Ex Google ******, Why should I choose windows 8 over iOS?

[Lance Nuckolls]

Me and my wife both have the S3 from samsung, with tomobile.
Google recently cost me over $1000 and basically destroyed my business, but I digress.
I have decided to stop using anything Google has even touched, so I am either switching to an iPhone or a windows 8 phone.

iPhones are too small, so I think that is one of the main reasons I will choose Windows, but I have been such a google ****** all of my life, their products do everything so well; and I am afraid I will not find this same ease and greatness with windows 8 on a phone (love windows 8 on my lenovo yoga laptop tho)

I ask the Windows 8 fans out there to help push me over the ledge and let go of Google forever.

 

[failed1234]

What exactly did they do?
Sent from my HTC 8x using Board Express

 

[Lance Nuckolls]

I was a pro partner in the adsense program, they decided I was causing invalid activity and would not even work with me after three years of being a well respected partner.

 

[scottcraft]

Can you give us an idea of what apps you use frequently and what kind of things you like to do with your phone? As you probably know, WP is missing some of the more popular apps that are available for the iphone. I think WP has a more pleasant user experience and I like the larger screens that aren't available on the iphone. It would be worth your while to do some reading through these forums, watch reviews on youtube and spend time in the store playing with the phones before you commit to WP.

 

[BeaverJuicer]

One thing you should definitely know in advance, is that WP8 is a paradigm shift. It does things differently, mostly when it comes to the cloud vs local storage. Personally, I prefer the workflow, but a lot of people can't seem to wrap their heads around it.

I would suggest getting one, and deciding within your 14 day window (or whatever it is in your locale) if it's something you like. It's not for everybody, but those who can grasp it, love it.

 

[arrowrand]

You might want to look at an iPhone if you're that used to Android. The experience will be most similar to what you're used to, and you won't have to have anything Google at all.

WP is a huge about face from anything else, and it takes some getting used to if you've never used it.

If you're willing to throw a few bucks at it, you can buy a T-Mobile locked prepaid WP 7.5 phone at Walmart for less than $200.

It isn't exactly the same as WP8, but it'll give you a pretty close experience.

 

[Bilal_Fakih]

Okay so you dislike google and you dont want to do anything with it! WP is the best choice for your since it seems Google and MS are not going along and there will be no google apps in WP!
Now in WP there is the lack of apps, and some apps we have here sucks and some are awesome! So it depends on how you use your phone! If you can tell us what would you like to use as apps we than can help you more!

 

[crav4speed]

It's very easy:

1) Microsoft account - Your mobile, tablet, desktop, and Xbox linked under one unified account
2) SkyDrive integration - Again, the ability to link all your devices under a unified cloud storage account
3) Office - MS Office built into your devices. Open any Office file from any device and have it automatically saved in SkyDrive for easy access anywhere
4) Xbox music - Sync all your music on all devices through Xbox cloud
5) A smooth, fluid modern OS that's amazingly easy to use
6) Colorful and informational live tiles that represent who YOU are and what matters most to YOU
7) USB mass storage and MicroSD support (some devices)
8) Choice of hardware and manufacturers
9) Constant updates and improvements
10) And of course, a great Windows Phone community who enjoy using their devices

Windows Phone is still young and it may not have all the apps the iOS app store has but it's growing by the day. I don't think you'll regret buying a Windows Phone

 

[rdubmu]

I don't know how old you are but google is relatively a new company. Android has only been around since 2008 with the G1. Microsoft has been doing enterprise long before google was even a thought. The most complete mobile os is iOS. I would suggest going with an iPhone. Are there any apps you need for your business or are you getting a new phone for text, calls, email, calendar and games? If this is the only thing you need it for then windows phone may be your device of choice. I personally use office 365 for work,and outlook for home. My Lumia 920 works perfect with it..
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

 

[eric12341]

I don't know how old you are but google is relatively a new company. Android has only been around since 2008 with the G1. Microsoft has been doing enterprise long before google was even a thought. The most complete mobile os is iOS. I would suggest going with an iPhone. Are there any apps you need for your business or are you getting a new phone for text, calls, email, calendar and games? If this is the only thing you need it for then windows phone may be your device of choice. I personally use office 365 for work,and outlook for home. My Lumia 920 works perfect with it..
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

In terms of 3rd party apps you may be right but as far as built in functionality there are alot of areas where iOS falls behind WP.

 

[slashd0t]

I don't know how old you are but google is relatively a new company. Android has only been around since 2008 with the G1. Microsoft has been doing enterprise long before google was even a thought. The most complete mobile os is iOS. I would suggest going with an iPhone. Are there any apps you need for your business or are you getting a new phone for text, calls, email, calendar and games? If this is the only thing you need it for then windows phone may be your device of choice. I personally use office 365 for work,and outlook for home. My Lumia 920 works perfect with it..
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

I would argue that Microsoft understands the enterprise workforce of the past, but, appear to be clueless about the enterprise of the future.

