The availability of updates for Windows Phone 7 hasn't been everything we'd wanted it to be. Carriers have consistently blocked the roll-out of both bug-fixes and feature updates, forcing users to suffer out-of-date software.

With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft plans to offer a solution. The carriers will still be involved in the update process. By default, phones will only announce the availability of updates when their respective carriers have signed off on them.

However, enthusiasts will have the ability to opt out of the carrier restrictions—likely with some kind of "this will void your warranty" disclaimer, as their phone will probably cease to be eligible for carrier-provided tech support—and manually install updates as they become available.

The exact details of how this will work still aren't clear, and it's always possible that the carriers will fight back or oppose the facility. But it should provide a good solution for the current update problems by giving end-users the choice: they can have the latest and greatest, or carrier support.