Microsoft: 'Nothing Has Changed' About Windows Phone Updates

Panic! Only a few months after the successful universal release of Microsoft's Mango update for Windows Phones, a new post has appeared in Microsoft's Windows Phone Blog detailing updated, er, update strategies for Windows Phones going forward. And while Microsoft's changes have sent a number of users up in arms at the thought that their Windows Phones might soon face same fragmentation as their Android counterparts, new details from Microsoft indicate that's not the case. 

In fact, nothing has really changed about Microsoft's update policies for Windows Phones.

The confusion seems to stem around Microsoft general manager Eric Hautala's description of last week's Windows Phone update #8107 and the process by which phones will continue to be updated throughout the year. In his post on the Windows Phone Blog, Hautala writes:
"This week we started to make a new Windows Phone update —8107—available to many Windows Phone customers. The update, available to all carriers that request it, is part of our ongoing maintenance of Windows Phone."

"In the months ahead, we'll continue to send out firmware and maintenance updates as needed. These will be available across the globe—although not everybody will receive or require them. It depends on your country, carrier, and phone model," he adds.

While that could sound like fragmentation is afoot for Windows Phones, the process by which carriers and manufacturers decided which updates they'll allow particular devices to enjoy, a follow-up interview with Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan by ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley revealed Microsoft's true intentions.

"Nothing has changed in regard to how we work with carriers to deliver Windows Phone updates to our customers," Sullivan said.

According to Foley, Microsoft will continue to deliver Windows Phone updates to carriers exactly as it has been delivering them. Any smaller updates carriers elect not to run with (for various reasons) will be rolled up into the larger, universal Windows Phone updates. Crisis averted.

So what has changed? Due to the greater prevalence of phones and carriers, Microsoft has chosen to abandon its "Where's my Windows Phone Update" table, previously hosted on Microsoft's official Windows Phone site. The site was born in the wake of Microsoft's fragmented "NoDo" Windows Phone update around March and April of last year, and the company has elected to no longer post the status of minor service updates going forward.

It remains to be seen if Microsoft will continue to use the page for major operating system updates going forward, of if Microsoft has truly updated its "update" site into little more than a memory.


By David Murphy | pcmag.com