MS to bypass carriers for Windows 10 for Phones updates.
I think that this is both a good and a bad thing. And I think part of the reason they are able to make this work has to do with their branding around Windows 10. Specifically the "Windows as a Service" nonsense and the "last version of Windows" nonsense.
The first will make some customers expect continual updates. The second makes it harder from a optics standpoint for a carrier to say why they are blocking an update.
I think the good points for this strategy are fairly obvious. No one wants to buy a new phone and then have it become obsolete on a software level within months of getting it. Especially if you're on a new contract. This should address that to a large degree. While the carriers aren't actually being removed from the picture, they won't be able to screw over just their customers. These are great things and thus far only Apple has been able to wrangle them for their customers. The situation on Apple is still better as they own all of the software and hardware 100% they don't really need to worry about carrier involvement at all.
The bad is a little murkier. One of the biggest problems for Windows Phone has been that carriers didn't sell the phones. I don't mean that they didn't have them on their shelves (although, in many cases this was also true). What I mean is, carriers would in many cases try and sell you something else if you so much as showed interest in a Windows Phone device. And the average consumer can be easily swayed based on "expert" opinions and suggestions. This won't help that situation, and it may make it worse. Microsoft will need an aggressive advertising campaign to counter this, and that is an area where they have failed consistently in the past.
The other problem is platform stability. Firstly, just in general, and secondly as it pertains to carrier specific software. Since Windows 10 will not only roll out fixes, but also new features there is a much greater possibility of shipping something that does some sort of damage to a users data or device. It also means that if you like your phone as it is, but MS decides to change the UX on you (not likely to happen often and maybe not all) you have no choice but to take the upgrade.
On the carrier side of things, many carriers and OEM's add their own software to the phones. While most times they are just bloatware, other times they are highly desirable software packages or may even be important to help configure the device (Nokia's "access point" comes to mind). If a carrier drags its feet in testing and Microsoft pushes the big red release button of doom and one of these important features breaks, it will give carriers ammo against this ability.
The first will make some customers expect continual updates. The second makes it harder from a optics standpoint for a carrier to say why they are blocking an update.
I think the good points for this strategy are fairly obvious. No one wants to buy a new phone and then have it become obsolete on a software level within months of getting it. Especially if you're on a new contract. This should address that to a large degree. While the carriers aren't actually being removed from the picture, they won't be able to screw over just their customers. These are great things and thus far only Apple has been able to wrangle them for their customers. The situation on Apple is still better as they own all of the software and hardware 100% they don't really need to worry about carrier involvement at all.
The bad is a little murkier. One of the biggest problems for Windows Phone has been that carriers didn't sell the phones. I don't mean that they didn't have them on their shelves (although, in many cases this was also true). What I mean is, carriers would in many cases try and sell you something else if you so much as showed interest in a Windows Phone device. And the average consumer can be easily swayed based on "expert" opinions and suggestions. This won't help that situation, and it may make it worse. Microsoft will need an aggressive advertising campaign to counter this, and that is an area where they have failed consistently in the past.
The other problem is platform stability. Firstly, just in general, and secondly as it pertains to carrier specific software. Since Windows 10 will not only roll out fixes, but also new features there is a much greater possibility of shipping something that does some sort of damage to a users data or device. It also means that if you like your phone as it is, but MS decides to change the UX on you (not likely to happen often and maybe not all) you have no choice but to take the upgrade.
On the carrier side of things, many carriers and OEM's add their own software to the phones. While most times they are just bloatware, other times they are highly desirable software packages or may even be important to help configure the device (Nokia's "access point" comes to mind). If a carrier drags its feet in testing and Microsoft pushes the big red release button of doom and one of these important features breaks, it will give carriers ammo against this ability.
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