Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows Phone 7 updates to Samsung-branded handsets after reports that the software was bricking devices. According to the company, about 10% of Windows Phone 7 smartphone owners had problems with the update, with some of them rendered unusable, which prompted them to temporarily suspend the process just one day after release.

"During the past week the engineering team has pinpointed and fixed problems that were preventing a small percentage of Windows Phones from installing the February software patch," Microsoft's Michael Stroh wrote on the Windows Phone Blog. He apologized for the delay and said they're looking for ways to improve the update process, but stopped short of detailing what the issue was or why it only affected Samsung phones.

The upgrade in question is being pushed gradually and is actually a small patch designed to prepare the phone for a much larger upgrade that is expected later this month. It will be the first major upgrade of Windows Phone 7 since the operating system was launched in October last year, and will add new features such as copy and paste and faster application performance. A much larger update, codenamed Mango, is set to arrive a few months later adding things like multitasking support for third-party applications and improved browsing through IE9.