Microsoft eats humble pie, apologizes for “fall(ing) far short of your expectations, and our own”

March 31, 2011 | By Surur

humble-pie-n-mash Eric Hautala, Microsoft’s General Manager of Customer Experience Engineering, has updated his blog post from last week which was then rather self-congratulatory about the “copy and paste update is proceeding smoothly” and received more than 500 comments, mostly angry.

Providing more information about pacing of the update, and saying there could be weeks between updates for users who are receiving both the pre-NoDo and NoDo updates, he ends by including what appears to be a heart-felt apology.

He said:

I know many of you are disappointed, even angry. You certainly have a right to be. We’ve fallen far short of your expectations, and our own, and for that I’m truly sorry. We didn’t set out to let you down. But it’s clear we did. Whether you’re someone who has followed our progress from the start, or are new to Windows Phone, you deserve the updates we’ve promised. My job is to get us on the right path and deliver them.

Now that I have NoDo on my phone through the very easy most recent Forced NoDO hack, any angst I had about the update is mostly gone. With the next update still likely 6 months away is it time to return to having fun with our phones, rather than worrying about software updates?

Thanks Attila for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged microsoft, nodo, windows phone 7

Jim

You would think that two giants in their own markets, two industry leaders who have sttod the test of changing times, would be able to partner with one another to provide a world class user experience to the early adopters of what both hope to be a contender in the smartphone OS market. You might think that. You might also think that such a successful partnership would provide them with a position in the market that could not be equaled. You might think that. Instead, they give us this fiasco of an update process. How many times has MS leadership crowed, then had to apologize once they finally became aware of how deeply angry and frustrated their customers really were. This partnership has been an undeserved disaster for MS (unless they deserve it because they were foolish enough to trust AT&T) and a well deserved disaster for AT&T whose concept of customer service and concern flew out the window long ago. Unfortunately, customers will blame MS for this debacle, After all, isn't it MS who either designed or agreed to this process? Come on MS and AT&T, start acting like the responsive leaders of your industries that we expect and want you to be.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lance-Davis/577423210 Lance Davis

I can't tell if you're trolling or just stupid…
msftfan

I would like to not be angry anymore. Mostly, I have gotten over it. But, I switched back to android and as much as it pissed me off I had to do it. I was missing out on too much. Unfortunately, I feel the same way about android I feel like I am missing out on something. So I am carrying both.

Maybe mango will get me back to only WP7 but I just can't do it. Too much missing and 6 months is an awful long time to not be guaranteed an update.

http://wmpoweruser.com wmpoweruser

Well, you are guaranteed an update. Its the when thats the question.

Bart Willeman

Guess we'll find out at Mix as Joe Belfiore claims

holdingitwrong

Well, I think it's pretty cool they admit the problem. Jobs never would have done such a thing. Too arrogant. It would've been, "Leave us alone." Now go learn from this Microsoft and fix the problem.

http://www.facebook.com/robnewton1 Rob Newton

its one thing to admit theyre wrong, but will anything actually change?

tjarren

You can't hava da mango!!!

tomas

snl FTW!

tjarren

"With the next update still likely 6 months away is it time to return to having fun with our phones"

Unless you're a Verizon 'loyalist' like me …………………..
Vikkie Everard

I really wish I never bought this stupid phone. i have the Mozart wp7 and i have it on a two year contract. I am now waiting another 6 months for what I was promised 6 months ago for an update which is suppossed to enable copy and paste amongst other things . What have a been paying for!? The market is a total disgrace, any app u do download and think "Mmm… This one might work" jus turns out to be advertising disguised as an app.
And as for the phone itself…
Is there anything as a consumer we are actually happy with? We don't even get the choice to personalise our ringtones!

Bob

Can't personalize the ringtones? Oh, the horror! Do you really want to embarrass yourself by having your phone play Lady Gaga whenever you get a call?
http://twitter.com/jessiethe3rd @jessiethe3rd

Go to XDA and figure out….
http://www.facebook.com/wixostrix Edwin Michael Rodriguez-Duplesis

We all have the right to be annoyed but we all walked into this as early adopters. This update issue couldn't have been foreseen the way it has gone but this sort of thing isn't unexpected. There is nothing really wrong with the phone, well not for me and my Focus, so it's not like an immediate update is so crucial. I think we can all be at least a little grateful that we are guaranteed updates.

raidenn

Well I still dont have an update….