I suspect Google has a much better grasp of this.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[crav4speed]

I would argue that Microsoft understands the enterprise workforce of the past, but, appear to be clueless about the enterprise of the future.

I suspect Google has a much better grasp of this.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Not to be trollish, but, just out of curiosity, please explain because with MS moving to cloud based services and integration between all devices using Office 365 and SkyDrive, SharePoint and Exchange, I fail to see how Google can even attempt to compete in the enterprise community or even has a slight grasp.

 

[Cleavitt76]

Yeah, sorry, but I work in IT and google and apple do not even exist in the enterprise environment. MS is actually quite innovative in the business world. It's the business world itself that lags behind.

Back to the topic at hand though. One of the best things that windows phone has going for it is the MS ecosystem. Starting with windows 8, you can now run the same OS and apps on any device from a desktop down to a tablet. Windows phone ties into that ecosystem at the phone level. Apple has a sharp divide between the laptop OSX and tablet iOS level which is awkward and limits the usefulness of their tablets IMHO. Friends of mine that use windows at the desktop level and apple products at the mobile level seem to have to work too hard to keep everything synched and they have to constantly change between two different sets of apps. The windows ecosystem is currently the most seamless IMO and it is only going to get better from here.

 

[AUCLABruin]

I agree with the comment saying that trying the OS is the best way to do it. Since you're on T-Mobile, I would recommend buying a WP8 phone from Gazelle on Ebay. They offer a 30 day return for the phone, so if it's not in your taste you could send it back for a full refund (return shipping is paid for too!). This isn't a way to exploit a free phone, but let's you try it, and if you love the phone, you can just keep it. There are a few mainstream apps (Instagram) that are missing, but WP8 is still a solid OS with no bloat of Android and a some more freedom than iOS. Hope this helps!

 

[ousooner314]

I, too, agree with the comments that suggest trying out a WP device for yourself. My reasoning for this is the user experience on a WP phone is different from that on an Android and iOS. There are certain things you may take for granted on your Android that work differently on WP.

 

[sejgiul]

Excellent explanation of WP functionality. For someone who runs a business, office 365 would be extremely useful across a range of devices.

It's very easy:

1) Microsoft account - Your mobile, tablet, desktop, and Xbox linked under one unified account
2) SkyDrive integration - Again, the ability to link all your devices under a unified cloud storage account
3) Office - MS Office built into your devices. Open any Office file from any device and have it automatically saved in SkyDrive for easy access anywhere
4) Xbox music - Sync all your music on all devices through Xbox cloud
5) A smooth, fluid modern OS that's amazingly easy to use
6) Colorful and informational live tiles that represent who YOU are and what matters most to YOU
7) USB mass storage and MicroSD support (some devices)
8) Choice of hardware and manufacturers
9) Constant updates and improvements
10) And of course, a great Windows Phone community who enjoy using their devices

Windows Phone is still young and it may not have all the apps the iOS app store has but it's growing by the day. I don't think you'll regret buying a Windows Phone

 

[ag1986]

Yeah, sorry, but I work in IT and google and apple do not even exist in the enterprise environment. MS is actually quite innovative in the business world. It's the business world itself that lags behind.

Back to the topic at hand though. One of the best things that windows phone has going for it is the MS ecosystem. Starting with windows 8, you can now run the same OS and apps on any device from a desktop down to a tablet. Windows phone ties into that ecosystem at the phone level. Apple has a sharp divide between the laptop OSX and tablet iOS level which is awkward and limits the usefulness of their tablets IMHO. Friends of mine that use windows at the desktop level and apple products at the mobile level seem to have to work too hard to keep everything synched and they have to constantly change between two different sets of apps. The windows ecosystem is currently the most seamless IMO and it is only going to get better from here.

I would disagree. Large companies like Genentech, Virgin America, Jaguar and National Geographic use Google Apps, not to mention the United States General Service Administration even. My firm has been using it for 2 years as well, and I personally am very happy with it. For context, I use a Galaxy Nexus as a work/personal phone, a Retina MBP as my work laptop. I also have a Windows desktop at work and my personal machine is a Windows 8 laptop. I'm very happy with how everything stays in sync. Tablets have little appeal for me, so that may differ from your perspective, but we also issue Nexus 7 tablets to employees and I've heard no complaints.

I've been using two Windows phones for the last two years to see if the WP platform is mature enough for enterprise deployment (a Lumia 800 and as of last week, a Lumia 920). The answer is no, in my case. We're not worried about ActiveSync issues with Google as we are paid customers. The problem is a long list of little niggles which make life a pain. For example:

1. The phone will accept only one MS account which is then used for almost all system apps - my problems are with Skydrive and the App Store. If we issue WP8 phones, I would like that our employees be able to choose between their personal accounts and the corporate ones in at least the Marketplace, which is not possible.

