Microsoft botches Windows Phone 7 update --- is this phone jinxed?

Microsoft just can't seem to get Windows Phone 7 right --- this time it's botched a minor update to Samsung phones that "brick" the devices so that they're useless. Then it compounded the error by apparently not pulling the update after it said it had. This is no way to catch Android and the iPhone.

Within the last few days, Microsoft began pushing a minor update to Windows Phone 7. This isn't the major, long-awaited update that would add capabilities such as copy-and-paste. Instead, the update appears designed to improve the built-in updater, so that future updates would work correctly. Yes, you read that right --- Microsoft botched an update to an updater.

Shortly after the update began being pushed to phones, users of Samsung Windows Phone 7 devices began reported that the devices were being bricked by the update. Microsoft first responded by saying "We are investigating reports related to the Windows Phone update process and will provide additional information and guidance as it becomes available," according to Mary Jo Foley.

Then today, Microsoft announced it was pulling the update. Computerworld reports that Microsoft said:

"We have identified a technical issue with the Windows Phone update process that impacts a small number of phones. In response to this emerging issue, we have temporarily taken down the latest software update for Samsung phones in order to correct the issue."

But it appears that Microsoft may not, in fact, have pulled the update. Several sites, including Mobile Tech World and wpcentral report that the update hasn't yet been pulled.

This is only the latest in the comedy of errors that has become Microsoft's mobile strategy. It released a smartphone OS well before Apple or Google, and then let it fester while Apple and Google launched smartphone OSes that now dominate the market. It launched the ill-fated Kin, one of the worst phone ever designed. The launch of Windows Phone 7, designed to finally give Microsoft a fighting chance in the mobile market, was underwhelming at best. And now it can't even manage to issue a minor update correctly --- or fix the problem when it discovers it.

Microsoft made the right move when it signed a deal with Nokia for Windows Phone 7. But if it's not capable of executing its strategy properly, all the billions it will pay for that deal will go to waste. This latest glitch is not a good sign it's capable of getting Windows Phone 7 right.