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What Windows Phone 8 Needs To Do To Succeed
As Microsoft prepares for the launch of Windows Phone 8 devices, its most important push into the smartphone industry to date, speculation is rampant about whether or not consumers will continue to ignore Windows-based phones. There are many obvious ways Microsoft could misstep and lose its chance to participate in another generation of phones, but what would it take for Windows Phone 8 to succeed? To start, they can take advantage of manufacturers who are worried about being pursued over patent claims. They could also work to establish the permanence of Windows Phone 8, after the upgrade inflexibility involved with Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5. Finally, they could take a page out of Amazon's book and make WP8 devices more about services.
I think Microsoft mostly needs two things for Windows Phone 8 to succeed.
1.) Great hardware partner. Nokia here, along with HTC and other little players.
2.) Great developer tools. We got Visual Studio covered here, along with things like Microsoft's XNA for games and easy, yet powerful languages like C#.
The idea here is that Microsoft really has all it covered. Nokia has a very stable history of making good phones. Their hardware really is rock solid. Nokia is the perfect partner Microsoft needs, and they have them. Motorola Mobility for Google doesn't even come close to what Microsoft-Nokia partnership is. I seriously think that Google tried to get Nokia on-board but they had already decided on Microsoft.
What comes to development tools.. well, you can't really go wrong with Visual Studio. It's an industry standard, really widely used IDE. Pretty much everyone agrees that it's rock solid product from Microsoft. Even if you hate Microsoft, you can but agree on this one. And the availability of things like XNA, C#, great documentation and the fact that Visual Studio Express is free really helps. Microsoft really is the developer friendly company. Much more so than Google or Apple.
I'd say these two things are well covered.
Then there's the matter of UI. Again, Microsoft has done remarkable job with the design. While I agree that Metro UI doesn't work too well on computers, it really is great on mobile phones and tablets. Everyone who has tested one of the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 phones can agree. The UI and system are good.
The last part Microsoft has in front of it really comes down to marketing. Nokia never really was that well known company in North America and that's why other companies like Apple and HTC have gained a following there. Nokia largely ignored NA market while they concentrated on Europe and Asia. Let's not forget that Nokia is still the worlds biggest phone manufacturer and controls almost half of the markets when dumb phones are included. Even without, Nokia has a much better base in Europe.
What Microsoft and Nokia need are phone companies that will push the products to consumers. That's all there is to it. They have a wonderful product in their hands but are missing the marketing required for it. I think it mostly comes down to so much different market than what it is in Asia or Europe. They just lack the experience.
Microsoft, or Nokia for that matter, could introduce one leading phone. The "one" phone that everyone would choose. But I think it's much better when Nokia produces many different phones and everyone can choose the one they like the best. Let's not forget that Microsoft does have hardware requirements so there is no problem with fragmentation like Android has. Apple, of course, has little next to none fragmentation problems, even with the different resolutions. Nokia and Microsoft are almost at the same boat.
All in all, both Microsoft and Nokia have wonderful product. They just need to market it to people.
/thread
by replaceing win 8 to linux arm
> To start, they can take advantage of manufacturers who are worried about being pursued over patent claims.
What!? How does Windows Phone 8 protect someone from a patent lawsuit? With patent trolls running around suing people for using hyperlinks, this is an absolutely ridiculous statement.
Which it ain't gonna get unless the devices are far cheaper than gutter level Androids.
It's going to need to drop the Microsoft and Windows branding.
why buy Kia when toyota and honda already offer what you want. except to save a few dollars on some option.
same here. iOS and Android have sold a billion devices. why switch to a platform with such tiny market share? what will you gain for it. what does it do better that iOS and android don't do already?
One of two things is needed:
1) A product that is _significantly_ better than other products (which will not happen, as they pretty much all do the same thing)
2) Some culturally respected cool or godly figure to tell them to buy it. (which again, MS can't accomplish, because they're just not perceived as cool)
Any kind of suggestions here will only help MS for free.
Let's just hope that the dump Apple consumer mass keep ignoring MS forever.
The question is simple, why should I buy a Windows phone? What does it give me that I cannot get from Android or Apple? After all, if there is no big reason to choose Windows phone, then I would lean towards one with a broader base of apps. Once they're able to get a compelling mainstream reason why to move to Windows phone, they need to market it. Right now they think having a unified experience between desktop and phone is that killer feature. We'll see if they're right.
