Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[ioioos]

I jumped the ship to Android. And I dont have to look for replacement apps any-more. Apps get updated regularly. And no more 'Resuming" screen. And please Windows Mobile is dead . It had long been with the sale of Nokia. Only one thing left.You have to accept windows mobile has its own fair share of problems.Microsoft can make their own version of Android now, customize them just like Blackberry is doing outta there. Otherwise Windows mobile will remain outta focus . MS just applied a blur filter over W10M literally .

I think this is exactly their plan in the smartphone arena.

Its no coincidence they are investing time and money in Cyanogen. With Apple locked down, and android running on 70% of the worlds phones, having full API access to a version of android they can make their own is the way to go.

Also no coincidence that they announced cross platform notification management, starting with Windows 10 to Android. They have far more flexibility down this path than they do with apps on iOS.

Put simply, MS have an option to fully integrate their app software suite at API level into 70% of the worlds phone market. Why would they want to spend hundreds of millions trying to build up an alternative platform with no market share?

Just skin cyanogen to a MS flavour and monetise their software capability.

 

[badMojo69]

I wish they would fix their stock widget on Android, so it changes color. Also they still dont have a news widget for their app which is forcing me to use other apps (I'd rather not).

 

[libra89]

Installing it now! ��

How are you liking it? You can do the whole word flow motion with it. As you type in more, it kind of acts like the MS keyboard. Funnily enough, I think MS owns them now, or they are at least accepting input from MS.

 

[Matt Dargis]

Yes, I am pissed off at MS. Windows 10 Mobile is awful. Small app killing bugs that haven't been fixed for months. I can get superior Outlook apps on other platforms, and I can get all the apps I want on Android. These are just some of the reasons I am jumping ship after 6 yrs. I am tired of waiting for a stable build of w10m. And, MS has made it clear just recently their focus is not on w10m. So, what incentive is there for anyone to stay with MS? There is none. They've bungled the w10m release, don't fix easily fixable bugs, and came out and said they don't give a **** about w10m.

See you when you've gotten your **** together MS. Good Bye.

 

[ClixT]

How are you liking it? You can do the whole word flow motion with it. As you type in more, it kind of acts like the MS keyboard. Funnily enough, I think MS owns them now, or they are at least accepting input from MS.

I like it. It reminds me of Windows phone lol. I'm used to wp keyboard layout though.

 

[jlabelle]

While I would like to agree with you, but being a user of all OSes - Android, iOS and Windows phone, the grass is INDEED greener on Android and iOS.

You have indeed some good point but you are taking from a wrong perspective :

You touched on apps. But till today, telcos in my region have yet to create any related apps for windows phone. Neither the banking services, food, or other services out there are creating apps for windows phone. What I see are apps available only on Google Play and Apple App Store. Nothing for Windows stores at all.

You are only or mostly referring to apps to consider this. And even then, you are speaking of quality or number of apps that people are using only rarely as being the core experience of a mobile phone user and the reason why the grass is greener elsewhere.
But honestly, the core apps on Windows mobile are very good : Bing Map (especially the latest version) is much better than Apple Map and give Google Map a run for its money, all Microsoft apps (Outlook, OneDrive, Phone, Messaging...) or the OS are good. There are plenty of social, 3rd party app which are excellent.
A lot of time, people refers to the lack of a specific bank as a dealbreaker, but let's be serious, who want to manage his accounts constantly from its phone ?
For instance, my local bank has an iOS application but not for Windows mobile. Except that I cannot make money transfer through the app (on iOS) so basically, anyway, I have to use the website so this is the same experience between iOS and Windows mobile.

Yes, perhaps there are some nice gems and nice apps but those are mostly 3rd party ones. Users from iOS / Android don't even know what the heck is 6tag, or 6tin, Tubecast, MyTube, etc etc. To them, these looks like some alien apps which they don't even want to try. Official ones like Instragam, Facebook, Messenger, etc all are much like thrash.

This is where I am saying you are taking out with the wrong perspective. Nowhere I said that Windows mobile showed enough incentive for an Android or iOS users to switch to Windows. I perfectly understand that someone purchasing a cheap Android phone with plenty of app does not see the appeal of a Windows phone (even if I think you can only discover this when using it).
I was referring to me or Windows mobile users that are choosing to use that by choice. I know perfectly again how is iOS that I am using every single day.

Yes, maybe a first user would have to look in the store obviously to see MyTube or 6Tag or others. But once you experience MyTube for instance, you realized how the experience is much superior to the Google YouTube app on iOS.
So what matters to ME is to have the best experience.

By the way, Facebook W10 version is fine. You say it is crap, I honestly do not see the different with iOS. Is there ? I am not saying there is none but we may have a different definition of what is trash.

