What keeps you coming back?

[ohlumia]

Hello everyone,

Long time lurker, newly registered to ask a serious question. What keeps the current user base on Windows phone?
Please allow me to explain, this is not a hate post, rather a long hard look.

I've been a Windows phone proponent since the Lumia 800. I had to import it from Europe cause you just couldn't find it in Canada. Then I got the 710.
Following that I got the 920, I had to literally hunt the thing down when it came out in Canada, very few stores carried it for the first 3 to 4 months and you could only get it on one carrier.
Heavy has a brick, I had a million issues with it, same ones that everyone had ....
From the 920, kept waiting for another flagship for a while so I could get out of all those hardware and heat issues I was having with the 920.
I finally imported a 1520 (RM938) ... this phone has to be one of the worst pieces of hardware I've ever owned: ghost screen issues, heats like a car engine and finally got the nail in the coffin with the battery that since Denim has gone where the sun doesn't shine anymore - again well documented issues.

I know also own a couple of 635's.

I really like the OS but Microsoft/Nokia have made it so hard to get into Windows phone and stay there. While I was jumping phones up down and sideways to try and get to par functionality, I know people that have been running an iPhone 5 since I got my 920 and still running strong with it. Wouldn't say the same for Android but I sure would love to have hardware that doesn't make it so hard to stick with the company.

Add to that the Apps, several jumps where old phones just couldn't upgrade to the new OS at all ... crazy hoax on the cameras, flagships with usually dated CPUs (this last one is a little less of an issue as the OS runs well) and I can keep going.

This sounds like a rent but at this point, I'm seriously thinking about going for something else like an iPhone, It probably won't be as smooth but at least I won't hear BS like 'your phone is not for this market, we can't fix it' kind of language when I have hardware issue.

Of course, I would rather be dead than get caught with an android device but an iPhone seems like a decent enough alternative. So what keeps everyone here coming back, please don't tell me Windows 10 mobile, we've been there multiple times with the OS upgrades

Cheers,

 

[DMCarver]

I've had iPhones, Androids and Windows (1020, Icon and now 640XL). Only reason I left Windows the first time was because I switched carriers. Loved my Icon but dropped it and broke the screen. No one had the screen replacement because it has been discontinued. So I went back to Android and this last Lollipop update is Awful! Dumped a 64 GB Droid to go back to AT&T with the 640. Just waiting on the upcoming flagship phone. IPhones are boring. Android is unstable and laggy. Win phone is in the Goldilocks zone.... "just right". THAT is why you stay with Windows phone.

 

[ven07]

I never left so I wouldn't know what brings me back lol, but I think it has much to do with familiarity If you spend years using one OS, it's kind of hard to ditch it cold turkey and move away, especially if you loved that platform.

I keep saying this and I'll say it here as well, it's just a phone, if it isn't working for you, but another phone with another OS does, then you move over to that OS Why get frustrated when you can have it easier? Not that I'm saying that IOS/Android users don't have to deal with issues, but at the end of the day, it really is up to you

 

[libra89]

I have never tried iOS because of the price of an iPhone. As for Android, I have never left it like ven07 said. However, my mother has an Android phone and when she is stuck, I have a small taste of it.
Windows just works for my life. My 'important' email address are all hosted on outlook, I have no issues using Skype, etc. I feel like Android is kind of a bit much for my tastes. Windows phone seems easier to me, and I liked how I was able to figure out how things worked fairly easily even though I do learn new things here and there. It feels neater and more unique. I like apps but I'm not so crazy about them that I would leave it because of that.

Also, I'm not a fan of the idea of not being able to truly disable some apps on Android. I think that is kind of annoying. At least on WP, if I don't use the Podcasts app, I do not ever have to be concerned about it running in the background.

Even if I can afford an iPhone sometime in the future, I wouldn't want one. I like WP too much, and I'm looking forward to see where it goes.

 

[Ian Too]

I got my first smartphone by amalgamating my budget for my phone with my PDA and got myself a Hewlett Packard 614c. It ran the original Windows Mobile and was before the iPhone or Android ever existed.

When Apple released the first iPhone, I realised that Windows Mobile could never compete. I got a 3GS and a shock, it's calendar couldn't handle a rotating shift pattern and it scrambled my calendar in Outlook. Luckily I had a backup, restored my calendar and became a two phone individual with the iPhone handling calls and games and the HP work.

Later, I had a chance to see Android and wasn't impressed. It really was a cheap iPhone rip-off, with no innovation and the white HTC handset was frankly shoddy. By this time I was getting bored with icons, which after WM is very uninformative. Going into an app to get information just seemed cumbersome and I started imagining ticker tape displays for apps and what we'd now call widgets.

When Windows Phone 7 was released I was initially dubious, it was aimed squarely at consumers and wasn't exactly feature rich, but there was promise of updates and I liked the Live Tile idea. I was also dubious of Microsoft's ability to produce a decent OS, because I'd run PCs with both Millennium and Vista.

Despite my misgivings, I took a punt on WP and got it to work, even with my rotating shifts. Portico and then Mango were released, and I was assured of the WP team's ability to program. I was back to carrying one device and that device worked very smoothly and efficiently.

I came to know Android because I am the go to person for computer and phone problems, and people brought their devices to me - and boy did they have problems. Early Android was frankly unusable and if people had been steered toward WP, that would have had 80% of the market. By that time, OEMs had fully committed to Android and in fairness, they had had no choice; but they were now going to drive the market down the Android route.

All through that time, my various Windows Phones have performed with near flawless reliability and that actually is what I value most in a smart phone. It is too central to running my life to risk it over silly apps or worry too much over technical details. In this respect I am far more ordinary user than geek and why I am convinced that the vast majority of Android users today would be better off carrying WP. It's very hard to buy a bad Windows Phone, whereas with Android it's hard not to since the most visible makes are also the worst for bloatware. To me, Android has recapitulated the PC market in just about every way and that is nothing to be proud of.

I stay with WP because I like the approach to the UI, because I think the UI concept has room for growth, the 3 screens and a cloud strategy excites me, I don't trust Google, I hate the way Apple try to corral you, but most of all because WP has met my needs superbly.

 

[ven07]

However, my mother has an Android phone and when she is stuck, I have a small taste of it

Surprisingly my mother has android as well Only managed to convert my father his current spouse lol

S yea I know what Android feels like as well, but never really liked it. However I will be getting an android device, just to see how far I can push it, with rooting and other tweaks hehe

 

[ven07]

I stay with WP because I like the approach to the UI, because I think the UI concept has room for growth, the 3 screens and a cloud strategy excites me, I don't trust Google, I hate the way Apple try to corral you, but most of all because WP has met my needs superbly.

This ^^