The Windows Phone 7 platform was a pretty ambitious undertaking for Microsoft.  It represented a complete reboot for Microsoft's mobile efforts and offered up perhaps the most innovative interface on the market today.  But it was not without problems.

Since launch, Windows Phone 7 shoppers have griped about missing features -- copy & paste, third party multi-tasking, etc. -- which are found in competitors' phones.  On Monday Microsoft began to roll out a small update to prepare phones for these missing features.

However, the update has been rendering Samsung Omnia 7s inoperative and unresponsive.  After installing the patch, the handset attempts to reboot, hanging on the step where it's supposed to connect to your PC.  An endless cycle of rebooting death ensues, leaving you the proud owner a new brick.

Attempting to hard reset doesn’t help and connecting to Windows Phone 7's PC recovery suite yields a "Restoration Error".  It appears that owners should assume the worst, as Microsoft is advising that affected users exchange the bricked unit for a new handset.

One user, Tom Granville writes, "Basically, after plugging in my phone to receive the update, the process gets as far as stage 6 of 10 where the phone goes through the reboot process but the phone hangs on the ‘connect your phone to your PC’.

In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson acknowledges that the company has "identified a technical issue with the Windows Phone update process", which it says affects a "small number of phones."

Microsoft adds, "In response to this emerging issue, we have temporarily taken down the latest software update for Samsung phones in order to correct the issue and as soon as possible will redistribute the update."

The company promises to bring back the update "as soon as possible".

Even if the handset didn't brick a particular user's phone, some users are reporting that it caused issues with the phone's backup, which is set up to occur when you connect it to your PC.

WinRumors collected a handful of other users who were voicing their frustrations on Twitter.  Those users include Will Cahill, Michel Angelo, and Steve Frolleau who are experiencing backup problems, and Alex Roebuck, Mikael Petersson, Phil Williams, Garsim, and  Evan Bronstein whose phone have experienced the worse case scenario -- a complete bricking.

Microsoft's update woes come not long after it finally solved its "phantom data" issues.  A couple weeks ago Microsoft revealed Yahoo! Mail to be the offending third-party app that was consuming inordinate amounts of data due to a software glitch.  Ultimately the end affect of that issue on users was minimal -- it killed some users’ batteries a bit faster.  By contrast, this issue seems far more severe, though it's still unclear exactly how many users are affected.