You mentioned your OnePlus phone is still running KitKat. But I bet you still get to enjoy the latest updates for apps like Facebook, Messenger, etc promptly? On the other hand, WP8.x users are now stuck with the outdated OS, never going to enjoy or see the new UWP apps going forward. They will not be able to enjoy the new Facebook, Messenger, etc etc which are built for W10. Do you now see how bad the situation is for those WP8x users as compared to your "outdated" KitKat??.

I get that but let's be real here please for a minute. The only phone not getting W10 are the one with 512Mb of RAM. We are speaking of sub 100$ phone. What do you think the experience is on Android with such phone ?
Do you really think it is better to have a very low end phone, running 2 generation old Android with the latest app but running very poorly ?
I mean, even a 50$ Lumia 640 is getting W10 and it is running great.
Honestly, this is the wrong argument here. Especially to promote Android that has a record of offering very poor upgrade support for most phone you may purchase.

iPhone - no wireless charging, no quick charging, a small screen compared to its footprint (and not as good as the 950), a poor camera without hardware button to launch, no double SIM, no extension possible. But so what? I'm not hearing iPhone users complaining about any of these missing features. To them, apps support and prompt OS updates are the most importantly factors.

Again, are you speaking of incentive from people to leave iOS now ? Or the benefit that people would get leaving Windows mobile to go to iOS ?

iPhone users are as happy as Android or Windows mobile users to have great features. Just go on the forum and check the reaction of Apple users getting at last a 4,7" screen, or a better camera, or more RAM, or reversible charging cable, or Live Image or...
It is just that when you never experienced a feature, of course, you do not realize how much you miss it.

I think people value all those things : great and prompt OS update and security that you enjoy with iOS (and Windows mobile) but also hardware at different price point with great features as you enjoy with Android (and Windows mobile).

You cannot segregate people like this, thinking that Apple users are ready to pay 1000? a phone which does not have half of a 500? Android flagship and that Android users do not care running 2 generation old OS. That is condescendant and cannot be further from the truth.

Whatsapp on iOS and Android now already supporting the new text styles while the WP version has not. In other words, using an iPhone just works!

But that is the point. Do you need the very latest possibility of putting italic or bold in Whatsapp to enjoy it ?
People have been using Whatsapp since years without that and they were not complaining.

On the other side, you are missing very very basic things on iOS still today. If I want to dial quickly a number, I go on the phone app (one clic) and start typing on the dial pad with "T9" recognition. I am initiating a call much quicker than you can on an iPhone. What is more important on a phone ?
Same if I want to launch my camera quickly.
Same if I want to see all info from all sources of a contact in its contact sheet.
Same for the navigation thing (see my comment before).

And even the things that iOS has now, they arrived years after Windows mobile (manual camera setting, transit navigation, battery saver, iCloud Drive, ...).

So this is funny that you are speaking of additional tiny features on 3rd party app when the basic is still missing.

At the very least, iPhone users do not need to look for 3rd party apps in order to enjoy the phone.

Common, you are not serious. Why are iPhone users using Google or Microsoft services so much ?
Google Drive and OneDrive are miles better than iCloud drive.
Same for Outlook, Google Map / Bing Map, Office, Office lens, ...

The strength of iOS is the 3rd party ecosystem. Remove all this and let only the Apple application and you are in a big big trouble !

No doubt 950 has excellent hardware but beside that, it is just like an empty shell without good proper apps support and updates.

And this where we disagree. First hardware is an important part of the equation. Put iOS on an iPhone 3Gs and I can tell you that the experience is not great.
Then, you have what I explained about the main / basic / important things for a phone. A phone must be performant for communicating (phone, sms, mail, ...), for navigation, for web browsing... And all the most important things that you do most with a phone, the Windows phones are as good if not better (as explained) compared to iPhone. I am speaking with 1st hand experience and this is my opinion.
I could perfectly choose to buy also an iPhone for me (on top of my wife) but it would be simply a downgrade for me.

People switching from a 50$ Lumia 520 to a 1000$ iPhone 6 are being impressed for sure. So are those who upgraded to better Android like S7 or V10, or the upcoming G5. Even a budgeted Xiaomi Note 3 will be a better upgrade than using windows phone.

Good, I am sure the S7 or V10 are great (the G4 and the S6 that I know were). But you seems to imply that it would be a better experience.
So I loose plenty of Cortana functionalities. If I put a favorite on Bing Map (because no Google Map for Windows, available offline), I can set up location based reminder and have those favorites on my phone. I loose this with Android because I need to use Google Map on the browser, with internet connection (and a poor touch experience).
I loose my bookmark favorites (because Chrome is a non option for me on a Windows tablet because it is bad). I have to pay twice my apps. I loose possibility to send SMS from my PC. I have to deal with 2 different interfaces....

