed Android, ala the HD2's epic-scale OS replacement.

      The stench of fail still lingers heavy in the air.

  12. andy gibson
    Happy

    @dotnetguy

    "...because our it'll still look and feel basically the same and our existing apps will run on it."

    Ah, you mean like Windows 7 and XP?

  13. Alex 14
    IT Angle

    "The new update has to be tested by the network operators"

    Why? I'm not in a hurry for the update, I'm not even a WP7 user and I know this is standard for Android updates too but...Why?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why -because almost allways something is broken

      The OEMs usually screw something up (they have updates each release most of the time). Either something in the lower level network access, emergency calling or some other area. Microsoft can also screw things up such as interaction with core services such as SMS, MMS, voice etc. It happens all the time.

  14. Seanie Ryan
    IT Angle

    no balls

    He shouldnt have apologised.

    Its about time people stopped pandering to all the wankers out there who whine about everything and act like a tough bully through email/online. Take the Michael O'leary approach.

    He should have told that 'early adopter' to fuck off and read a book or have a conversation with his kids or something. Did your life end yesterday without copy/paste? No! So another day isnt going to make a bit of difference so STFU

    Peoples perspective is arse-ways nowadays.

    anyway, if he is an early adopter , why doesnt he have an iPhone. Everything else if just a bad copy months later..... ;-)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    broken promises

    the big problem here is the continued history of broken promises and no consequences.

    Windows Mobile 5 and 6 had a history of failing to get out updates even for fairly important bugs and Phone 7 was supposed to fix that for us.

    Despite the historic goughing folks listened when MS said there would be frequent updates and early adopted... in some cases hardware that has faults (listen to music on the headphones, take the headphone out of the jack and the phone won't make a noise until you make a call; press one of the volume buttons when the phone rings and it goes mute - so unless you hear the first ring you miss the call; don't even think about upgrading the SD card!) not to mention software problems with marketplace etc on the device ... and 6 months later we're still without a fix (Apple has a major release every 6 month, delivered without problems, and managed to get updates if needed out within a few weeks)

    IIRC Belfiore is the guy who led Media Center down the road to irrelevance, perhaps he's a good choice to be leading Phone 7 into the sunset while MS works hard on the next shiny object

    Hey ... he's going to be at MIX to have an open and honest discussion with customers... flash mob anyone? :) http://live.visitmix.com

    (Troll because Joe looks like one)

  16. Levente Szileszky

    Seriously though: other than Stephen "Trojan Horse" "Beancounter" Elop just who uses a MS phone...?

    I mean this is an OS which is just getting cut and paste...

    ...in 2011! Got it? IN 2011 - and still lacks half the feature of even its own bug-ridden predecessor, WM6.5 (forget competition)...

    WTF as in WTF?

  17. Levente Szileszky
    FAIL

    Totally out of touch, hilariously incompetent management...

    ...and that's the MS legacy that just went over to lead Nokia - an ex-MS beancounter.

    Expect more of this hilarious insanity, this utter incompetency and clunky corrections, pathetic "leadership" with "matching quality' products.

  18. Shane Kent

    the guy who led Media Center down the road to irrelevance

    This guy should have been walked a long time ago. I got very much into Vista MC, and even went as far as to hack the codes for IR MCE remotes and posted detailed PDF on the net.

    Then the first shoe dropped, content was next to none, with what appeared to be none coming. Then no support for newer tuners without getting an OEM Vista with it bundled in. They f-d me on the update, and yes I know there are work arounds, but that ain't the point.

    I dumped Media Center, what a shame, it seemed like it would have been fun should they have got content for it in Canada.

    Since then I moved onto Mac front row, iTunes, iPad touch 2, iPhone3GS, iPad1, etc. All lost sales for MS's hardware partners.

    MS has become absolutely pathetic!

  19. Robert E A Harvey
    FAIL

    I still don't understand

    Why the update mechanism wan't tested while the OS was being developed, & why the new updates can't be tested before publishing them.

  20. Suburban Inmate
    Flame

    I am just a humble man...

    ...who cannot afford a FancyFone of any type but....

    "channel9...." Am I the only one that thought "Scorchio!"?

  21. pan2008

    orange updates

    Just for anyone reading out there, I got my update today on my htc mozart with Orange. That was the first update, not the second with cut-paste. So hopefully in the next week should get the proper one. Go Orange finish off your testing!!

  22. James Pickett

    Telling

    So what sort of phone *does* Elop use?

  23. Jay 2
    WTF?

    "and Microsoft has already said it wasn't for every Windows Phone 7 handset"

    Given that handset makers have to stick to a fairly strict spec in order to aquire WinPho7 from MS (in order to convey the correct 'user experience'), I'm not sure how an update wouldn't be for every handset. Morso I believe the first update was just to test the actual update process!

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