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Chinese Phone Maker ZTE Turns Down WP7
An anonymous reader writes "Chinese smartphone maker ZTE, fifth largest in the world, has publicly criticized Microsoft for the lackluster market reaction to its Windows Phone 7 operating system and said that ZTE has no plans to develop a WP7-powered phone. That's bad news for Microsoft for its well-regarded but not well-received mobile OS."
Good. I don't have WP7, but that's because I owned WM6.5. In order to import contacts you HAD TO HAVE Outlook. You couldn't import from a text file. A simple list of names and phone numbers required a full install of Outlook. FU
You know a device is bad when even China doesn't want to touch it (and clone it).
if you don't know by now, Microsoft spends lots of money( billions ) getting people to use their stuff and get some market share. I've seen the Chinese government play games with Microsoft a few times declaring Windows as the "standard" for this, that, or the other thing and the deal includes big cash incentives for doing this. I have little doubt that this company has executives who know Microsoft is spending billions buying resellers of their rehash of a Windows phone OS and are just holding out for more money. They will most likely ship some WP7 phone eventually and get paid well for doing so. We'll see if they are smart enough to not tie the money to sales figures for the phone.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I've watched the marketing attempts. Overall I'd have to say their marketing is much better than WP7. It could be that people aren't buying windows phones not because they are bad phones but because the droid and iphones are better. One thing you've got to remeber is, while you as a developer may love wp7 that means nothing at all to the people that buy phones.
I have found the OS to be fairly well engineered,
So are bricks, which is all your phone'll be useful for after their next update...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Well, I don't MICROSOFT know how many astro-turfWINDOWS PHONE 7ers there are here, personally, but then I've iPhone never actually seen one. WINDOWS PHONE 7
You're confused or uninformed (or misinformed).
The updates you refer to in (1) and (2) are the same update. They had some issues getting out the door and getting the update train running. Hopefully that's all smoothed out now.
And the first "real" update is scheduled for next week. It includes copy/paste, faster app launching, and a few other features.
A major update is scheduled for next fall, that includes a lot of new features, from multi-tasking to IE9/HTML5 support, etc. So yes, they DO have a plan to 'catch up', and in fact have been pretty clear in communicating it (they've showed off the fall update recently, demonstrating many of its new features).
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Honestly, I think WP7 is going to be a slow-burn. It started out way behind, but it's a decent mobile OS as far as it goes, with a lot of potential.
It's going to take a while to find traction. First, it has to "catch up" with what's already there (and that will take a while). There are also people who might be interested but who are already under contract with other phones (I fit in this category). I'm not even elegible to think about buying one for another year or so.
So there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem here, along with a late entry into a relatively saturated market. I think it's highly likely that they'll slowly grow over the next year or 18 months into third place, and likely stay there for several years... eating away at a slowly increasing share. I think the Nokia deal will seriously help this, but so will it's release this year on other networks (Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint here in the States).
As long as Microsoft keeps the updates coming, and pushes updated hardware specs for a second generation that will keep pace with where iOS and Android are going, things will continue to improve.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
>FTFA: "But I think Microsoft should understand that it doesn’t have an engineering or a product problem, it has a marketing problem >and that it needs to address it" Are you kidding? M$ has marketing problem!!!
I know this is a story about mobile phones, but why's that guy have such a comically oversized bluetooth headset? Stupid slashdot icons.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
One thing you've got to remeber is, while you as a developer may love wp7 that means nothing at all to the people that buy phones.
This is an excellent point. Microsoft is accustomed to having huge market share and trying to woo developers to their platforms (and away from other platforms) by making reasonable developer tools (which don't produce cross-platform binaries). In this case how easy it is to develop for WP7 is almost totally irrelevant right now, because developers aren't going to want to spend resources writing non-portable applications for WP7 if nobody is buying the phones.
Not to be obtuse, but where exactly is WP7 "well-regarded" beyond, say, WP7 commercials? I read a lot of reviews when it came out, and the most favorable ones seemed to view it as a passable mobile OS but short of features it'd need to really compete with the others. Saying "meh" or calling something mediocre doesn't strike me as regarding it well.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Because it's backed by MS and everyone likes to kiss some Microsoft butt in hopes of making big money. It's probably just a negotiation ploy to get Redmond to sweeten the deal for them. They know that MS is going to have to open the wallet and spend big to get back in the mobile game against the droids, berries, and iphones.
