Microsoft Kissing Windows Mobile 6 Goodbye

Ever since Windows Phone 7 devices hit the shelves, Windows Mobile 6 has been pushed aside in favor of its more modern successor. It’s no secret that Microsoft’s main focus is WP7, and the company has confirmed will take another step away from Windows Mobile this summer.

Microsoft has set the end-of-support date for Windows Mobile 6.x. According to WinRumors, the company told Windows Marketplace for Mobile developers that it will no longer accept new Windows Mobile 6.x applications or application updates from July 15 onwards.

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Microsoft Explains Why WP7 Update Bricked Phones

Microsoft's Michael Stroh indicated that the recent WP7 update wasn't quite as bad as the media portrayed.

Wednesday Microsoft's Michael Stroh explained what happened to numerous Windows Phone 7 smartphones while installing a patch to the OS updater. As previously reported, the minor update literally "bricked" around 10-percent of the WP7 smartphones currently on the market, all of which were manufactured by Samsung. Microsoft halted the update to investigate the problem and to prevent further troubles.

According to Stroh, the update process wasn't quite as dramatic as the press indicated (cough). "90-percent of people who’ve received an update notification have installed the new software patch successfully," he said. "Of the 10 percent who did experience a problem, nearly half failed for two basic reasons--a bad Internet connection or insufficient computer storage space. Luckily, both are easy to fix."

Unfortunately, that's the extent of the explanation: we still don't know how and why the minor update to the OS updater locked up Samsung phones. However, Stroh admitted that the update didn't execute perfectly, citing that few large-scale software updates ever do. "The engineering team here was prepared," he said. "Of course, when it’s your phone that’s having a problem--or you’re the one waiting--it’s still aggravating. That’s why we’re committed to learning from our first update and improving the process. We know we have work to do, and we won’t be satisfied until you are."

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