If you updated you Windows Phone 7 device through unofficial means, Microsoft has no sympathy for you.
Even though the company has been slow as molasses at rolling out updates for its mobile platform, it insists that consumers should just wait.
“Despite the fact that many people have claimed that an unofficial update mechanism worked fine for them, we cautioned that phones which were updated via this method were not going to be able to update past build 7390,” Windows Phone senior director Brandon Watson wrote in a company blog.
“Unfortunately for those customers out there who acted on information from sources outside of Microsoft, the rubber meets the road today,” he continued.
Watson is referring to a security update that was pushed to most WP7 devices, which doesn’t make a huge difference in the mobile OS but is symbolic because it will not be available on any phone that was updated through third-party methods.
This hard stance against unofficial updates would make more sense if the company’s own official updates didn’t get consistently dealyed and then accidentally brick thousands of legitimate WP7 users.
Nevertheless, Microsoft is trying to get its act together and make the Windows Phone 7 platform as streamlined and functional as possible, and doesn’t want any interference with that.
Customers who already unofficially updated their phones will receive an error when trying to install this latest official update. They will “most likely have to return to a store and submit your phone for a manufacturing return,” said Microsoft.
