By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 5:44 PM on 23rd February 2011
Microsoft has been forced to pull the first update for its Windows Phone 7 system after it crashed handsets.
Owners found their mobiles turned off or failed to start up at all after they had downloaded the programme.
The problems appear to have been confined to users of Samsung phones so far, Microsoft claimed.
British user Alex Roebuck posted a picture of his 'bricked' phone on Twitter. Owners of Samsung handsets found their mobiles turned off or failed to start up at all after they had downloaded Windows Phone 7
The glitch sparked a firestorm of criticism on blogs and forums with many complaining that their phones had been 'bricked', or turned into an expensive but useless dud.
The embarrassing episode comes as Microsoft struggles to gain a foothold in the lucrative smartphone market against stronger competitors like Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.
It also comes against a backdrop of other glitches with Microsoft products, especially its virus-ridden browser Internet Explorer.
The problems with the update came to light in blog posts about Samsung's Omnia 7 phone, which comes pre-loaded with Windows.
'I've got an unmodified Samsung Omnia 7, now bricked,' wrote one contributor to Microsoft's Answers site.
'My phone is currently unusable, even after hard reset,' wrote another user on the same site.
And Alex Roebuck, a British Omnia 7 user, said on Twitter: 'It's 1am here in the UK. 'Have to go to work tomorrow with no phone. Very unhappy.'
It appears users experienced problems if their update did not go through properly then they manually tried to restart the phone.
A statement on Microsoft's support forums urged users not to try to turn their phones on and that it would be issuing a new update in three days time.
That was later changed to an undetermined point in the future.
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer unveils Windows Phone 7 in October. The software's first update has been temporarily withdrawn
On the official Windows Phone Support Twitter account, however, one user was told that 'if the phone is bricked you will need to exchange the phone unfortunately'.
Microsoft launched its Windows Phone system last October on Samsung, LG and HTC handsets, later adding Nokia to its list of partners.
Commentators said that the company had entered the smartphone market too late and that Windows phones lacked basic functionality users had come to expect, such as the cut and paste option and tethering.
Leigh Geary, editor of Coolsmartphone.com said the latest problem would portray the company 'in a bad light'.
'In some circumstances it renders the phone completely unusable and can't be restored to a previous version,' he said.
The issue comes after years of problems with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Last December users were warned about a flaw which could allow hackers to take control of unprotected computers.
Earlier this month another problem was identified which allowed cyber criminals to harvest banking information and passwords from the browser's 900million users worldwide.
Microsoft said in a statement: 'We have identified a technical issue with the Windows Phone update process that impacts a small number of phones.
'We have temporarily taken down the latest software update for Samsung phones in order to correct the issue and as soon as possible will redistribute the update.'
Typical Microsoft, charge a fortune for their software, and then expect the paying end-users to be the testers.
- L. G., Berkshire, 23/2/2011 18:47
Report abuse