... that affects only iOS devices?
Copy and Paste
There's an article on the reg which might be of some interest: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/14/windows8_phone_ecosystems_analysis/ (Comment subject taken from that article)
-1 troll is not supposed to be used simply because you don't agree
If you think of all the businesses that use Microsoft on their desktop, and servers. They could easily force only Microsoft phones to sync with their products. Imagine Exchange only working with Windows Mobile 8, or file sharing with your desktop. Sure, you might try and get around it with other products, but Microsoft will make it difficult.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
and offer it for free.
Not a very imaginative article... But then, I wouldn't want to create great ideas for spreading MS's domination either. Really, if that was all MS could do, they'd be doomed from the beggining.
By the way, what "high-profile startups" means?
Rethinking email
Yeah, look how well that worked for Zune. They tried this already, why throw good money after bad? The only useful consumer brand they own is X-Box, and nobody over 24 is going to carry an "X-Phone."
They need to integrate it with Exchange, AD and Communicator. Then it'll be a useful device for corporate customers. That's their only hope, no end-user consumer wants one no matter how nice they make them.
That's like asking what death must do to live.
Before any of that they needed to have made it a real OS that real developers could really develop on without having to #ifdef hell an application. By this I mean, for example, C# .NET with WPF. I should be able to take my WPF application, change the drop down build target to Windows 8 Phone, and it should be done. That is how simple it should be. Look at iOS and Android... developing for those platforms is the biggest pain my life. Microsoft is in a not-so-unique position to actually do shit for real, for once. But, of course, won't.
It would take someone dropping a nuke on Cupertino. Outside of that, I don't really see it happening.
How is this Microsoft's most important push into the smartphone industry to date? Why is this more important than Windows 7? Because it is happening now?
Microsoft has never been an innovator, and they won't be able to innovate here. It's an irrelevant platform, and if Microsoft hadn't had a de facto monopoly on the desktop which finances WP, they would be long gone by now. Typically Microsoft, they want to bully desktop users into using the ridiculous Metro interface. That won't work... but of course they don't get it. Nokia has a few more quarters in them until they bleed to death, and then that will be yet another "partner" that Microsoft has led down the garden path, raped behind the shed and then buried in a shallow grave.
Simple dock for peripherals and the deal is done. They would trounce the market.
Duh.
In my opinion Nokia was the perfect partner for this but they no longer are the perfect partner. Nokia got burned badly by the Win 7 phones and they bet the company on this partnership. I am afraid that in the first world too many people will view the Win 8 phone as another potential compatibility nightmare (for those that know about the previous Nokia Win 7 phones) or they'll see them as "not an iPhone or an Android and therefore a loser platform that won't survive". Nokia just reminds me of too many IT companies that can't admit that the market changed and they weren't prepared and can't play catchup any more. They've got the garbage section of the mobile phone industry covered. If you want low featured "I just want a phone that's a phone" type devices, then they are your company, especially if you live in a less developed country where you either can't afford or can't get an Android or iPhone. But I think that it's too late for them to get taken seriously in developed parts of AustralAsia, Europe and North America that basically want tiny computers that masquerade as phones.
The only reason X-Box is a "successful" consumer brand is because Microsoft has dumped billions into buying market position. Microsoft hasn't even made back its investment into the X-Box. But unless Microsoft and Nokia are basically willing to sell at a substantial loss for a considerable length of time, they are intruding into a market already crowded by iOS and Android devices.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
its most important push into the smartphone
Why? All the others were equally touted, the difference being the situation was never as dire as it is now for MS WinCE.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
The marriage of operating system with services on the internet is stupid, stupid, fucking stupid.
Let apps be free. Let the apps implement that third party integration. Nobody fucking cares about Bing or Zune, stop trying to shove it down people's throats.
What they should be doing is emphasizing how little it actually matters what search engine you use, or how little matters if you post to Twitter versus Facebook, or how little it matters if apps come from iTunes or Google Play or the Zune store.
All that really matters is usability and security, and you can do that without crippling the devices and locking them down tighter than Steve Jobs' mummified sphincter.
The UI spectacular, and Visual Studio is far and away better than Eclipse and Xcode. So stop giving developers reasons to hate Microsoft and the apps will come, and then the people will come. Developers developers developers.