Northerngeek

Easiest method by far, worked for me:
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/a-trick-for-ge…

charlie

can't stop worrying. if this is how updates will be handled the platform will die. mango will fix some stuff but like all updates will surely create new problems also. its ridiculous to wait 12 months for a bug fix/feature implementation. i mean what about camera settings. i don't bother using my camera because it takes such bad pictures if i do not adjust many settings. sorry not going to spend several minutes customizing the camera settings for every picture i want to take
Bob

For those that were lucky enough to have gotten the update (or resourceful enough to have forced the update), the installations have gone very smoothly as far as I've heard. Few errors. No bricking. I think with the smoothness of the NoDo installations so far, the carriers may be willing to approve updates in a more expeditious manner in the future.
http://twitter.com/jessiethe3rd @jessiethe3rd

I have NoDo…
stanly

I love this. Whine whine whine.
Apparently most of you have never had an Android phone. This update "fiasco" is nothing compared to the update fiascos many Android phones have. You are often "promised" an Android upgrade and a year later…nothing. When updates do happen they are buggy as *ell.
Fine. If you think this has been so terrible, you can have your opinion. But when you switch to Android and have an even bigger update aggravation to deal with, you're on your own. Did MS do their best? No. Did they do better than Android? ANYONE could do better than Android concerning updates.
The grass is always greener on the other side…except it isn't.

Sadatay

Well said. I used to own an Android device. Oh what a Horror!

peter james

Well Microsoft should be feeling that way since what the world expected was a real operating system like any windows portable, no this weird tile stuff. come on what that hell is that tiles,Microsoft might have a chance and here is how windows
CE or any windows and have the tiles coming out as a side bar which it will be the mobil side.in another word windows any with mobil interface. the only way to make.
daniel river

Don't feel sorry fixe the problem !windows 8 with mobil interface!
Peter

I just got my update. I love it. I can't wait to hear more at MIX and in the mean time I am "going back to enjoying" my phone! Every single day I get updates that improve my favorite apps on the phone. I did miss copy and paste but now I have it and all my favorite games I currently have downloaded load really fast and there are great games coming down the pipe.

I love the UI, I love the speed. I love the color. I can watch movies, I can listen to pod casts, radio, music, I can play games, I can browse the web at very respectable speed and I can talk on the phone while doing most of these things. My my my what a lucky guy am I!

Remember when all your phone could do was sometimes make a phone call sort of? Well now I have a COMPUTER that can also make phone calls.

It will never be perfect that is how the consumer economy works. You must be never be satisfied so that you will continue to spend and consume. I however prefer to be very pleased with what I now have and I look forward to all the exciting and fun innovation that will happen in the years to come.
I have an Iphone as well and now I just use it as a secondary mobile storage device.

grenz242

Well, you can't watch movies and get the audio to a Bluetooth headset (at least not pre NoDo, I don't have NoDo, is this issue fixed?). Pre NoDo movie audio would always be sent to the speakers when using a Bluetooth headset.
Good for you if you can at least use the iPhone as a mobile storage device (i didn't know it was possible with iPhones), you wouldn't be able to do that with your WP7.

raidenn

I blame AT&T more really.
http://www.facebook.com/jfatkinsonjr Jeff Atkinson

oh please! would you really rather have them rush it out and have issues with your phone not working right? I seriousdly doubnt that You would be mas as hell that they rushed out a crappy update and why did they do that! You cant have it both ways uinless this is a movie or a fairy tale! nITS JUST a Phone!! Its not life and its not death its just a phone!
http://www.igxpro.net Nick

I have the NoDo update.. honestly I don't notice any faster speeds switching between apps and you can't copy from emails which was probably the only use I would have gotten out of the update..

But this is what I feel the phone is missing and won't be waiting 6-10 months to get:
- Flash
- multi-tasking
- custom ringtones (i dont really care that much.. but should still be on there)
- better Zune software .. since they are discontinuing Zune's I'd like the Zune software on my phone to have as many features as my Zune HD..
- STOP marketplace / IE from crashing and not able to restart them without restarting my phone..
- Dedicated MSN app.
- Google applications

Sounds like a lot when you put them in a list but it's all the things you use all the time. Feel free to disagree, I will save my pennies for the Motorola Atrix until some basic features are added to wp7

Lloyd

You can copy and paste in emails all the live long day with NoDo. What are you on about?
Also Marketplace has been improved quite a bit. I have had no crashing. Actually this is a good update. Many more to come!
dropqube

If you want Google applications that badly you should have gotten Android in the first place..

dropqube

Also there is a MSN app int he marketplace. Are you stupid or something?

http://www.igxpro.net Nick

not an official one and the current one is lacking. Are you stupid?