Microsoft promises Windows Phone hardware update packages ‘soon’

By Tom Warren, on 20th Jul 11 12:15 am with 18 Comments

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is now distributing the Windows Phone NoDo update to Samsung Focus 1.4 owners.

Some AT&T Samsung Focus were waiting for update deliveries of NoDo to resume to their devices. The company claims Samsung has been sourcing two separate flash memory components for its Focus devices. Most focus owners have revision 1.3 of the device and are receiving updates, those with revision 1.4 aren’t. “We have been working to expedite the scheduling of the AT&T Samsung Focus v.1.4 update,” said Microsoft’s Eric Hautala in a blog posting on Tuesday. “I am happy to report updates are being delivered now for this phone,” he added.

Hautala also revealed that Microsoft is planning to deliver a number of hardware update packages for certain devices. The updates will improve battery life, call clarity and touch responsiveness etc. The updates are device specific and will improve certain functions of devices. “Not every phone around the world needs the same package of improvements,” said Hautala. “In some cases no update at all is needed.” Hautala explained that Windows Phone owners will start to see the update soon. “It’s all part of keeping your Windows Phone in tip-top shape,” he added.

Microsoft originally delivered its pre-NoDo update on February 21, followed by the full NoDo update on March 22. Telefonica and others have stalled on carrier testing to allow the update to be pushed to their devices. AT&T was one particular carrier that took a long time to test Microsoft’s updates. Microsoft’s NoDo distribution to Samsung Focus 1.4 owners will include two back-to-back notifications. The first is for the 7008 “pre-NoDo” update. Once this update is installed, Focus owners can then update to 7392 (which includes the NoDo copy and paste update).

Microsoft is now rumored to be preparing a “Tango” update following the “Mango” update due later this year. Microsoft has codenamed Windows Phone 8 as “Apollo”, scheduled for release in late 2012. Recent reports suggest that Tango will land in-between Mango and Apollo. Microsoft’s Mango update will introduce 500 new features to the platform including true multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 and integrated Facebook and Windows Live Messenger chat.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jesse-Garcia/100000361221634 Jesse Garcia

    Samsung are laggggggers! Im going Nokia or HTC next round.

  • Anonymous

    I hope Microsoft fix this mess before Mango. We are talking here to what Belfiore called “The January Update”.

    • Anonymous

      wow… you still think they said “january”? im sorry but blog and rumors said it was january update, they just said early 2011. of course thanks to samsung and carriers it sucked for some phones. but i never heard january update from MS guys, well at least not from Belfiore. 

    • Denis Vujicic

      Negative, it was originally a ’january’ update… even by Microsoft
      http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wp7_january_update-580×282.png

    • BucksterMcgee

      If I remember correctly, the update was internally intended by Microsoft to be release in January (or before), with the actual code being done far before that. A series of unseen problems appeared, thus causing Microsoft to have to put the update back further and further.

      Officially the update was never “said” to be in January, meaning in their public statements, especially from Joe Belfoire, it was always given a very loose time table, e.g., “beginning of next year”, “early 2011″, “next few months”, etc.

      While that web address says january-update, I never once saw a single official post saying “january update”. It’s most likely that the address was set up before hand, as well as a post, that was changed prior to making it public when they had a more accurate (less?) time table.

      In anycase, even if Microsoft said “WE ARE ABSOLUTELY HAVING A JANUARY UPDATE, AND THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT, AND YES WE MEAN TO USE CAPSLOCKS!” it doesn’t matter because the issues that arose were unknown and thus impossible to prepare for. Even then Microsoft did try to slowly roll updated out to test the waters, which of course has taken about half a year to final rectify fully.

      Furthermore, if Microsoft’s attitude about updates/releases/etc in the past few years is anything to reference you will see that Micrsoft has been very strict about not promising or announcing anything that they cannot guarantee.

      At this point, lets see how Mango turns out. If the same thing happens and it’s delayed for months and month and month, then we will have correlating data to actually see if this is a systemic problem, or a one time deal.

  • http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

    Hopefully the Samsung Focus will get one because my battery dies way too fast.  The phone will last all day if I don’t use it much, but when I leave and am traveling alone I typically have music playing, texting, and browse the web a bit, mostly mobile sites.  I say I could get 4-5 hours until I need to get to a charger.  I get that using it for long periods of time drains the battery, but it’s kind of ridiculous.  I’d have to keep it on the charger pretty much the whole time i’m home so I don’t risk it dying when I go out.  And it takes forever to charge.  My friends Arrive charges like twice as fast and she hasn’t complained about battery life yet.

  • Bryan

    The grass sometimes looks greener on the other side. I have an HTC Mozart and the camera capability is poor, the touch response – marginal at times and the battery life is average. As much as W7 is a great OS the hardware needs to be improved. The deal that Microsoft did with Nokia will allow this as Nokia hardware has always been good. However, before I jump ship (hardware wise) to another phone, I will look at the phone performance more closely next time.

    • Wp7si

      thats what you get for choosing HTC. In my opinion their quality in general has really reduced. I am very happy with my Omnia 7

    • Morgan

      I have never been happy with HTC devices. The build quality was suspect and cheap in my opinion and they seem crash prone. Battery life too always seemed suspect. I have been happy for the most part with my Focus but I am looking very forward to the devices from Nokia. I honestly don’t plan on looking elsewhere. If you are going to buy a Porsche, would you order the engine from Ford? With the partnership and tight integration and solid look and feel of their hardware, I do not see how the other manufacturers will compete with Nokia.

    • Anonymous

      Samsung will ompete with the amoled screens. The wp7 version of the galaxy seems interesting. However, when I played around with the current galaxy s phones, the body of the phone felt cheap.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/San-Ien-Jao/717169541 San Ien Jao

    My Omnia 7 seems mucho fast even with Mango Beta 2 however battery sucks! The reviews I have seen says that it is by far the best wp7 phone even with battery – 30 hours. With moderate use I got it from 100% to what seems like 25% in 5 hours! But maybe it is just the faulty WP7 battery indicator that is tricking me.

  • http://twitter.com/RobertCFP Robert Wade

    Good grief, Tom Warren, you seem to be myopic on this topic.  How many times do I have to post that NONE of the Focus versions were receiving updates the moment they discovered the issue with the 1.4 version!!??  Now that the fix for the 1.4 version is out those of us with the 1.3 version are STILL HALTED from any updates.  I happened to have gotten NoDo (7390) just before they put the breaks on updates, but we’re still sitting out here without 7392.  So, PLEASE get the facts right.  WE ARE NOT RECEIVING UPDATES YET.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1670567011 Mike Pietrorazio

    The prospect of a hardware update is interesting. I’m testing Mango on my Focus now and the performance is noticeably improved. I can’t imagine it getting even better. Battery life is always in need of improvement though.

  • John Lewis

    I got the updates last night (via AT&T) on my v1.4 Focus, but not without some difficulty. I had to use the Microsoft Windows Phone Support Tool to get the updates to apply.

  • Morgan

    I have Nodo but still missing 7392. Seems that they are not reporting on this security certificate update anymore.

  • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

    I got an update this morning, a “Samsung Hardware Update”, on my Omnia 7.

    If anything thing changed, it’s very subtle… :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

    I got an update this morning, a “Samsung Hardware Update”, on my Omnia 7.

    If anything thing changed, it’s very subtle… :)