Will The App Situation Ever Improve for Windows Phone?

[thesachd]

Look How Awful The App Situation Is For Windows Phone - Business Insider

My only gripe with that article is the fact that they dismissed the YouTube replacements as "fakes". But that isn't true, some of them are really amazing.

The rest of what they say is mostly true.

Your thoughts?

 

[N_LaRUE]

The biggest stumbling block that WP has had and continues to have is apps. Thing is this doesn't seem to be an issue for the 'average' WP user and in countries where WP is popular devs are making local apps so that is good for them.

However, to attract people to the OS you need the popular apps and not 3rd party ones. 3rd parties should be an option to explore, not a replacement. Which is the main issue with WP. Add in the amount of time it's taken WP to get popular apps (sometimes way past their due date) or not coming at all or not getting updated and you see why it's the place it is.

They did mention a big issue for this year as well. The flagship they released was lacklustre and all the rest have been mid and low end phones. Great for growing the market share in developing countries but does nothing to gain traction in the 'west' where people want 'wow'.

They've increased their advertising lately, which is great but without a good flagship going into the holidays they really missed a good chance.

Whether W10 is the big saviour that most people think it is, is yet to be seen. We simply don't know.

 

[P_1]

I agree with you buddy. Trust me if the apps situation improves and if all the official apps comes on WP store, then it will be the best OS and a force to reckon with

 

[Sonu K]

Look How Awful The App Situation Is For Windows Phone - Business Insider

My only gripe with that article is the fact that they dismissed the YouTube replacements as "fakes". But that isn't true, some of them are really amazing.

The rest of what they say is mostly true.

Your thoughts?

App situation will only 'improve' when crappy websites like this will stop to ignore the fact that our third party apps in WP are far better than the so called official apps in other platforms. Best example is 6tag. Instagram official app is sh*t comparing to 6tag. These ignorant article writers are always windows phone haters because they never used one. myTube and metrotube is awesome comparing to 'official' YouTube app. And people should try to accept the fact that Google apps will never come to WP. It's a huge turn down, no doubt. But there are work around methods and BETTER third party apps.

 

[TLRtheory]

App situation will only 'improve' when crappy websites like this will stop to ignore the fact that our third party apps in WP are far better than the so called official apps in other platforms. Best example is 6tag. Instagram official app is sh*t comparing to 6tag. These ignorant article writers are always windows phone haters because they never used one. myTube and metrotube is awesome comparing to 'official' YouTube app. And people should try to accept the fact that Google apps will never come to WP. It's a huge turn down, no doubt. But there are work around methods and BETTER third party apps.

I totally agree. Being involved in all three camps, it's so weird hearing people clamor for the exact same 'official' Facebook app that has massive complaints on both iOS and Android... yet instead of glorifying superior third-party apps, it's demonized into "WP lacks official apps."

Surprised Rudy Huyn hasn't dropped a Facebook (or Paper) alternative yet... just the thought of that excites me

BTW, that article is horrid. It's a perfect representation of the sheer uneducated ignorance that typically judges the platform. They've bundled in critically acclaimed apps like myTube and Metrotube under "fakes" and it's no surprise that they're getting demolished in their own comments section... they should be for putting together such a poorly-constructed, lazily-written, poorly-researched piece of junk article (then again, Business Insider doesn't really have a good reputation anyway).


If there's anything noteworthy here, it's that this seems to be the universal opinion of the lowest common denominator. That type of user doesn't research, and they're easy to influence... but most important is that they're large in number... large enough such that their oblivion can become a staple in the platform's reputation: Windows Phone is so well-known for lacking Instagram that it got IG without the stigma ever leaving it's rep.

Microsoft has some serious work to do on validating the platform.

 

[N_LaRUE]

You're both missing the point.

