Windows Phone 7 NoDo update nears completion as Telefonica signs off

By Tom Warren, on 10th Jun 11 2:00 pm with 22 Comments

Windows Phone March 2011 update

Microsoft’s epic carrier battle with Windows Phone 7 updates is nearly complete.

The software giant revealed on Friday that the final carrier delaying its roll-out has now signed off on its NoDo testing. Spanish operator Telefonica is now in the “scheduling phase” for the pre-NoDo, NoDo and SSL certificate patch updates. The sign off marks nearly four months of battles with carriers to get NoDo into the hands of device owners. 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.

“Testing is done at Telefonica in Spain for all three updates: 7008, 7390, and 7392,” revealed Microsoft’s Eric Hautala. “The team is now scheduling the rollout,” he added, noting that Microsoft will provide an additional blog post once the update starts being delivered to Telefonica devices. Hautala also briefly touched on the recent NoDo issues with the Samsung Focus.”I want to assure Samsung Focus owners who haven’t received an update notification that there are many people across several companies continuing to work on the solution for your phones,” said Hautala. “We want to make sure you have a quality experience with the update,” he added, noting that Microsoft won’t rest until it’s done. Microsoft 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. Microsoft previously revealed that it is working closely with Samsung and AT&T to test and deliver an update for the affected devices.

  • http://twitter.com/MichielPapp Michiel Papp

    Glad everyone get’s it. I hope MS has learned a great deal from this update and hope they apply their newfound wisdom about updates to: “el mango magnifico” :p

  • Anonymous

    Ugh, MS really shouldn’t of let the carriers bend it over their knee like this. They have a proven track record in the smartphone market – they were one of the first to get there (I bring this up b/c people seem to think that WP7 is their first entry into the smartphone arena) and are now having carriers comb through their shit like they are some spunky startup that’s been caught trying to smuggle a bag of green. 

  • Jamie

    Oh for goodness sake. Are they TRYING to kill the platform!? I knew Telefonica were a bit rubbish but this is ridiculous.

    • MSBlog

      This is an example where carriers are boycotting the phone, MS needs to do a better job a building relationship with their partners.  

  • http://twitter.com/AsTh11 Alessandro Grua

    Finally! Although they are now over with this, they have to change something with this process. Why is it not possible that they just skip the carriers? Doesn’t Apple do that too?

  • http://twitter.com/AsTh11 Alessandro Grua

    Finally! Although they are now over with this, they have to change something with this process. Why is it not possible that they just skip the carriers? Doesn’t Apple do that too?

    • Mark

      Yes, Apple does updates directly. I believe they were the first to get this concession; that’s how badly AT&T wanted an exclusive for iPhone. After that, given the success of iPhone, Apple was able to insist on it everywhere else.

      MS was warned about the risk here before they even launched. Thurrott did that and blogged about it in real time. But apparently MS thought carriers would never hold updates up unreasonably (or at least that’s what they told him). Maybe the reality is they knew it was possible, but by then had no juice to be able to force the carriers to comply because their share was already tanking.

  • Anonymous

    You know what my biggest issues with the carriers is?

    Sales reps that are putting down WP7 with the faults that were found in WM6/6.5.

    I had a sales rep from Bell Mobility here in Canada trying to tell me that WP7 never gets upgrades, only fixes.  That’s it’s old technology etc etc all the while trying to push me in an android phone.

    She admitted after I pushed back that she knew next to nothing about WP7 and as a favor to her showed her the activation process for WP7.  

    She was floored when the phone came alive with ALL my data after I put in my Windows Live credentials (I had explained that I’d already linked my Facebook to Windows Live and my Xbox account was already on there.  Her jaw was still on the ground as I was walking out the store.  

    Sales of the LG Quantum must not be going great for them thoough because I walked away with a free phone on a 1 year commitment.   Canada usually only has a good subsidies on 3 year plans.

    • Mark

      Don’t MS and the carriers prepopulate demo phones with dummy data to simulate the experience you demonstrated by logging in with your actual credentials and accounts?

      If not, whoever is in marketing should be shot.

    • Guest

      Didn’t the person who was in marketing get replaced. Now the replacement needs to be shot?

  • GP007

    At least you know you’ll get Mango, everyone will, when is a different subject though I suspect the mango update will be pushed out faster.    With all the features on the way I’m not complaining knowing that I’m basically going to end up with an all new device.

  • Anonymous

    I have a version 1.3 Samsung Focus on AT&T and have not received the 7392 update. 

    Samsung really did a fantastic job building these phones. /sarcasm

    • BucksterMcgee

      I have yet to receive the 7392 update on my Focus either, but considering it’s just an update for certificates it doesn’t impact my enjoyment of my phone.

      Actually I love my Focus, and the more I see other WP7 devices the more I agree that the Focus is by far the best one. The screen is beautiful, the device (and screen) are just the right size with a light weight to it, and with the NoDo update the capacity buttons work well (no more accidentally hitting them). Oh, and having 40GBs of memory is pretty awesome too.

      My only concern is that the screen is so high contrast and colorful, that the current use of 16bit color on the OS causes a lot of color banding which can be noticeable, especially with gradients. Mango will help with that allowing apps to be in 32bit color, but getting a phone with an Super AMOLED Plus screen (dropping the pentile matrix screen) would be the icing on the cake, so hopefully we’ll see at least one device with that for Mango.

      Sorry that you’re not enjoying your Focus though, maybe Mango update will help.

    • Anonymous

      Actually, I love my WP7. The software is brilliant and fast.

      I haven’t been happy with Samsung update bugs. They have not been able to
      successfully release an update on time yet. Samsung’s Android phones also
      seem to have issues with updates as well. For my next phone I’ll be sticking
      with WP7 but it won’t be a Samsung. I’m hopeful but not confident that
      Mango will go smoothly.

    • brianm76

      I will be doing the same.  No more Samsung phones for me.  Although MS is just as much at fault here along with ATT.  There is no valid excuse for ATT to be taking this long to test a relatively minor update.

  • Anonymous

    this is why, i unbranded my sisters phone, she has a surround from AT&T, we aren’t in US so there wasn’t a point waiting for a carrier to accept the damn update, i read surround would include some stuff but i bet its for AT&T network, i unbraded it and BOOM updated. and last time i plugged it, and there was the update 7392 i didnt even remember about it. carriers compllicate stuff too much, so unbraded it was the best thing i could have done it, specially since AT&T isn’t an option here.

    carriers arent cool saddly : they dont care about consumers and less about wp7… like if people didn’t pay them alot of money in plans and internet and whatever.

  • Guest

    Woo hoo! The update that was completed in Dec. 2010, may finally make it to all users by July or August 2011.

    • GB007

      Just how ugly is the Mango update going to be… nightmare.

    • zzz

      I suggest current owners just skip it and buy a new phone but if I did I am afraid most would go Android or worst iPhone, thank god for 2 year lock ins!

    • zzz

      I suggest current owners just skip it and buy a new phone but if I did I am afraid most would go Android or worst iPhone, thank god for 2 year lock ins!

    • zzz

      I suggest current owners just skip it and buy a new phone but if I did I am afraid most would go Android or worst iPhone, thank god for 2 year lock ins!

    • MSBlog

      This is why resellers pushing Android over WP7, they have to put up with the unhappy customer.