I'm serious. every iteration of WinPhone has abandoned its users to no upward compatibility and no further support. If I had been silly or strung out enough to have bought a Win7 phone, I wouldn't have a WinProduct ever again.
not that I'm in the market, because they are a year late and a trillion dollars short in the market. the only industry reaction in anything close to real time to the iPhone was Google, and that's why those two lines have killed the rest of the business. you add up all the alternatives... WinPhone, BBOS, Symbian, Palm, whatever the Chinese just started up... add 'em all up, and it's an asterisk, too small to measure.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
1.) Great hardware partner. Nokia here, along with HTC and other little players.
Nokia is selling its assets and would have been long gone if not for the MS Cash infusion. It's more like a zombie partner at this point.
2.) Great developer tools. We got Visual Studio covered here, along with things like Microsoft's XNA for games and easy, yet powerful languages like C#.
Everybody is making games and apps for mobile (iOS and Android) using Java/ObjC/C++. None of such are what you mention and OpenGL isn't available either. So why would developers making apps for more profitable platforms rewrite their entire codebases for an irrelevant player? They are waaay too late to the game impose developers their own languages, APIs and tools.
The article touches on really non of what, as a user, I think Windows Phone 8 needs. The experience in Windows 7 is great, but they're still lacking on apps, carrier support, new hardware, and advertising. So this is my list:
1) Support new hardware on all major carriers. Verizon currently has backwater outdated Windows Phones. That cannot happen with Windows Phone 8.
2) App parity with other platforms. With Windows 8 compatibility, this will likely be the case for Windows Phone 8. All the major players will write apps for Windows 8, and will most likely make the investment to bring their app over to WP8. However, this is still yet to be seen. Micosoft can ensure this will happen by making the transition as easy as possible, possibly by preserving all logic code and allowing a dev to make changes just to the interface.
3) A variety of hardware. Nokia is a great hardware partner but they cannot be the only one. I don't like some of the decisions on the 920, like no micro SD. I need to be able to go to Samsung or HTC to find a phone that fits me perfectly.
4) Integration with Windows 8, Xbox, Skydrive, Skype, and the various media properties like Xbox Music and especially Xbox Live.
In terms of what the article suggests I have these comments:
1) Take Advantage of Google Android’s Current Issues - Yes, I believe Microsoft is already capitalizing on this by offering indemnity for parters. I don't know how Samsung's verdict will really affect the market, but Microsoft can't rely on Android getting worse or less appealing; they have to make WP more appealing.
2) Stop the Upgrading Uncertainty - With the WP8 foundation this is probably already fixed, but I don't think it's that big of an issue. Still the majority of Android customers are two versions behind on Gingerbread, and many WP users are happy with the additional support provided with WP7.8. Yes it sucks WP won't be upgraded to 8, but then again we've had more certainty with our upgrades to Android until this point, with the vast majority of devices old and new being on 7.5. If they can continue this trend onto 8, they should be good.
3) Push Cloud Apps and Services - This is a foregone conclusion. Microsoft account integrates across Windows 8, Xbox, and Windows Phone, and carries all settings, mail, contacts, etc. between phone and desktop, and carries media between all three. With Office, the cloud trend will continue. I think this doesn't necessarily make WP more competitive, but it makes the ecosystem at least as appealing as the others. Microsoft has at least the advantage of Xbox and Office over Google and Apple, who cannot really offer parity in those respects.
Microsoft is big on the desktop sector becus backwards compability.
I hateted the windows smart phones during windows mobile 5 6 etc becus they could not be upgraded newer apps would not work.
They are doing the same mistake all over.
If win95 could not run 3.11 apps or win 98 apps microsoft would have failed the desktop market.
If i buy a phone i want it to be usable for atleast 3 years and i simply dont trust microsoft to provide me with that.
> There are many obvious ways Microsoft could
> misstep and lose its chance to participate in
> another generation of phones...
Or, they could do everything right, and it still won't matter. Beating an entrenched winner is HARD. How many times does it have to be said? Being "as good as" IS NOT ENOUGH. You have to be SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER in SEVERAL WAYS that will appeal to MANY PEOPLE to make any headway at all.
And it doesn't help that MS has made MAJOR recent blunders, like "oops, no Windows Phone 7 phone will EVER be upgradeable past 7.x." Not a great start, guys.
It's hard being an uncool kid and watching the cool kids have all the fun, but MS should accept its fate and focus on being the best enterprise company possible that also happens to make a consumer OS and a game system. Instead, they're pissing EVERYONE off by borking their OS one release after the other and slowly giving up the future to Apple.
