Everything that can go wrong with Windows Phone 7 update does
It's amazing. Given the importance that Microsoft's smartphone platform should have—not to mention the uphill struggle it faces against the iPhone and Android juggernauts—one would have thought that the company would make sure …
Context & Ripple Effects
Windows Phone 7 devices had been shipping since October 2010, and the platform's early reviews were largely positive despite warnings that it faced a difficult contest with Android and the iPhone. Microsoft began its first software rollout ahead of the planned NoDo update on February 21.
The delivery mechanism was already a strategic question: November coverage asked whether carriers could block Windows Phone updates, while January coverage tracked the platform's 2011 update plans. The failure-prone first rollout turns that operational question into an immediate test of Microsoft's platform stewardship.
First-order effects
- Microsoft must suspend the update for Samsung devices while monitoring rollout-health data, delaying the first software release for affected Windows Phone 7 owners.
- A troubled inaugural update undercuts Microsoft's ability to use ongoing software maintenance as evidence that the young platform is dependable.
Second-order effects
- Samsung and mobile carriers gain reason to demand additional validation around Windows Phone releases, adding friction to the delivery cadence Microsoft is trying to establish.
- Android and iPhone benefit competitively when Microsoft must divert attention from feature delivery to repairing confidence in its update process.
Third-order effects
- If early update failures become a pattern, smartphone-platform competition will turn as much on the reliability of the software-distribution chain as on handset design or launch reviews.
- The episode points toward greater accountability for platform owners over device-specific updates, even where manufacturers and carriers sit between the software maker and the customer.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are being judged increasingly on whether they can deliver dependable software updates across a fragmented device and carrier chain.