I thinks it's pretty simple if you think about it. Consumers all around the world don't see Microsoft as a true innovator in the technology business. What does this mean? It means that people does not see Microsoft products as "must-have" because of innovation, features or overall coolness.
Microsoft products become "must-have" only when they become the only platform available to run something the consumer wants.
Windows (Windows applications), Office (Office documments) and X-Box (X-Box games) are the main successful Microsoft products and all three follow this lock-in scenario.
Any other products, platforms or services they created (that don't depend on external content or software) were soon taken over by superior alternatives.
That's funny, because "marketing" (or lack thereof) is an argument a lot of open source advocates use for why Linux isn't taking over the world yet. Oh wait, it is taking over. I guess open source finally got its marketing together and Microsoft's went to shit overnight. Go figure. While yes, people are generally stupid and buy in to well-choreographed marketing schemes, that kind of bullshit can only take a company so far.
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
The problem with WM7 for manufacturers is that with the fear of fragmentation Microsoft went ahead and :
1 Dictated the hardware, so as manufacturer don't have much say on how the device going to look, no small screen with dedicated keyboard or such designs, so in essence no real distinction between one manufacturer’s phone to another. This would not be a problem if it was not for the second point.
2 Manufacturers are not allowed to change the UI to place there own “look & feel” to the phone. So end of the day one WM7 phone is exactly like the other.
We all know a HTC (Android), Apple (iOS), or Motorola (Android) phone just by looking at it. But all the WM7 phones look and feel the same. For some people that is selling point but for a manufacturer it not. How can you make someone buy your WM7 phone and not your competitions.
I do think that ZTE will sell WM7 phones they just want a cash incentive to do so.
Personally I don't like the WM7 blocky interface or the half words that break to show that there is a next screen, and I do think Microsoft did a bad thing aiming something that you cant really customize to gamers 1st (Xbox Live). They should have targeted a market that hates customization – the work place, in other words they should have build better Office/ Exhange/ Sharepoint integration instead, cause that is where they can seriously 1 up the competition.
You mean television isn't real?
Or in other words, their new CEO isn't an ex-microsoftie.
+1 for this one; got a genuine giggle from that!
Having been involved on the fringes of a microsoft-backed WP7 project (sub-contractor to the sub-contractor to the sub-contractor kinda deal), I can say the OS, ok it's not iOS, but it's a lot better than what you'd expect from a Microsoft mobile effort. But the hardware-software interlink is awful, shoddy and downright crap, it has NOTHING on the iPhone experience, and where it really, really falls down is the fact that, MS-backed (financed) projects aside, not much is being made because it's almost as easy as iOS to write for, with no actual plus points; no community, no customers, no hype, no nothing.
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
Who would have purchased an android phone 6 months after launch? Who would have predicted that Android market share would outpace iphone market share as quickly as it has?
Right now MS is moving at a glacial pace with windows 7 phones, which isn't encouraging for their business, but the one thing you don't want to be is a 3rd party supplier and find out you've made enemies with the new big dog in town. In 12 or 18 months with nokia on board MS could have a vastly superior product to anything else on the market.
They probably won't, because they seem to want to work really hard to fail, but that could change. I think every 3rd party phone maker (i.e. anyone who isn't apple or RIM) should have a MS phone strategy. Just in case. That strategy could be 3 guys and a dev kit. But it should be there. Who knows, maybe MS has some killer app up it's sleeve that will take the phone market by storm, that will suddenly make us all converts. The vast majority of even Android users run windows PC's after all, one would hope MS has some ideas on how Window 7 computer could play nice with windows 7 phones.
I dont know where this comes from except a couple of known fanboys and paid bloggers. Amongst normal people and people in the mobile industry, WP7 is anything but well regarded. Its just a huge big "meh..." and thats it. An also ran without anything even remotely interesting, but at the same time lacking many things we take for granted in a mobile phone.
With WP7 i cant friggin set different volumes, on a smartphone! Multitasking only avaliable if my lips are up against Microsofts bottom. No copy/paste, WP7 wont connect to WPA2-P2K wifi. You cant create playlists on the phone 7 and there are tons of other issues that would make well regarded sounding pretty forced or an outright lie.
