Windows Phone 7 “NoDo” update delayed to second half of March

By Tom Warren, on 9th Mar 11 8:50 pm with 28 Comments

Microsoft’s French PR team has confirmed that its first Windows Phone platform update will be released in the second half of March.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer originally promised that “NoDo” would ship “in early March” at Mobile World Congress 2011. Ballmer also presented a slide that claimed the update would ship within the first two weeks of March:

Ballmer's Windows Phone update promise

We’re currently in the second week of March and it doesn’t appear that “NoDo” will be distributed this week. Microsoft was originally rumored to be shipping the update on March 8 but this date has since passed. On Wednesday, Microsoft France posted to its public-relations blog (FRogz.fr) a note claiming that NoDo will be coming in the second half of March 2011 according to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley. Microsoft is now believed to have pushed the update back to the week of March 21.

Despite the official no show, a number of Windows Phone 7 ROMs have leaked for various devices. The ROMs contain a final unbranded RTM build of “NoDo” ready to be flashed to devices. Windows Phone enthusiasts at XDA-developers posted a ROM image for European HTC 7 Mozart usersearlier on Tuesday. The ROM upgrades the devices to the final version of “NoDo” ahead of Microsoft’s release. The site has also supplied ROMs for HTC HD7 and HTC 7 Trophy owners. All three leaked ROMs are unbranded European versions, which do not include carrier customizations. Owners wishing to flash the leak updates will need to use a “Gold Card” method to bypass a “VENDER ID” error. The process is not ideal for the average user but those wishing to pursue unofficial methods can find the links above.

“NoDo” is Microsoft’s first platform update and will include copy and paste. Windows Phone 7 copy and paste has been demonstrated recently in full thanks to an unlocked emulator. Microsoft’s first update will also improve application start-up and resume times.

“NoDo”, the codename for Microsoft’s first Windows Phone 7 update, has been ready for some time. The software giant RTM’d the update in December and has been busy preparing the Zune client software and Marketplace to handle the updated software. The update has been delayed a number of times due to concerns from operators and device manufacturers.

Microsoft also posted a video demo of the “NoDo” update in action, see below.

  • SparkedFire

    Good grief.

  • SparkedFire

    Sorry, I should have said: “Really?”

  • Ewabeach Girl

    I love my window phone but really there gnna start losing people if they keep push stuff like this back n breaking promises :/

  • http://twitter.com/adamUCF Adam

    “First Major Update
    A free customer update will be made available for all Windows Phones in the first two weeks of March, which includes new capabilities such as copy & paste and faster application performance.”

    http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/02/14/accelerating-the-windows-phone-ecosystem.aspx

  • http://www.twitter.com/astroXP astroX

    This is getting ridiculous.

  • http://openid.tomservo.eu/ Tom Servo

    WELL WHAT A SURPRISE!

    Mango better be on-time, not delayed by backdoor OEM deals (e.g. exclusivity periods… I’m looking at you Nokia!), and be accompanied by decent new hardware that isn’t based on old-ass SoCs.

    If they can’t get their shit straight in fall, I’ll be getting an Android again and dissuading anyone to even consider a WP phone. Doing my part! *cue Starship Troopers Galactic News jingle*

  • Anonymous

    It looks to be coming out the same week the CDMA HTC 7 Pro (HTC Arrive) comes out on Sprint. Not the worst thing in the world IMO.

    And you can blame Samsung for botching up the first mini update, not Microsoft. They are the ones that tweaked something between device build revisions since certain ones work and others don’t. Hopefully this will clear up any future update glitches and get all the partners on track. A sort of “This is why we wanted it done “This” way moment”.

    • Guest

      The only person most customer will blame is MS. And while Samsung or carriers may have contributed to the problem, MS should have done better testing. Also, where is the communication? That’s 100% within MS’s control. All they have to do is put out a blog post providing a status report. Just be honest and say it slipped to the 3rd week of March or end of March, or Christmas for that matter. But don’t leave customers in the dark.

    • anon

      For all we know, Samsung might have supplied MS with phones of only one type of firmware revision. I’m pretty sure MS tests all updates on every device model that’s released.

  • Thetruth1960

    As I said before NoDo = NoGo. And Mango will be in 2013 if there is even a WP platform by then. Great OS, great platform, poor marketing (yes this delays are part of marketing, people are looking at this as an indication of how MS is going to behave.)

