Microsoft Unleashes Their 'State of the Updates'

Image courtesy of Official Windows Phone Blog of France

On the official Microsoft Windows Phone Blog, Eric Hautala is the man leading the team for software updates and he has unleashed what some may want to call a "State of the Updates". If you want the really big news, then here it is: NoDo is confirmed to be arriving in the latter half of this month.

There is a lot of valuable information that can be learned from this article, so I have taken the liberty of breaking things down as it proceeds in the article. This is a rare opportunity to understand the inner-workings of Microsoft so make sure you follow along past the break!


Hautala begins the article by detailing exactly how the update process begins from their side. Obviously, the first step is actually making the updates by including new features, squashing bugs, and listening to fan requests. Then this next part may interest you:

But that’s typically just part of what we send you. The companies that make your Windows Phone handset—or even the chips inside them—also frequently provide us updated firmware that they’ve written, tested, and want us to include.

Until now, most people were worried that manufacturers would struggle to make changes to their own handsets with the common belief being that Microsoft is the only one that can make updates and they would only serve the OS. It is definitely reassuring to hear about OEMs being able to contribute updated firmware specific to devices that may need it (*cough*Focus microSD issues*cough*).

Hautala then briefly mentions step three: the carriers. They receive the update from Microsoft first and then test everything to make sure their asses are covered it's properly running on their network. Interesting, it looks like Hautala snuck in a tiny backhanded comment about carrier testing in his post (emphasis ours):

We work closely with our carrier partners, and encourage them to test our software as swiftly as possible. But it’s still their network, and the reality is that some carriers require more time than others. By the way, this carrier testing is a common industry practice that all of our competitors must also undergo. No exceptions.

If you manage the team that is responsible for updating thousands of devices worldwide, it must be truly frustrating to have to go through a middleman before a public release. But it is a necessity because "it's still their network" and if a phone malfunctions people are more likely to go to their carrier first with complaints  rather than call the manufacturer or Microsoft.

The article continues as he mentions how the Windows Update system works which is responsible for sending the update to be received by the customer. Then Hautala mentions a unique trait of their update system over others--the ability to selectively update phones:

One important point worth highlighting: Our update technology allows us to precisely target which phones receive an update. Since some updates are hardware-specific, we don’t send every update to every device. We also don’t send new software updates to everyone at once. This staggered approach is deliberate, and helps us pinpoint and fix any problems quickly.

Of course this ties back to the above statement regarding the role manufacturers play in the updates so it is entirely possible that people will be sent updates that are specific to their hardware from the manufacturer. To my knowledge this has yet to happen, but it's assuring to know that a system at least exists. Also the staggered update approach is mentioned and the benefits have already come into effect as can be seen by the halted Samsung update.

After boosting up some morale by talking about how successful the February pre-NoDo update was for most users, he also acknowledges the number of issues some people have faced if they've even received the update at all (Samsung is never explicitly named). But due to their staggered update process, they were able to take another look at that update and evaluate what exactly went wrong. Hautala also addresses a rather nasty rumor about what kind of power carriers have over what updates reach their phones:

There’s one more thing I want to clear up. I’ve seen a lot of speculation on blogs and forums lately about whether carriers can “block” an update. We work closely with carriers to test and schedule updates. They may ask us for a specific date to start an update. They may ask for updates to be bundled together.  But you should ultimately receive all the updates we send out.

So when there were rumors of AT&T blocking the second roll out of pre-NoDo for its Focus, it may not have been as simple as that; they may have just requested the two updates be bundled together and sent once NoDo is ready.

Speaking of that, Hautala directly addresses the mini-controversy that broke out on Tuesday about NoDo being scheduled for March 7th but missing that for mysterious reasons and then being delayed until the second half of the month. For the most part all of this was true: there was a delay and now the update is officially pegged for the latter two weeks of this month for release...but they're working hard to make sure this update doesn't run into any major issues:

We have the next update waiting in the wings. It delivers copy and paste, better Marketplace search, and other key improvements.

But I believe it’s important that we learn all we can from the February update. So I’ve decided to take some extra time to ensure the update process meets our standards, your standards, and the standards of our partners. As a result, our plan is to start delivering the copy-and-paste update in the latter half of March.

Hautala also mentions near the end that NoDo's delay has no effect on the release schedule for the upcoming feature-packed Mango update that will bring along with it Twitter integration, multitasking, and a vastly improved Internet Explorer 9. He rounds up the post by thanking supporters for investing in the success of Windows Phone 7 (you're welcome!) and says they are "psyched" for the future of the fledgling OS.

Phew! Well the transparency Microsoft has shown today is actually extremely reassuring that they are not simply falling behind. Now we have a greater understanding of the way Microsoft's update works and NoDo's release frame has finally been pinpointed by an official source. Overall I'd say this was a much-needed address of a truly frustrating series of false starts and delays.

What did you think of Eric Hautala's "State of the Updates"? Sound off in the comments below!


Source: Windows Phone Blog