Ballmer, accept the fact that MS will be the next IBM. It ain't so bad. If you don't, you won't even get that far.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Windows Phone 8 will only succeed if Microsoft does something like they did with OWA where it's just a checkbox(overexaggerating, yes) for system administrators to support. When RIM lost a patent lawsuit and had an injunction brought against them in the US a few years ago, the company I was working for at the time dumped Blackberry support and switch to Samsung Blackjacks for the simple reason that the Exchange servers already supported them via OWA. If Microsoft does something to make Windows Phone 8 highly desirable and extremely cheap for Corporations, they will flock to it and kick Apple/Android to the curb in no time. Blackberry is already on life support.
One thing to remember is that Microsoft is already making money off of every Android/iPhone/Blackberry thanks to it's patent licensing deals. Even if WP8 loses, Microsoft still wins in the end.
If they even breath trying to lockout Non-Win8 phones then they will find a herd of "Hogs" on their front lawn.
Don't forget that The Pentagon has lots and lots of nDroids , iThings and Crackberries devices running around.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
And Mountain View. And Seoul. And Waterloo. And Tokyo. And Redmond, just to be sure. Then Windows Phone 8 can really fly.
It's the fact that it's still Windows, and Microsoft is still working on the paradigm of a single code build to rule them all, that's a complete turn-off to me, and makes the chance of me ever owning such a device bordering on nonexistent.
It was trying to deal with a company issued Windows mobile 5 phone, and later a Windows mobile 6 phone, that taught me that Microsoft just doesn't get the differences between the touch and kvm paradigms. It appears that they're going to "solve" this by making everything (including kvm pcs) run a touch-friendly interface.
The thing is, Microsoft has yet to create a truly successful touch interface. (The original "surface" had some really cutting edge features but was never released.) "Windows 7 tablet edition" is unbelievably bad, being for the most part a re-branding of old accessibility resources. Windows 7 Phone never took off, despite some early moderately favorable reviews, perhaps due to it's association to other failed attempts (see paragraph one).
So now... honestly, why do I need Windows Phone 8? Compatibility with Exchange? A known solution on both iphone and android. Compatibility with Microsoft Office? My Android phone came with Quickoffice, and it appears to be working fine. I can mail myself a PPT, open it on the phone, and use the HDMI interface to display on a projector, no laptop necessary.
Tiles that update dynamically? Android has had that (widgets) for years.
That it's called Windows? That's actually a reason *not* to buy it.
So, like, what? The number of applications? Um, no. The maturity of the code base? It is to laugh. Let's see... Crush on Steve Ballmer... nope. Love the logo... nope, if anything, the new logo looks amateurish. Microsoft has done such a great job on my PC that I'll buy anything they produce? Let's see, examining feelings, um, that would be a no. I'm really reaching here, but I don't know what else might come into play. Oh wait, I know:
I work for Microsoft and they're giving me a Windows 8 phone and tablet for free? Well, that might work. At very least, it'll reduce inventory somewhat. Storage must be costly.
On the other hand, my company (which isn't Microsoft) issued me a Windows Mobile phone, and after a very frustrating three months I gave it back. (In all fairness, they also issued me an ipad, and after a week, seeing that I'd still need to carry a laptop, I gave back the ipad.) So a more correct wording might be "We're giving Microsoft employees a free Windows 8 phone and you better the hell be seen using it".
That, plus TV show prop departments heavily subsidize by Microsoft (cough-hawaii-50-cough) might be the only places you see the critters.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
2013 will be the year of Windows on the cell phone!
They could try having a product when they have a product announcement. You know, a thing to sell, or pre-order with a solid ship date. I saw the new Nokia phone announcement and was like "that sounds great, I need a new phone now anyway" and looked for a ship date. nothing. Looked for a price. nothing. Looks like a great phone.
Shipping is a feature. Announce when that feature's complete, not other features. Amazon had an announcement, they had products, they had pre-orders, they had hands-on demo production products for the press, they're burning through sales. Apple had an announcement, they have pre-orders, they had hands-on demo production products for the press, they're selling product and their online store is already on backorder.
Microsoft and Nokia had announcements. They have no product, no preorders, people didn't get any hands on time with what the actual shipping product will be, the phone demo movie was faked up to the point where if they hadn't backed off they'd be looking at criminal fraud indictments, the actual "products" they had for demos were showing powerpoint slides for all they were worth.