  • GP007

    I blame the whole Samsung mess for this new delay. If they didn’t have to delay the first patch this would’ve been on time I bet.

  • Kanelp

    Rant on!

    Samsung fault or not, how about some word on what is going on? I really like my WP, and while I’m not at a point that I wish I didn’t get it, I worry about how the next updating is going to go based on this one. It clear that Apple it correct. They make the hardware and the software and control it all, since they have the phone everyone wants, they are able to make the carriers bend to their will when it comes to pushing updates out. Android updates are a mess, at least we don’t have that bad. I thought that Microsoft’s idea of a single platform that they controlled with allowing device makers to build hardware isn’t what it turned out to be. Its the first update (heck, its the update to the update and we already have compability issues) and carriers are alreading getting in the way. I recall hearing that this update was originaly to be deleivered in 2010! Its now March, and we are still guessing when it will come out and getting release information from alternalte sources as to when we will see this thing. Microsoft, tell us something!

    Rant off.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Lott/100001678036205 James Lott

      Nevermind the fact that when the Iphone first came out it had its fair share of update problems and bricked phones, right?

    • http://andrewcr.myopenid.com/ Andrew

      This is MS’s 7th (8th if you count WinMo 6.5) try at the phone market. It’s not like they’re rookies doing something brand new.

    • http://twitter.com/NorrathReaver Shane Nokes

      Uh, in this instance yes they are. These are all new phone designs & an entirely new OS.

      It’s isn’t Windows Mobile 7…it’s Windows Phone. It uses an entirely new version of WinCE at its base and the entire usable OS layer is completely new.

      Also you have a LOT of learning to do. The Windows Mobile OS (originally called Pocket PC) didn’t actually hit phones until version ’2002′.

      So that means there was the PPC2002, PPC 2003 (& 2003SE), WM5, WM6, and arguably WM6.5.

      I personally don’t count 6.5 as a separate version since it’s still based on WM6, they just tossed a different shell on top of it all, and made minor improvements.

      So there’s been a total of 4 (5 if you count 6.5 separately) versions of PPC/WM for phones…not 7 or 8.

      I’ll even be nice enough to grant you the KIN OS making it 5 (6 if you count 6.5 separately), which is still shy of your figure.

      However PPC/WM were all based off a common framework & were fairly compatible with each other, KIN is compatible with pretty much nothing else, and WP7 is completely new.

      So trying to compare how things worked with PPC/WM as compared to either KIN or WP7 is just asking for trouble.

  • http://twitter.com/log_null k_Wolf

    OOH! AWESOME! Is this the new feature? “Copy and paste”? COPY AND PASTE!?

    Holy Mother of Electric Jesus With Lasers!!!1 Is this “the innovation”?

    • anon

      This first update is mainly a performance and stability update, and additionally to bring CDMA support. Copy & Paste was added because of feedback during development. The upcoming Mango update will be the big feature update. It’s going to be HUGE. It will have multitasking, IE9 Mobile (first HW accellerated mobile browser ever), Twitter integration, Skydrive for the Office hub, turn by turn navigation, extended language support, VPN, device encryption and more.

  • Dachevrac

    This is ok but what about us on Verizon. When are we gonna start seeing some windows phone 7 love. Droid is killing me need my windows phone 7.

  • Dachevracr

    This is ok but what about us on Verizon. When are we gonna start seeing some windows phone 7 love. Droid is killing me need my windows phone 7.

  • Thisgiantisdead

    And this is why MS is toast. WP7 was a critical launch for their mobile aspirations and for the company’s future overall. Steve handpicked the team and they report directly to him. They put aside the largest non Windows or Office launch budget in their history. The result? A botched launch that was marred by hardware availability issues across the board. OEM partners that in some cases still haven’t worked out their hardware issues five months later. Services that still haven’t been rolled out to most non US places in the world. A pre-update update that bricked phones not once but twice. Zero real updates in five months and now another delay in the first one. This company is DEAD. It simply can’t compete against Apple or Google.

  • Frustrated WP7 user

    Impotent company! Disgrace! I think April is more realistic…

  • captain_caveman2k

    I find the whole update process laughable. Microsoft announced at launch that they were in charge of the updates, not the carriers / operators or manufacturers. They lead us to believe that it would be as simple and straight forward as Windows update.