I mean, sorry but there is really something to say about the integration of Windows mobile / Windows and iOS / OS X compared to have an Android phone and a Mac or Windows PC. You are giving up a lot of efficiency and things.

Developers leveraged TouchID to their apps but do you see W10 developers leveraging Windows Hello for their apps? No.

This is a point that I mention and the biggest missing opportunity yet. Yes, indeed, TouchID used by LastPass for instance on IOS is great really.
Except that Windows Hello works with LastPass on the Surface and not on a Mac or any Chromebook !
So pick your poison. What you gain on the phone side (iPhone), you loose it on the PC / laptop side (Mac). And Hello indeed starts to be leverage by applications on Windows mobile (like Enpass, a password manager).

Bottom line: Yes, the grass is really really much greener on Android and iOS. Perhaps you should also leave this "no longer in focus by Microsoft" platform as well.

As explained above, it is far from being so rosy. What you gain on one side, you definitely loose on other.

 

[jlabelle]

Another update:

*I've been playing with the Outlook app in Android, and I've managed to make it workable for my company's exchange account and my outlook.com personal account. It's still nowhere as good as Outlook on Windows Mobile, particularly the calendar, but it's good enough that I feel confident that I'm not missing anything important. It won't sync up with the main Google calendar, but I can live with everything being in the Outlook app. I'm still trying to get notifications running the way it should. I still run my gmail account trough the gmail app and my Yahoo email (mostly junk) through the Yahoo Mail app.

When I read that, and that you have to use 3 applications for a simple things like email and people are trying to explain me that the grass is greener on Google side, well, they are not very convincing.

 

[jlabelle]

Unfortunately all of your advantages about Windows integration disappeared yesterday & today with announcements at build. MS plans to fully integrate all their existing & new services & features like the new Cortana capabilities, Bots, etc into Android & IOS. IF you watched any of the sessions & the Keynote they are 100% fully going where their customers are & 98.4% of them are on Android & IOS. DO you comprehend that number 98.4% it would be reckless & foolish for them as a business not to. Put emotions & your personal likes aside & look at it from a business point of view. 98.4% of your customers DO NOT use your own phones or mobile OS.

What people failed to comprehend is that I am not making a long term commitment with Windows mobile. If next year, Android or iOS is better for me, nothing will prevent me to switch.

But today, with a Surface Pro 3, Windows mobile still offer, and by far the best integration with Windows. So while I may see Android notification on Windows in 6 month times, I would still have to pay twice the apps, having to deal with different interface, loose Continuum, loose bookmarks sync (no, do not sell me Chrome on a Surface, I know how it works and it is bad), loose some Cortana functionalities...
And then, I would have to deal with Android issues (I prefer iOS for various reasons).

So today, W10M is still the best mobile OS in term of integration with Windows. And we will see what the future will become. I was an iPhone user before. And a Palm user even before. Who knows what the future will be.

 

[Jean Sagarese]

I left for the iPhone 6 Plus when my 1020 up and died completely - don't think I would ever have another Windows Phone but the Windows 10 is on my HP All in One and my HP Laptop is running the Insider Version. Still no sign of it in any office where I work. Now I am giving serious consideration to going to Android for my phone

 

[Robinsonmac]

What people failed to comprehend is that I am not making a long term commitment with Windows mobile. If next year, Android or iOS is better for me, nothing will prevent me to switch.

But today, with a Surface Pro 3, Windows mobile still offer, and by far the best integration with Windows. So while I may see Android notification on Windows in 6 month times, I would still have to pay twice the apps, having to deal with different interface, loose Continuum, loose bookmarks sync (no, do not sell me Chrome on a Surface, I know how it works and it is bad), loose some Cortana functionalities...
And then, I would have to deal with Android issues (I prefer iOS for various reasons).

So today, W10M is still the best mobile OS in term of integration with Windows. And we will see what the future will become. I was an iPhone user before. And a Palm user even before. Who knows what the future will be.

I thought the same thing but paying for twice the apps is a misnomer as WM10 only has a handful of apps that are buy once run anywhere. The other apps on are phone only. Even if I do have to buy apps again it's like 2 Starbucks coffee's or a couple of fast food purchases.

I thought dealing with the different interface was going to be a big one for as I absolutely HATE the grid of icons so I installed a windows phone launcher & took care of that. Do you really use continuum & do you really think it will be a Windows only thing for long? I try & use Edge but it just is not very good so I do use Chrome & it just works & works very well. Plus edge won't get extensions in the official release until this summer. Cortana on Android is like 95% what it is on Windows & they plan on making it 99%.

