Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 update is supposedly continuing to cause problems for users, despite Microsoft's previous attempts at a fix.
Some Windows Phone 7 users are reporting fresh issues with
the latest software update, which Microsoft re-issued for Samsung smartphones
after some well-publicized technical glitches.
"At this time some Samsung devices are able to apply the
update and some aren't," read a March 4 Tweet from the tech support staffing
Windows Phone Support's Twitter
feed. "For those who are not able to update we are looking into the issue."
That followed several similar notes from the Twitter feed.
"We are aware of this issue and are looking into it," read one example, posted
the afternoon of March 4. "We would suggest holding off doing the update
again."
Meanwhile, Microsoft's forums filled with users complaining
that the new-and supposedly tweaked-software update stalled their devices. "The
new update is failing as well but gives a new error (800705B4),"
one
user wrote, repeating an error code mentioned by others over the course of
the day.
Microsoft was supposed to have fixed earlier issues with the
update, which is intended to pave the way for future updates such as the
addition of cut-and-paste and faster app loading. Following the update's
release in late February, a small percentage of users began reporting it either
stalled their smartphones or bricked them entirely, rendering the hardware into
a very expensive paperweight.
In the wake of the incident, the company shifted into
full-on damage-control mode, claiming in a corporate blog posting that only 10
percent of users' smartphones had stalled because of the new software. "Has the
update process gone perfectly? No-but few large scale software updates ever do,
and the engineering team here was prepared," Michael Stroh, a writer for
Microsoft's Windows team, wrote in a Feb. 23 posting on
The
Windows Phone Blog.
Of the 10 percent whose Windows Phones had stalled, he
added, "nearly half failed for two basic reasons-a bad Internet connection or
insufficient computer storage space."
On March 2, Microsoft announced it would resume the software
update for Samsung smartphones.
"Starting today, we plan to resume rolling out the February
update to Samsung phones," Michael Stroh, a writer for Microsoft's Windows
team,
wrote
in a March 2 posting on The Windows Phone Blog. "Meanwhile, we're
continuing to dispatch the update to other Windows Phone models. As has been
the case, the software patch is being sent out on a rolling schedule."
Stroh added that Microsoft's engineering teams had
apparently "pinpointed and fixed problems" that caused some Windows Phone 7
devices to stall in mid-update. "We apologize again for the delay," he wrote,
"and continue looking for ways to improve the update process."
Microsoft hopes that Windows Phone 7 will allow the company
to reverse its declining market-share in the mobile space, where it faces
fierce competition from the likes of Google Android and the Apple iPhone.
Throughout the second half of 2011, the company intends to release further
software updates that will add multitasking, Twitter integration, and more to
its smartphone platform.
A Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK March 4 that the company
had no official comment for the time being.
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