Thoughts: Transparency is the Best Policy

After the deafening noise and confusion coming from fans and the media regarding the partially failed updates and missed launch dates, yesterday Microsoft’s Eric Huarta published an article entitled “Phone updates: process and timing”. But if you read my analysis of the announcement yesterday, you would know that I lovingly dubbed the article “The State of the Updates”.

Whatever you end up calling it, there is no doubt how important the announcement was to subdue the harsh criticisms Microsoft has been facing recently. However this announcement also showed a surprising new side of Microsoft’s Windows Phone strategy: transparency.

While the multinational corporation has always tried to be as transparent as possible with its products, the same could not be said for Windows Phone 7. Since the platform’s launch, there really hasn’t been any sort of contact between Microsoft and the community. Sure there have been isolated events where Microsoft Support may answer some of the community’s questions, but for the most part the Windows Phone division has largely been disconnected from their customers.

Ironic as it may seem, I actually think that was the main reason why people were so frustrated with the company’s efforts so far. There was basically no one to talk to who could be trusted or seen as any kind of authority. This led to a lot of confusion and misinformation spreading throughout the community as well as the media.

That’s why I believe yesterday’s article was important—it dropped the bullsh*t and Huarta did an excellent job of speaking directly to the reader. The announcement could have easily read like the same monotonous press releases we’ve seen before, but instead it had some genuine personality to it and that made a world of difference to me.

While I don’t expect it to happen overnight, maybe Microsoft’s Windows Phone team should consider expanding upon their communication efforts with their fanbase. They already have the platform to do it—the Windows Phone Blog—but they need to up their investment into the platform further. That way we could all avoid the headaches.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely opinionated and the discussion found here should not be confused for our usually unbiased reporting of news.