Microsoft lags behind at Updating OS

[imbasaurus]

please tell us you know a little software dev. before you came up with this.

 

[Jas00555]

BB was still supporting its current OS when 10 was released and its actually still supported today. There was no gap in support. Wasn't really a hard statement to understand. Considering you're mixing it with iOS4 I think your a bit confused. The first BB10 device came out early 2013 and the old OS is still getting support and even new devices. Where is this "wait"?

Seems like a pointless conversation anyway. I could really care less about any of it, I simply made a statement.

They're not supporting WP7? surprise to me.
Your argument is assuming that BB7 and BB10 were just evolutions of the same OS. They weren't. The devices and places that BB7 phones were made to work in were places with very limited data connection. BB10 was a "modern" smartphone that was suppose to compete with ios/android/windows. WP7 and WP8 were made to run on the same types of devices (full touch screens), so they had the same target market. BB has 2 different markets to cater to, so of course they need to support both.

 

[PB_H]

Time to trade my 810 in for a Blackberry -thanks!

 

[MyNL822]

Well, guess what iOS 7 is only 7 updates and we have 8, but look at which OS performs best. I completely agree with the OP because I am a previous iOS user, and their little ****ty updates don't impress me at all. I would actually be happy if we got simple features available on Android and iOS for at least two years. Notification Center(a real notification center not a tile, something I could open from any app), Battery status(Why the **** was this not in GDR3?! It is just a simple feature), Some type of quick settings(not like iOS 7, but like iOS 5 and iOS 6 in addition to double tapping to close apps, you could scroll left to get quick volume, screen rotation, and mute.), video controls(I can't scroll through a long video on YouTube to get to an ending part because their is no slider), Better brightness control(phone is still pretty bright even on low, I need a slider to be able to turn it down better). These are just a few features I really want NOW, and you can see they aren't asking much, I don't like this new put up or shut up attitude where every update is geared around new phones instead of current consumer base, and they wonder why their consumer base isn't growing? Obviously if you are losing costumers and gaining them, your growth is going to be slow, they need to be more like Apple because while Microsoft makes a bunch of new phones, Apple has only like 7-9 iPhones and they are the most successful smartphone business.

 

[MyNL822]

Not sure that's necessarily a bad thing.
The Comical Irony That IO7 Users Are Suffering From Blue Screens Of Death (TechCrunch)
Best line in the article...
"It’s funny, Apple fans. iOS 7 is the new Vista"

Apple iPhone iOS7 update BSoD in action (YouTube)

Certainties in Life:
- Death and Taxes
- Bad Karma's gonna getcha
and...
- Payback's a B*tch
Always be careful what you wish for...you just may get it....and more.

My phone does this quite a few times a week and it isn't as complex with the steps it just happens while I'm using an app or something, only difference is that I don't get blue screen my phone just sorts force closes the app and reboots.

 

[dkediger]

Not really sure what you mean comparing BB10 to WinMo 6.5 to WP8. Blackberry is still supporting its old OS, 7.1 now. They actually just released a brand new phone for it.

I really don't think BB's intent when 10 was conceived was to have their old OS still on currently shipping phones today. Microsoft got their product out the door - haphazard as it may have been. BB was FORCED by investors to throw something - anything - from 10 against the wall for release, or else we would already be talking about them in the past tense.

I think the comparison of mobile OS transitions between BB and MS would make a good business case study -

 

[Moiz Mian]

Well, your kinda concern for no reason, at least for now. MS has always stated that any and all GDR releases are bug fixes and putting things in place for wp8.1. Everyone warned not to give their hopes up looking for features when ms said 8.1 is the key. Just wait.

This is exactly the OP's point. Other mobile OS makers like android and blackberry are delivering 0.1 updates faster than MS. I'm a diehard windows phone ****** myself, but you can't just say "windows phone released 3 updates this year, be happy." Because those are just patches/bug fixes. And we have some pretty bad bugs that take months to get sorted out and some still don't get fixed. (i.e. integrated facebook chat anyone?) iOS 7 has released 2 patches in 2 weeks. 1.5 years for the 0.1 update on windows phone? That's crazy!

Anyway, my only point is that Microsoft IS being slow, there's no denying that. But I still think that despite it's shortcomings, there is plenty in the OS that still keeps me from switching to iOS or android.

 

[MyNL822]

Finally there are other people that are seeing exactly what I'm seeing. iOS 7 and Android all have there problems but there are updates come faster and they actually bring you something. When I was an iOS user(still am but I don't think I count since I have iPod touch 4g that can't get iOS 7) I got the iOS 6 update and in 3 days there was already a bug fix update which is almost equivalent to our little"GDR" updates. Windows Phone has to start showing the world what they can do, and that starts with updates. I don't care about the chicken-egg situation, they need to make sure to keep their current customers by providing faster and better updates.