Tease launches only work for industry-new products. Apple pulled it off with the original iPhone and iPad because there weren't any competitive products in the space, so the market didn't have an option to go out and buy something that filled that need *right now*. Microsoft and Nokia are trying to do a tease launch, when I can go to the store and buy something very similar for a probably similar price and have it in my hand before Microsoft and Nokia will get around to announcing prices, much less ship dates.
Microsoft is so used to being the industry leader they've forgotten how to act when they're not. Little hint guys: Apple's iPhone business is bigger than Microsoft. Not that Apple is bigger, Apple's iPhone business. Just that one piece of their business. Not that Apple couldn't be taken down by an innovative competitor with an effective marketing strategy, but Microsoft is neither an innovative competitor nor do they market effectively.
So, again, Microsoft is too little and too late to the party, and will be utterly ignored.
Soon enough all of the people in those less developped parts of the wrold will be using smartphones too. And everything indicates they'll be running Android.
Nokia is done.
Rethinking email
NOT SUCK FTFY
And Google's HQ, and Samsung's and LG's and HTC's and (every other Android partner)
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
POSIX, motherfucker! Do you implement it?
No one cares about Google play, which is why iPhone sells. Store you entire library on Apple servers and download as you want to use it. Like MS used to be, any almost any App you want is in the store, and often for free. It will cost money, but people have money. Paul McCartney tickers are currently on sale for $2000 a piece.
Honestly MS is doing a good job developing a phone that is not iPhone or Android. They have no excuse not to as they have been in the biz as long as anyone. MS WIndows CE and Nokia Communicator are both vintage 1996. The blackberry was two or three years later.
I think as in many MS ventures that are no core MS WIndows, it is unclear what the goal is. Even in Windows, as we saw with Vista, and now with Metro née Modern née App Store Applications, or whatever, there is a high level of confusion. On one hand they want MS to rule the planet, OTOH they are getting free money from every Android phone sold. Clearly they could take over the market, but that would be work and it is unclear if money from work is better than free money.
MS does not have properties that are going to be promoted by the phone. They have search, but if they make it good enough they will not have to force people to use it. They have pretty much given up forcing people to use IE through cheap tricks, and there has never been any integration with the phone and computer. They do not have that level of service. They tried to leverage social media with the Kin, and it failed miserably. People want, as hard it is to believe, and so-called ecosystem. This makes sense as the phone cannot do that much alone. Can you imagine entering all the information into a phone. I have had to do it. It sucks. Much better to use the computer for data entry.
The only reason the phone might matter is that MS might be able to make a better table than Android, and might be able to gain that market share. There would be benefit to MS from being on the forefront of the tablet market, which is still up for grabs. And, maybe, the might be real and intangible benefits to the consumer to having matching phone and tablet. Perhaps some people will be less likely to buy a MS tablet if they don't have a matching phone. I don't know. But the phone itself seems pretty silly after 15 years of failure with no real period of success.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
"Visual Studio is far and away better than .... Xcode" No way is it better than XCode. Keep dreaming.
I bet there's a couple of parts to it.
Of course it's a marketing department, and I wouldn't put it above the New /. to "help them" with certain news items. Remember how they wanted a new "Business Intelligence" department a while back?
Don't stories all come through the Firehose? So he'd see it sitting there in the Firehose and could have as long as he wanted to type out his speech.
Meanwhile, creating an account is easy, so they could do them in batches of 5.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Or at least, an advanced enough technology indistinguishable from it, at least from the point of view of most people. In this age of science, is basically magic or any hint to get it what succeed economically, not reality.
Basics? I mean make it usable as a phone, require minimum loudness and call quality, minimum battery life and an ability to use the phone for complex apps while charging (navigation in the car, talking in the car, playing music)
Add value to replace other gadgets. How about requiring or at least clearly advertising that navigation software works w/o network. Google maps is a toy, because it does not store maps and does not find a route, when not tethered. The same for exercise tracking software, etc. A five yr old $99 Navi system can do that, why can't a $650 smartphone which has all the required sensors? A four year old $200 watch can do it too.
Cameras seem to be coming on good in that regard.
Lean on OEMs to make the pricing sensible. NOT $100 for + 16GB more NAND which cost $15?