Listen to the Build keynotes & Dev sessions & you will hear 1 theme though-out, MS is bringing & integrating ALL of their apps, services & platforms (Bot, language, machine learning, etc) to where 98.4% of their customers are. All the Dev tools are pushing the cross platform ability. Their ultimate goal is to have their apps, services, etc run everywhere, integrated & function on ANY device regardless of the operating system or platform. Pay close attention to what they are saying during all the Dev sessions. They are bringing non-MS Dev tools like BASH, etc to Windows. "Mobile 1st, Cloud 1st" is being implemented & mobile means ANY mobile device running MS apps, services enabled via their cloud services backend NOT W10M. W10M is no longer the focus, ALL devices regardless who makes them or what platform they are on is. They have already bet on this strategy just like they did with the Surface creating &/or cementing the 2-in-1 category.

 

[Mike Semblance]

I just upgraded from a 1520 running WM10 to a 950XL. I talked them down to $529 by showing them a Newegg ad online. they matched the price. I can now do continuum at work, and no one is the wiser.
The 950Xl can also control the Kangaroo plus, for x64 apps.

The 950XL and the Kangaroo are almost exactly the same size! I'm happy, and looking forward to a great future with Microsoft.

 

[Robinsonmac]

When I read that, and that you have to use 3 applications for a simple things like email and people are trying to explain me that the grass is greener on Google side, well, they are not very convincing.

That's funny because I have my work exchange account, outlook.com account & gmail account all running through Outlook & everything syncs as it should....

 

[TheZuneLune]

So, Back up assistant doesn't work with the Icon any more. Any ideas how to get contacts on my new Android device?

 

[libra89]

So, Back up assistant doesn't work with the Icon any more. Any ideas how to get contacts on my new Android device?

Use Outlook. When setting up, use the Exchange option for contacts if you used Outlook on the Icon. That way, you will get all of your contacts.

 

[Robinsonmac]

Use Outlook. When setting up, use the Exchange option for contacts if you used Outlook on the Icon. That way, you will get all of your contacts.

This is a really good way as well:

Direclty Transfer Contacts/SMS/Photos from Windows Phones to Android

 

[wukong187]

Good bye Lumia 1520 Hello Huawei Mate 8.

 

[JetFixxxer]

I get that but let's be real here please for a minute. The only phone not getting W10 are the one with 512Mb of RAM. We are speaking of sub 100$ phone.

Is this a serious response or an April Fools Joke? Or am I misinterpreting your response?

I know as of right now my ICON isn't getting the upgrade. Even though if you go here Nokia Lumia Icon - Software Update and Downloads - Microsoft - USA it comes across as you do get the upgrade. Then there are a few other phones with more than 1gb who aren't getting the upgrade.

 

[640xxxl]

So today, W10M is still the best mobile OS in term of integration with Windows. And we will see what the future will become. I was an iPhone user before. And a Palm user even before. Who knows what the future will be.

Nope, it isn't. At least in my case. Only thing that happens to me is to lose important data, there's no integration with Windows 10 PC, only talks about future. It will be little bit late when they bring fully integration to the table, until then even dumb ******* phone from 2005. have better integration with PC, for example, can backup my SMS, not like Win 10 mobile to keep them on MS servers and after some time all are gone.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nope, it isn't. At least in my case. Only thing that happens to me is to lose important data, there's no integration with Windows 10 PC, only talks about future. It will be little bit late when they bring fully integration to the table, until then even dumb ******* phone from 2005. have better integration with PC, for example, can backup my SMS, not like Win 10 mobile to keep them on MS servers and after some time all are gone.

The cloud is the future. Modern smartphones aren't backed up locally anymore. It works the same with iOS and Android. Those are backed up to Apple's or Google's servers, like the way Windows 10 Mobile is backed up to Microsoft's servers.

 

[Matvey Andrienko]

So I got Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro today. It's priced the same as Lumia 650 in my country but has better display, better CPU, fingerprint scanner, pretty much superior hardware in any way. I've used Windows Phone and Mobile for the past four years and Android has changed a lot since I had used it the last time Here are my impressions.

Great stuff:
- No app gap, obviously
- Apps launch and resume much faster (credit of high-spec hardware, probably)
- Chrome is still better than Edge on mobile

Here's what disappointed me:
- People talk about design inconsistency on Windows Mobile have probably never seen Android
- It's a bit painful to make all Microsoft services work on Android the same way they worked on Windows Mobile. Again, obviously
- Xiaomi's MIUI sucks big time
- Android is still such a geeky platform, exposing too much technical stuff to users

All in all, I miss the beauty and simplicity of Windows. Probably should have gone for vanilla Android, but no way back now