 

[dkediger]

Well, to be honest, IOS 5 (antennagate) and IOS 6 (Wi-Fi) had some serious flaws at release that impacted device usability. Apple had to roll some updates - and several in each instance - to avoid outright device refunds. Their update pace slowed pretty drastically after mitigating these flaws.

Both of these were flaws that really should have been ID'd pre-release - so either their quality checks were lacking, or they did know of flaws and shipped regardless.

Expect the same with the accelerometer issues on the 5s.

 

[Villain]

Microsoft is very slow at rolling out updates and can't see why anyone would defend this.


I like apples way of rolling out updates themselves (even though I dislike pretty much all of apple)

second I like the way old blackberry (BB7 and prior) worked... providers were given the OS to approve and went through BB desktop manager... if your provider was slow at releasing the update you would just go and delete the Vendor xml file and then push through another providers update (which is the exact same update). loved desktop manager and wish Microsoft put out a program similar to it.

 

[Chregu]

Apple does the same thing, except they don't even get the service packs that MS gives us (GDR1,2,3). Come January we'll have a solid update. You wait.

Well, it's October and we have a GDR3 preview. That means it will take weeks if not months until we have the final on our phones. So what do you think will happen in January?

 

[eric12341]

The pace is just fine to me, especially to avoid things like this

Apple loses some of its magic touch with iOS 7

 

[Chregu]

The pace is just fine to me, especially to avoid things like this

Apple loses some of its magic touch with iOS 7

Funnily, when I started to read the article, I thought: "Well, Apple panicked and rushed the release, similar to Microsoft with Windows 8." and then I read this:

Still, Budiu said iOS 7 problems are not as bad as some of Microsoft's legendarily troubled OS upgrades, such as Vista in early 2007. Microsoft's more recent Windows 8 launch was also more problematic, she noted. Microsoft on Thursday began rolling out a Windows 8.1 update to address some user issues."iOS 7 is doing some harm but not at the level of Windows 8," she said.

However just in general, I don't want Microsoft to invent Windows Phone again, they did that after Windows Mobile, and different to iOS7 they just cropped most of the features. I want to see a development with at least some features that are more relevant than auto reply for short messages or the big announced FM radio update which was already available for years on WP7.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Well, it's October and we have a GDR3 preview. That means it will take weeks if not months until we have the final on our phones. So what do you think will happen in January?

That's really the Windows way of doing stuff. Come 2014, we'll most likely see Microsoft settle better into their now yearly update cycle.
If not, they'll face my fists.

 

[cckgz4]

I don't think it's even been two months since BB sent out 10.2. Overall, WP is FAR from the worse at updates. Android still holds that title

 

[montsa007]

Many people have complained that their z10 is a carpy device, hangs a lot and reboots itself.
That's not something I am saying, Z10 users are

 

[montsa007]

I don't think it's even been two months since BB sent out 10.2. Overall, WP is FAR from the worse at updates. Android still holds that title

I'd like to send you some flowers for that comment .
Unfortunately you'll have to pluck them on your own.

Fyi, its the phone manufacturers that hold the title of lazing when it comes to updates. And carriers, oh boy they are the evil people in the whole deal.

 

[luk3ja]

I'm curious as to why it takes Microsoft so long to push out updates that frankly don't offer a lot of features. We got rotation lock and some SMS tones but not a lot of features that are 'wow' after a year since WP8 launched. When i compare this to what Blackberry has done moving from 10 to 10.1 and now to 10.2 you can see the rapid pace at which they're updating features. Instead of catching up, it feels like they're just lagging farther behind sometimes.

These small GDR updates are not small, they have massive amounts of work put into them in the background that you don't see, all this work is to enable new devices to be able to run the software and be able to do certain functions without problems. Like GDR2 had loads of work done to make the 41mp Lumia 1020 possible and GDR3 had loads of work to make bigger and higher resolution screens possible along with support for new processors. 8.1 is the next release and 8.1 is designed to add hundreds of functions so just wait, I'd rather it be how it is because they have spent a long time perfecting 8.1 to implement features in the best possible way

 

[luk3ja]

Microsoft is very slow at rolling out updates and can't see why anyone would defend this.

It's the carriers faults not Microsoft and also watch out for the announcement next week, Microsoft are actually going to announce that future updates will be instant on the day of release and be delayed by carriers because they're going to OS updates separately from firmware updates

 

[Chregu]

It's the carriers faults not Microsoft and also watch out for the announcement next week, Microsoft are actually going to announce that future updates will be instant on the day of release and be delayed by carriers because they're going to OS updates separately from firmware updates

The carriers usually delay it, but that doesn't have an effect on unbranded phones? How do you know what Microsoft announces?