A Microsoft vice president on Sunday apologized for sounding "out of touch" when discussing the recent Windows Phone update rollout, acknowledging that the process got off to a rocky start.
"We know it's been frustrating to wait for features/fixes and (probably worse) to hear little from us on specific dates. We are sorry the process has been rocky," Joe Belfiore, vice president for Windows Phone at Microsoft, wrote on the company's Channel 9 site.
Belfiore posted his message in the comments section of a post that featured video of him talking about the recent "NoDo" Windows Phone 7 update that is scheduled to bring features like "cut and paste" to the OS. Those who watched the video, in which Belfiore spoke glowingly about the rollout, felt he was not informed about how the update was really going.
Belfiore acknowledged that he was wrong to say that "most" users had received the update and that the update was complete.
"I referred to our updates as 'complete' because I was thinking of the internal process where we pass completed software to another group who delivers them – but of course no update is complete until you all have it," he wrote. "Plus, at the time I did the interview we had started the NoDo ('march update') delivery process and I knew 'it was going well' from our perspective: people were officially getting it, the success rate of its deployment on real-world phones was looking good, and we were happy that the process had STARTED well. Still—these are NOT the same as all of you getting it and I'm sorry that I came across as insensitive to that fact."
Belfiore said he was not as prepared for the interview as he should have been, and approached it in manner that was too informal.
Microsoft started rolling out the "NoDo" release last week, though it initially went to carrier-unbranded devices - meaning phones not attached to a carrier like AT&T or Sprint. To help users keep tabs on when the update would be available on their phone, Microsoft unveiled a Web site intended to provide details on when "NoDo" would hit their phones. It was a bit vague, however, saying only that a specific phone was in the testing, scheduling, or delivering phase.
"We know the table would benefit greatly from more detail, and we are hoping to add more to it by working with the Operators who own the 'testing' phase to get more clarity," Belfiore wrote. "If your phone is shown in 'scheduling', it'll be worth checking the table next week."
Belfiore will be delivering a keynote at the MIX Conference in Las Vegas on April 12 and promised to be "well prepared to give an update in person and to try to answer your questions as best I can."