Lots of folks may be upset with Microsoft and the update process (we're getting a little tired of the drama ourselves) but you have to give them credit: they're listening and trying to make things right. You may not like their response, but at least they're giving a response.
To recap: this week we saw the beginning of the NoDo update, then came the outrage that it could take "weeks" to get it people, then Microsoft gave us a way to check our update status. Last night on Microsoft's Channel 9, Joe Belfiore gave a cheery interview which though entertaining, didn't reveal too much. However, lots of people were miffed to see him saying things were going well and appearing a bit out of touch.
Fast forward 24 hours and he's responding to the criticism, which like we said above, is good damage control. The message, re-posted in its entirety after the break, is quite forthcoming and sincere. A lot can be said about the update process but we do appreciate Microsoft's position in trying to reach out to consumers and developers alike. Like before, sound of in comments on your thoughts.
Keep reading Joe Belfiore's response from Channel 9; Thanks, Windows Phone Metro, for the heads up
Many of you are making critical comments here which are certainly fair. First, I was wrong when I said “most people have received the February update.” There are many of you who have yet to receive it, and I don’t blame you for speaking up and pointing out my mistake. Second, I referred to our updates as “complete” because I was thinking of the internal process where we pass completed software to another group who delivers them – but of course no update is complete until you all have it. Plus, at the time I did the interview we had started the NoDo (“march update”) delivery process and I knew “it was going well” from our perspective: people were officially getting it, the success rate of its deployment on real-world phones was looking good, and we were happy that the process had STARTED well. Still—these are NOT the same as all of you getting it and I’m sorry that I came across as insensitive to that fact.I am a very, very big advocate for all our end-users and developers, and it bothers me a lot if I sounded out of touch. I wasn’t as prepared for this interview as I should have been—I walked into the studio with an informal state of mind, thinking about MIX and what we WILL be talking about, and I didn’t have the right up-to-date information to give a good explanation on updates which I know to be a very high-interest topic right now.I have read all of the comments here (and many of them on the other blogs) and so has pretty much everyone in our management team. We know it’s been frustrating to wait for features/fixes and (probably worse) to hear little from us on specific dates. We are sorry the process has been rocky. The “where’s my phone update” table is our first step to try to remedy this in the face of technical problems that have made our first wave of updates take longer than we expected. We know the table would benefit greatly from more detail, and we are hoping to add more to it by working with the Operators who own the “testing” phase to get more clarity. If your phone is shown in “scheduling”, it’ll be worth checking the table next week.In the spirit of “MIX as a conversation” – I will make sure that when I show up in Vegas that I’m well prepared to give an update in person and to try to answer your questions as best I can. You folks are obviously a very important audience for us and it’s right for you to expect us to communicate and execute better. I know at this point it’s our actions that matter… The main thing we are trying to do is to get the updates out to everyone in a way that is reliable and works, and then make our process better and more transparent in the future.Thanks,Joe