WP7 is only well regarded amongst a small group of hardcore ms followers. But, i know many who works 100% with only MS products that really hates it with a passion because they poured oodles of money into Winmo 6.5 projects that are now down the drain and they will never make the same mistake again.
HTTP/1.1 400
Who would have purchased an android phone 6 months after launch? Who would have predicted that Android market share would outpace iphone market share as quickly as it has?
Ummm anyone who was watching the market. There was clear signs that Android would be the next Sybian when the Open Alliance formed back in 2007 made up of many mobile device and chipset manufacturers. Then there were clearer signs in 2008 when another 14 companies joined the alliance which now pretty much included every handset manufacturer except Nokia. This very site has been praising the platform ever since it was announced that it would be open source and based of the 2.6 kernel.
The parent was right, given what we know about WP7 who would buy it? 6.5 was UI disaster of epic proportions, 6.0 was an inconsistent slow buggy mess which spent more time with an hourglass on the screen then it did making calls. On top of that, up until Nokia joined the Windows camp the only major handset provider pushing windows 7 phones was HTC, and even they are selling at glacial pace, and few manufacturers are pushing the platform.
Not to mention that the ads Microsoft push as of late are not only crap in quality, but also testing new waters such as at the start of Youtube videos providing them not with positive advertising, but instead a stigma of "the company who helped ruin youtube" and not just youtube. The only place I've seen microsoft ads is where I don't expect them, and haven't previously seen advertising.
â--¦Capacitive, 4-point multi-touch screen with WVGA (480x800) resolution
However, no way to get more than 1 point using standard framework (silverlight)
â--¦1 GHz ARM v7 "Cortex/Scorpion" or better processor
No native code so compiler optimized/programmer-tightened assembly, is not available; not possible to do any cpu-critical coding - at all
â--¦DirectX9 rendering-capable GPU
Within constraints, like 2000x2000 max pixel area; poorly if at all documented are these thing since so little "good stuff" is documented, likely because these are absent
â--¦256 MB of RAM with at least 8 GB of Flash memory
Max any app can use is 90 MB; go over an app fails to get into marketplace - meaning no way to ever load it on any device except your own -- everything MUST BE GOTTEN FROM MARKET PLACE
â--¦Accelerometer with compass, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor and Assisted GPS
Fine, but no access to compass, nor light sensor, nor prox sensor
â--¦5-megapixel camera with an LED flash
That's not saying much - no access to the flash, either
â--¦FM radio tuner
God am I glad, I think - but needs a special headphone cable else no radio for you
â--¦7 dedicated hardware buttons - back, Start, search, 2-stage camera, power/sleep and Volume Up and Down
And the only accessible button is the back button; the others are dedicated (to MS apps)
All in all, a fine system if you like your freedom dictated by the like of Hitler, Stalin, or Republicans
"There was clear signs that Android would be the next Sybian"
I know some people love their phones, but that's getting into Jerry Springer territory.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
The trouble with the Zune? They (a) put wifi in (b) didn't put a web browser in. They could have had the iPod Touch beaten by six months and made everyone realise they could have a full working Internet in their pocket! ... and they just didn't. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Not to mention that the ads Microsoft push as of late are not only crap in quality, but also testing new waters such as at the start of Youtube videos providing them not with positive advertising, but instead a stigma of "the company who helped ruin youtube" and not just youtube. The only place I've seen microsoft ads is where I don't expect them, and haven't previously seen advertising.
Microsoft's ad problems are a whole 'nother issue - I have a friend who's a copywriter and has recently worked for Microsoft. Even after the disastrous ad campaigns of the past decade, they still require broad consensus before approving a new ad. Even worse, their division heads often co-opt the process altogether - basically rejecting the professional ad copy and then writing their own.
It's something I see with faculty at my university a lot - because they are smart in one specific area, they seem to think that makes them experts on all topics, no matter how diverse from their actual area of expertise.
#DeleteChrome
It is heads and shoulders above the iPhone in almost any respect.
It's funny how that phrase - that EXACT phrase - is creeping into multiple comments on this discussion. You'd almost think it was coordinated.
#DeleteChrome
You are aware that the techies don't see ads on the internet, don't watch ad blocks on the tv and have an mp3 player in their car?
Who exactly are they advertising to? The late late late adopters?