Oh and with all the power over the market and the apps on it. Publish crash and usage numbers. Nothing speaks louder of quality if people don't only download the software but also load it/use it and have low crash report numbers. That is what is in the interest of the users!!!
Busy helping non technical users of OpenOffice.org - http://plan-b-for-openoffice.org/
I think actually it would take an effort greater than what they gave to XBox. I don't know if Microsoft would be rewarded for it. Right now Windows 8 feels completely alien, but Microsoft is unifying the interface for the computer, videogame and phone. Nearly absent from the phone market, they have a natural tendency to grow. I would bet they expect to grow in all markets because of the interface, but they can as well shrink because of that.
Visual Studio is far and away better than Eclipse and Xcode.
No it's not, it does project management better than Eclipse, is worse for editing code (for a lot of reasons, but refactoring is so much nicer in Eclipse), and VS11 is an ugly dog.
Let apps be free.
Well said. You might add, let the devices be free, too.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...it needs more cowbell!
How Windows Phone can succeed:
* throw away current models and OS
* Make deal with Apple to rebadge iPhones as Windows Phones, adding in utilities to make them enterprise-friendly
Microsoft's failing is that they have been trying to copy Apple in some ways and UNIX in other ways, and have been reinventing both very poorly. They also took the best aspects of WindowsCE and threw them away, rather than retaining what was really good about Windows Mobile/WinCE and just adding what was needed. Lastly, in their scramble to try to (re-)gain entry into the smartphone and tablet market, they made the boneheaded decision to take a UI which is great for a handheld touch device and force it on the desktop, completely destroying what has made Windows usable since Microsoft Windows 2.0's biggest selling point (overlapping windows!)
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Quit. Just give up and try to pretend mobile never happened.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I'm considering the new Nokia Windows Phone, whenever the hell it's released. I was curious to see what the iPhone 5 was all about and while I think it's a fine device I don't see much that I find compelling. Really, the biggest thing they've got going for them is the App Store, and I've got that covered with my iPad.
I've had an Android phone for two years and while I've been reasonably happy with it I'm not particularly compelled to stick with the OS. I've used Windows Phone 7 and I've been very impressed. I'd say it's the most innovative of the group, but Microsoft's tendencies do make me hesitant. It's why I'm not sold on giving up on Android.
One of the biggest example of stupidity exhibited by everyone but Apple is that they'll announce a device that won't be available for months, assuming they've even given a definitive date. I figure Nokia was trying to steal some of Apple's thunder, hoping people on the fence will wait. But it's annoying nonetheless.
I think the biggest risk going Microsoft is that the system flops and you end up stuck with a dead end device. But from a purely superficial, aesthetic standpoint, I've got to say it's appealing being able to buy a smartphone in yellow. Apple's industrial design is getting incredibly stale.
They will not be allowed to leverage their dominance in one market to attempt to secure smartphone dominance.
However I am sure they will try but I am also sure they will fail.
Good riddance to them finally.
When do we get back to proper Slashdot posts instead of these obvious shills and trolls of recent months?
People won't like Win 8 computers, they will also avoid Win 8 phones with out even trying them. We all have phones loaded with tons of apps from Itunes or G. Play and a switch to a Windows phone and we would have to rebuy all the apps (that are actually available anyway) from the MS apps store.
> Well said. You might add, let the devices be free, too.
Well, yes, they shouldn't be beholden to the carriers' interests.
Oh, I get it, you're an idiot and misinterpreted "free" by ignoring context.
What MS needs is to get a time machine and go back and unscrew all the Wince5, Wince6 and Winphone 7 users they screwed by not offering upgrades! (Making a few pigs fly could help too)
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
They should simply change the name to: Windows iPhone 8 and user very tiny letters for the first word...
I think the strategy Microsoft should take is to build personal no-configuration (like Hamachi) VPN into their phone to give phone users direct access to their Windows file systems. There advertising should be that only Windows Phone turns home PCs into 'cloud' repositories, and seamlessly connects all Windows OSs.
Because realistically, right now all Windows Phone represents is something else, not something significantly better.
AustralAsia is an actual region not an abbreviation for "Australia and Asia".
is to not tie it to any particular carrier, but let the user choose their carrier. And make it run Android and let users access google play and Amazon appstore for android. Oh, and drop Microsoft and Windows 8 from the name!
At least they let Skype continue to be its own brand after they bought it. It is not "Microsoft Skype", thankfully.