2. I came across issues with Excel which someone else explained on the forum recently: http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/212992-any-way-use-excel-properly.html#post1892673

3. No VPN (WTF MICROSOFT WHYYYY?)

4. They added encryption with WP8 but it doesn't work with all WP8 devices. Why? Cos the EAS and WP8 teams couldn't be arsed to talk to each other. Our EAS policies require SD card encryption. WP8 phones reply 'SD not encrypted'. Thus, the server refuses to allow the phone to connect. My IT dept supports iOS and Android and those devices work fine; we cannot disable the Require SD Encryption flag because Android phones can store anything on the SD card. Therefore, MS has screwed up yet again.

In conclusion yes, I may allocate resources to WP8 support sometime in the future but that time is not now.

 

[slashd0t]

Yeah, sorry, but I work in IT and google and apple do not even exist in the enterprise environment. MS is actually quite innovative in the business world. It's the business world itself that lags behind.

Back to the topic at hand though. One of the best things that windows phone has going for it is the MS ecosystem. Starting with windows 8, you can now run the same OS and apps on any device from a desktop down to a tablet. Windows phone ties into that ecosystem at the phone level. Apple has a sharp divide between the laptop OSX and tablet iOS level which is awkward and limits the usefulness of their tablets IMHO. Friends of mine that use windows at the desktop level and apple products at the mobile level seem to have to work too hard to keep everything synched and they have to constantly change between two different sets of apps. The windows ecosystem is currently the most seamless IMO and it is only going to get better from here.

No iPads or iPhones where you work?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ag1986]

No iPads or iPhones where you work?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

We don't issue iPads as a corp-owned device. Employees can request an iPhone 5 if they want one, just that we don't stock them in-house and it'll take 2-4 days to get it from our contract carrier. Standard phones issued are: Galaxy S3, HTC One X. We also issue Razrs on special request. Wanted to standardise on the Nexus 4 but it seems there just aren't enough of the bloody things.

 

[Cleavitt76]

No iPads or iPhones where you work?

There are plenty of iPads, iPhones, and Android devices where I work. However, I don't really consider an end user device to be "enterprise" just because someone brings it into the building. The "enterprise" level technology is what you would find in the companies datacenter. You'll see plenty of MS, Oracle, HP, IBM, Dell, EMC, Citrix, VMware, and Cisco stuff in there, but Google and Apple are not driving the enterprise.

More importantly, none of those Google/Apple devices really mesh with our environment. As a matter of fact we just spent $250K implementing a VDI environment to provide a portal into our systems for these devices for a certain group of users. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a generic term for any technology that allows desktop computers to be hosted as virtual machines (VMware in our case) on servers in the datacenter (or cloud). Those virtual desktops can then be accessed through thin client workstations or iPads/Android tablets. The irony is that the virtual desktops are running Windows OS and apps because that is what is needed to interface with most enterprise environments. So, yes, I see plenty of bring-your-own iPads at work, but I also see that in our case it cost $250K initially, a Windows desktop OS license for each device, and a ton of IT time to make the device do something useful. The device is basically just a dumb terminal and iOS and it's apps serve no purpose other than making a connection to VDI. In contrast, a Windows 8 tablet could actually be owned by the company, added to the domain, and function just like any of our desktops.

I would disagree. Large companies like Genentech, Virgin America, Jaguar and National Geographic use Google Apps, not to mention the United States General Service Administration even. My firm has been using it for 2 years as well, and I personally am very happy with it. For context, I use a Galaxy Nexus as a work/personal phone, a Retina MBP as my work laptop. I also have a Windows desktop at work and my personal machine is a Windows 8 laptop. I'm very happy with how everything stays in sync. Tablets have little appeal for me, so that may differ from your perspective, but we also issue Nexus 7 tablets to employees and I've heard no complaints.

While there may be a small percentage of companies using Google apps in place of MS Office that is not the norm and that does not prove the original comment that I was replying to...

"I would argue that Microsoft understands the enterprise workforce of the past, but, appear to be clueless about the enterprise of the future. I suspect Google has a much better grasp of this."

Google apps is a generic set of programs that only covers a small percentage of the workflow of most companies. Nearly all large companies have lots of industry specific software, data, reports, and other technology that ties together to form their "enterprise environment." Then there are all of the backend things that are the actual backbone of the enterprise environment. The kind of things that the "enterprise workforce" (i.e. end users) don't even know exists. Like database servers and file servers that store and secure all of the companies data. Or things like Active Directory that manage all of the user accounts/devices and glue everything together. Or the software that is used to update workstations in mass so that some IT guy doesn't have to go around and install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat on 1000 computers. MS is a leader in these kinds of things and while they have competition in various areas of the enterprise world, it's not coming from Google or Apple.