The problem is also from my own experiences is that people who are at the lower end of the market tend to have bad windows experiences. They don't have a choice for their desktop OS but are hardly going to want their phone to be as malware riddled as their desktops.
MS just doesn't have a rep.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Second time in two days that meme has surfaced. To be fair, though, there does seem to be a pattern to these things
1: News story breaks impacting on Microsoft in some way
2: Story gets posted to Slashdot.
3: A thoughtful, well-written and strongly pro-Microsoft comment gets quickly posted and rapidly modded up to +5
4: The rest of slashdot gets to read the article, and it quickly becomes apparent that the early post isn't at all representative of the majority opinion on Slashdot.
This seems to happen fairly consistently. which tends to suggest that Microsoft advocacy on this board is very well organised. So it's not unreasonable to assume that some degree of astroturfing is going on.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Is that it has all the vendor lock in of Apple (Closed Source, one App store) with all the (hardware) fragmentation of Android. Atleast Android and iOS has one of two bad things; WP7 has both.
systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
you (and almost everyone here) forget that MS in its infinte wisdom did not even launch let alone promote the Zune in Europe. wtf? If it was such a hot music player why on earth didn't hey do that.
Did they offer it in Asia?
Did they offer it in S. America?
The Zune was a failure full stop. It might have had some advantages over the iPod but when the majority of the worlds population can't buy one then it has to be regarded as a failure. MS never explained why they didn't launch it worldwide.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
Microsoft is not out of the game yet. I can't see a lot of people buying a WP 7 in the next 4 to 6 months, hoping that those updates do happen this year. Most of the people I know who have been WM 5 or WM 6 users have jumped ship to Android. My boss was sick and tired of having the phone lock up at the oddest times and it taking over a minute to reboot a phone. There is no excuse for that. It may very well be the fault of the hardware manufacturer, not of Microsoft, but the results are still the same. I don't know anyone with a cell phone of any type who is saying "my next phone will be WP 7" No matter how hardcore of a Windows Mobile user they have been in the past. People who would mock me for not drinking the kool-aid and being on the Microsoft bandwagon, have all jumped ship when it comes to WP 7.
Once they owned 25% of this market, and now they are under 10% and shrinking fast. They are no where near feature parity with the iPhone. In many ways Microsoft has been 2 to 3 years late to the game since 2004. I know business used to be big buyers, but lest face it. For every WP 7 phone you give to an employee, there is a spouse and 2 kids using an something that is not WP 7.
Even the marketing sucks. People know what an iPhone is. The commercials for Android products are cool. What do we get from Microsoft? That WP 7 lets you get done with Twitter and Facebook faster so you can get on with life? Seriously, that is what Microsoft has to offer. They out to put Jerry Seinfeld back out there with a Churro again for all the good it is doing them.
It is not OS 2, but there is something of the stink of death on WP 7.
vi +
I can say the OS, ok it's not iOS, but it's a lot better than what you'd expect from a Microsoft mobile effort.
They could use that in their adverts.
"WP7: It's a lot better than you'd expect from a Microsoft mobile effort."
Add a little end of advert jingle and it's a winner.
After a couple of weeks using product A, it replaced product B as my primary device. It is a brand of shampoo above product B in every respect.
It's not even subtle. A better shill comment would be:
I really liked product B, but I found feature X to be a bit cumbersome to use and I really missed feature Y. Product A has some faults, but feature X is a lot easier to use, and it has feature Y.
An ever better shill comment would be expanding on one of these points, for example explaining that using feature X on product B required this sequence of actions, while on product A it only required a shorter sequence, and explaining why anyone should care about feature Y. Of course, at this point, you're getting dangerously close to giving an honest review, which may not be what your corporate overlords are looking for.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
That update which is coming "soon" was previously scheduled to be available in january... Saying something is coming just doesn't cut it, the proof is when its actually delivered.
They might not even release updates at all, the Kin was due to be updated and that never happened.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
There have been to many cases of Microsoft promising something to be in the next release, but then taking ages to deliver on that promise, if at all, that I no longer believe them. I drank the cool aid when they announced Chicago/Windows'95, but stopped believing the fairy tales somewhere around 2000.
I still buy their stuff occasionally, but not based on promises, but on actually working hardware/software. And even then you can't be sure that your PlayForSure music will keep playing.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor