[rgatl]

[Asskickulater]

um... no?

[monedetoune]

that is some ugly ****

[Skulls138]

It isn't bad. But looks an awful lot like Android.

[bozza72]

Where did that image come from ??

[Michael Kerametlian]

That could be awesome.

[mjyumping]

Ugly

[rgatl]

Ii think it will be awesome because it not too busy and it gives mobile10 a familiar interface like its big brother. It also allows people option instead of being stuck with one interface.

[svaethier]

Mobile will have continuum on new devices so why would we need this?

[rgatl]

Drive sales, customer walking into store will see a familiar interface because it can look similar to android with nice background images and just icons that are frequently used instead of cluttered page of icons. Android did the same thing which is to make the interface closely match ios.

[juanitoriv]

Yeah, no. I like my live transparent tiles.

[Asskickulater]

No, just no, Tell me, what exactly does this add to windows phone? usability? nope. looks? nope. functionality? nope. clarity? big NOPE.

"Hey, I got an idea! Lets try and shove as much junk on one screen as we possibly can!"

No offense to whoever made this, but it is the absolute WORST design I've ever seen.

[rgatl]

That's because you do not think outside the box...i guess having a scene filled with icons is much better. At 2% market share, android and ios already won. The start screen was rejected by consumers. And not having a vision will surely keep it at 2%.

[gernerttl]

rgatl does have a good point about familiarity. Back in the late '90s, ('98/99 time frame) the US Army was using a UNIX based system running on RISC processors. While the system was powerful and capable, it wasn't very well liked. The reason? Because it wasn't Windows based, it had a "windowed" GUI ala Windows 3.11. I heard somebody literally say, "That does not look like Windows." He wasn't the only person to say so. So within a year, the company who designed the system redesigned the entire GUI to match Windows 95/NT 4. THAT was how fast people adopted the Start menu. In less than 5 years after the release of Windows 95/NT 4, the Start menu was so deeply ingrained in society, that the Army decided that a UNIX based system should look like Windows 95/NT 4. Just because it was familiar to most of the Soldiers in the Army at the time.

Familiarity goes a long way when it comes to selling stuff. That is why Microsoft made such a killing in the desktop, laptop, and server OS market.

On a tablet, or a hybrid like the Surface, or a desktop/laptop the Start menu makes more sense. On a phone though, I'm on the fence. I'm not sure it would be that practical. How many of you remember Windows CE? It had a Start menu GUI like its big brother, but didn't take off at the consumer level. It pretty much was used on business oriented devices.

[juanitoriv]

That said, android & ios look like Windows XP. WM6.5 even had the Start Menu.

[rgatl]

You have a good point Timmay! the start menu on the phone is not illustrated very well. The intent was to allow a choice between an android type desktop with limited icons (just the important ones in the taskbar) and if you need the traditional start menu, just click on the start menu to show the traditional windows phone start menu. The "all programs" part of the start menu can be initiated with the hamburger menu (not well illustrated in the photo). If you think about it, android used Windows taskbar concept, Windows desktop wallpaper concept and added a google search at the top. So Microsoft is just using what they already invented to help ease customers perception of a learning curve with their mobile OS and make it more familiar when someone switches OS or use windows 10. The new start menu is great but for someone who do not use many apps, it can be overwhelming to see so many icons. Similar to when you try to use your windows desktop to store all files instead of my documents. All icons start looking alike and you have difficulty finding the one you need quickly. It also brings windows 10 and windows mobile closer together with a similar look and feel because those pictures were cut and pasted from windows 10. Its not a new concept.

[gernerttl]

Yeah. I'm still not sold on the idea. I do agree that keeping the Icons the same or very similar across Windows devices makes sense, but a start menu on a phone or a screen less that 7 inches... not so much.

Again, that's me. One of the reasons I switched from Android to Windows Phone was the simple, yet customizable look. Whenever I pick up my wife's phone, a GS5, it just looks like a hot mess, and iOS is just boring.

[rgatl]

Unfortunately, with 2% of market share someone at MS need to make a bold change. No one is willing to admit the current interface is not working. You may think Android is a mess or IOS is boring but not to 90% of mobile users. Sticking with tiles and making them transparent is not the way to go and it does not make windows mobile 10 any more attractive to buyers. MS probably already know this hence the 7b write-off.

[Aurelink]

The current interface isn't working ? Most of the people I know are amazed by the live tiles. because on their iPhones/Droids, they need to open their action center or the app itself to see what a notification is about; while we, amazing windows phone owners, can simply look at the tile and see if that's important or not. Time savior, data savior

[Asskickulater]

Unfortunately, with 2% of market share someone at MS need to make a bold change. No one is willing to admit the current interface is not working. You may think Android is a mess or IOS is boring but not to 90% of mobile users. Sticking with tiles and making them transparent is not the way to go and it does not make windows mobile 10 any more attractive to buyers. MS probably already know this hence the 7b write-off.

Find a source anywhere that says "windows phones UI isn't working" You guys are all making very bold assumptions without anything backing it up. The two biggest reasons for low market share is the app gap, and the "uncool" factor along with how little people know about WP in general, in other words, WP has an image problem, I have never seen anywhere suggest or imply the ui is the reason for its low market share.

[RumoredNow]

One of the great things about Windows 10 on desktop. IMHO is that it brings Live Tiles closer to the surface.

This concept, applied to Windows 10 Mobile, puts Live Tiles farther from the surface. It's nothing I can support for that reason. The immediacy of information on Windows Phone is what drew me here and holds me.

[rgatl]

What it needs is a new curb appeal. Making the interface exactly like windows 10 on desktop (with minor tweaks) is what i was trying to illustrate. The only difference is table mode will show start screen always (like it do now) or none tablet mode which give you the quick task bar, search and desktop wallpaper (image on the left) Its not rocket science and it is not taking away people who like the start screen. It just gives a second option to customers to use tablet mode or not. Same situation you have with windows 10 on desktop, in tablet mode it works like windows 8.1 and none tablet mode it works like windows 7ish.

[rgatl]

sorry but windows 8.1 brought Live tiles closer to the surface, to get this in windows 10 you have to be in tablet mode.

[gernerttl]

sorry but windows 8.1 brought Live tiles closer to the surface, to get this in windows 10 you have to be in tablet mode.

Kinda sorta. Microsoft added live tiles to the start menu. Which is ok as long as you don't have a lot of them pinned to your Start Menu.

[rgatl]

Ok lets get real about live tiles. Keep in mind, I used WP 7/8 and now WP10 on a Nokia 1520. Here are the core features of a phone that people use daily:
1. Phone - Live tile displays the # of calls (no different than IOS and Andriod)
2. Messaging - Live tile displays the # of IM received (no different than IOS and Android)
3. Email - Live tile displays the # of IM received (no different than IOS and Android)
4. Calendar - This is the only tile that seem to give more information than its competition

The point being, Live tiles are nice to look at and it makes some acrobatic moves on your screen but I'm sorry to say it has very little UI advantages. In my opinion, the colorful tiles take away from the beauty of a nice background image and most people want their family picture at the fore front of their phones. WP10 made this happen with transparency tiles which some may argue is there because people wanted to show off their pics. IMO let customers choose between the existing start screen or a quick task bar, background image and a Cortana Search as shown in the image.