There's nothing wrong with 3rd party apps, true. However, it's an image thing first and foremost. Second, it doesn't address the issue that apps comes last to WP or not at all or has poor updates. What kind of message does it send about WP to users when developers of the latest apps shun it? That's the point you're missing. That's not even going into the issue of what happens at carrier stores.

 

[rodan01]

Tech bloggers don't get that most people has more interesting things to do that spending the whole day finding more ways to use a smartphone. A big part of the smartphone users don't need many apps, Microsoft has to address that population with something enticing for their needs.

Or, as Tom Warren is asking, announce Android app compatibility in the January event, and move on to more interesting use cases.

 

[thesachd]

App situation will only 'improve' when crappy websites like this will stop to ignore the fact that our third party apps in WP are far better than the so called official apps in other platforms. Best example is 6tag. Instagram official app is sh*t comparing to 6tag. These ignorant article writers are always windows phone haters because they never used one. myTube and metrotube is awesome comparing to 'official' YouTube app. And people should try to accept the fact that Google apps will never come to WP. It's a huge turn down, no doubt. But there are work around methods and BETTER third party apps.

Official apps are better than clients, but this isn't always the case. In your example of 6tag, what makes it better than the Instagram app on Android or iPhone?

Last I checked the 6tag app couldn't upload videos from your gallery, maybe that has changed. And ads we're displayed. The scrolling performance didn't seem on par with Android/iOS either.

For the most part there are many applications out there that have no replacements out there, or even if they do they are lackluster. Pebble smartwatch apps for examples, some instant messaging services like Kik, imgur, reddit, google+, 9GAG.

Also as far as Google apps go, only some have replacements and not all of them are good. I've admitted originally that apps like myTube are good, but some of them don't support 1080p or 1440p playback. Also YouTube APIs change every now and then, and until the dev updates his or her app(which takes hours or days) the app becomes frustrating to use.

Google Maps, Google Earth, Hangouts, Drive, Google Now and some others have no good replacements.

Another thing about clients is that they usually never have access as to many features as the original dev would, the Twitter search function is a good example or YouTube Music Key.

I totally agree. Being involved in all three camps, it's so weird hearing people clamor for the exact same 'official' Facebook app that has massive complaints on both iOS and Android... yet instead of glorifying superior third-party apps, it's demonized into "WP lacks official apps."

Surprised Rudy Huyn hasn't dropped a Facebook (or Paper) alternative yet... just the thought of that excites me

While the official Facebook apps for Android and iOS may receive criticism, they are nonetheless better than what Windows Phone has.

Often at times pages on Facebook are terrible, you can't see photo comments and even if you can you can't comment with a photo yourself, images take ages to open.
If a post is too long you aren't able to read it in the app it takes you to the browser.
If someone posts an article from say 9GAG or YouTube the app will never take you to the respective 9GAG or YouTube apps and will instead take you to the browser. Apps are a huge problem for WP, and Rudy Huyn alone can't help much.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Tech bloggers don't get that most people has more interesting things to do that spending the whole day finding more ways to use a smartphone. A big part of the smartphone users don't need many apps, Microsoft has to address that population with something enticing for their needs.

Or, as Tom Warren is asking, announce Android app compatibility in the January event, and move on to more interesting use cases.

I'm really tired of this argument.

I keep hearing this information but yet to see any statistics that confirm it. If apps are not important or not being used then why isn't everyone rushing to WP for the 'great' experience? Going by your argument this should be the case. Everyone should be using WP because it has the least amount of apps and you don't 'need' to use it that often.

Companies continue to make apps. Statistics show that people use apps more than mobile web. So there's great competition to make apps that people want. If you can prove otherwise by all means shore it up with stats.

 

[a5cent]

There are quite a few threads on this topic, all referencing one of the many spin doctors (tech pundits) interpreting the original article. I've decided it's best to go directly to the source which is a bit more level headed than many of the sites just looking for clicks. The discussion will continue here:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8-1/326896-state-windows-phone-jan-dawson.html

Closed.