While you make very valid points, this is the very first update for WP7. What further complicates things is that firmware upgrades from carriers/OEMs are pushed

While you make very valid points, this is the very first update for WP7. What further complicates things is that firmware upgrades from carriers/OEMs are pushed along with this update, and the need for OEM/Carrier testing further delays things. IIRC they haven't done similar updates for Windows Mobile.While it sucks now, if MS learns from the issues, it has potential to be a better update process than Android, because users don't have to depend on OEMs which cause major delays for updates. The key difference is that OEMs on Android are allowed to(and make) a LOT of changes to the UI etc. resulting in things like MotoBlur, HTC Sense and that Samsung skin. This results in delays of several months(or no updates at all) because of all the required changes to the UI skins which WP7 can avoid(since they don't allow OEMs to mess with internals or the UI) if they learn from the first update and speed up things.