I think that Microsoft should have continued to use the word "Metro" to refer to the touch-interface on Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Rename the Metro interface on Windows 8 to "Metro" and rename the "Windows 8 Phone" to "Metro Phone". Done.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
No idea what you're talking about.
I can post a status update and it lets me choose from:
Facebook, Twitter, Live or any other connected service.
If I want to share a photo any app can offer itself as a sharing application. Want to share a photo using picassa? The app just needs to offer a hook to accept the image.
The music app is just another app but all music apps can be controlled from the lock screen so it's up the developers to simply register themselves as a zune replacement.
You can also switch between search providers in the settings.
The long term answer is boring. They need to keep refining, adding great features, and stay current with hardware design.
Once they hit critical app+mindshare mass, things get easier. This is what they are good at, but it seems v3 is always where Microsoft finds its pace. WP8 is only v2.
1. cost less
2. not suck
it's that simple. Those 2 alone would result in majority sales over Apple. I do somewhat agree with the patent part but how do you avoid BS patents that Apple holds? They probably have a patent on making phone calls with the device held up to your face at this point.
I'm a 40-something tech guy with Windows at home instead of Macs. I'm looking at the Nokia Lumia 920 for my next phone (current is iPhone 4). iOS is kinda boring. WP8 is new and different.
I'm an end-user consumer, and I want a Windows Phone... and probably a Surface Pro too.
Your sweeping generalization is a bit too sweeping and too generalized I think.
(for the record, WP8 does integrate with Exchange, but isn't managed by ActiveDirectory).
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Halo! That's the only reason Xbox is successful.
Because no one in the world uses Microsoft or Windows. *rolls eyes*
I know you're going to get some karma for your comment, but the truth is that Windows is everywhere. Linux may be ruling the infrastructure side, and geeks may be controlling that but in the end the vast majority of people are Windows users. And they don't really have much of a problem with it. Microsoft is as familiar and trustworthy to them as Facebook, Apple, or Google.
Tiles are not for me ..... Support third party customisations like http://www.skinpacks.com/
1) Acquire Google 2) Acuire Apple. Without those two steps Windows 8 mobile will be a Win 7 Mobile repeat.
Real men don't need signitures!!!
On the desktop it's pretty much biz as usual. I like the improved multi-monitor support. Hell my 7yr old figured out how to get around without any help from me.
Yeah, put me down for a Surface Pro too.
What does WinPhone8 need? It needs graduates from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft And Wizardry . Or Lord Voldemort himself -- like Ballmer with real power and a human IQ.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Yeah re-factoring in VS is really a drag, wait, no it's not...
Refactoring everywhere is a drag. However, Eclipse has nice refactoring tools, and nicer code editing tools in general than VS.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
About three or four things must happen for Windows Phone to succeed: 1) Anyone selling Android based products must stop instantly, 2) Anyone selling Apple based phones must stop instantly, 3) Anyone else, other than microsoft must stop selling phones instantly and 4) time must pass before the old products wear out. After they are all worn out and broken and unrepairable, windows phone will (slowly) succeed!
Look at the Kin, look at all the music services and other services that Microsoft have shut off.
They launch new areas with their windows/office money, finance a way to undermine the open market forces, try and get people locked in, and then screw them over.
Look at the xbox - never have so many people had such a bad experience with a device breaking, and it was covered up. When they'd finished using their money to buy their way in, they started price gouging on all services.
Look at Windows phone 7 for an example of overnight obsolescence. The same will happen to 8. They are in the business of **artificial reinvention** to shorten product life cycles, prompt upgrade cycles and artificially remove their previous sales from the market.
Apple is clearly maintaining the lifecycle of its products and services for longer and in the game of evolving the design, and not making artificial changes.
...for starters, not alienating the developer community by refusing to release even a beta copy of the Windows Phone 8 SDK would be a good start. It's been released to a VERY select few thus far.
It's left a lot of developers in the dark, not knowing what the platform's going to look like and what kind of changes they might choose to make to their existing 7.x apps.
Talk is current generation apps will run on Win Phone 8, but obviously won't make full use of the Win Phone 8's capabilities (and who can rely on this until they've had a chance to run their 'now legacy' app in an emulator?).
What it boils down to is that very few apps which make use of the full featureset will be ready come the date that the actual handsets ship, that's got to be a negative net effect.
Refactoring in VS takes about 3s add in Resharper and its something you don't even think about.