    It is now three weeks after the pre “nodo” update was released and I still see no sign of it. If “nodo” is released next week, how long will it be before I see it?

    I love my LG Optimus 7 to bits, but it will not replace my aging Nokia N95, staying a “development” phone, until I can back up my data (including messages) and fixes some of the bugs / issues I have with it.

    As a consumer I am frustrated by Microsoft actions, especially the lack of communication, and as a developer I am shocked at how they can bring such a wonderful platform to market, with a fabulous UI, create truly fantastic development tools and such a promising eco system yet appear to let the product stagnate.

    Microsoft, you have so much to prove to the industry, playing catchup, so please get your act together, fix the problems, get the updates out to customers quickly and efficiently, communicate what is happening in a truthful manner, even if things are delayed and beyond your control, which will in turn will help manage user’s expectations.

    • anon

      The pre-NoDo update was made specifically so everyone would recieve NoDo. Carriers are allowed to block every other update. This was a compromise they had to make. Those who didn’t recieve the first update will recieve NoDo. Those who recieved the first update will most likely recieve NoDo as well. I’m thinking they will continue to release small updates just to push out the bigger ones to everyone. It’s very important that the next update is smooth, they can’t afford to have another failed update. Just calm down and relax, The update will come, they just have to make sure it works 100%. The next major update (multitasking, ie9, vpn, on device encryption, extended language support, twitter integration, skydrive intergation, turn by turn navigation and more) is already in internal beta and is scheduled for late summer/early fall. I think the future of WP7 is looking good.

    • captain_caveman

      I think there is a lot of frustration out there amongst consumers at the moment and I really hope you are right. However, I’m not sure at the moment whether those that don’t receive the first update will receive both updates when “nodo” is released or just the first one – it will certainly be interesting to see whether carriers can “always” block the latest release. It will also be interesting to see what Microsoft’s strategy is when it comes to updating IE, whether this is part of Mango or a seperate standalone release.

      From a development perspective, and this is as a developer that has been involved in mobile software development for about 8 years now, initially working at Sony Ericsson on the P800, then across Symbian, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Andriod, I know how difficult it is to develop and test applications across multiple platforms as well as the handsets from different manufacturers on the same platform, however, delayed updates really don’t help developers test their applications or check for compatibility issues.

    • anon

      Microsoft has been very clear about the update process. Carriers wanted some way to be able to stop updates in case there would be an update that breaks something. Microsoft met them halfway by only allowing them to block every other update. Updates are always cumulative (they contain every previous update). So, carriers wouldn’t be able to block updates to force users to buy new devices, like what is happening with Android. They still can block, but it won’t cause fragmentation.

    • captain_caveman2k

      It is just over 5 weeks since the February update (v7.0.7008) was released and a week since “nodo” (v7.0.7390). The good news is that I received the February update yesterday but there are still no signs of “nodo”. As such, it is safe to say that we have been lied to. Sorry if this sounds blunt or harsh but I do feel lied to and pretty hacked off with the whole experience with my LG Optimus 7 on Orange UK.

      First of all, it would seem that updates are NOT cummulative. According to a statement from Orange through this site, they said that both updates have been approved. However I have only received the first update If updates were cummulative then I should have received the “nodo” update on Tueday and not the February update as I did.

      Secondly, someone is blocking the delivery of “nodo” – whether this is Orange or Microsoft through their batched roll out approach – it is not possible for me to tell, only they know.

      I have also emailed Orange’s customer service team twice, following the release of each update and have recieived calls back from them. Unfortunately, their efforts are as useful as a chocolate fireguard – as they are not being told any information either. Their only recommendation was to call LG !!

      Whilst the “Where is my update” information from Microsoft has been updated today, it still doesn’t tell me when I will receive the “nodo” update. The only saving grace from this fiasco is that I can still sideload my own application which I won’t be able to once “nodo” is installed.

  • Frank

    i think that microsoft must change their strategy. this comment shows, i think very good, the problem: http://www.testmygame.com/wordpress/2011/03/10/microsoft-verargert-seine-kunden/

  • Johan

    Frustrating is an understatment.. they made a phone and it has great potential! but they shipped it with fucking BETA software. i cant count how many times my phone has frozen on me. FIX IT!! i dont care about copy paste right now. just fix the got damn OS!!!