ytrewq
New member
This is a turning point for MS. If these phones don't bump the needle of Windows Phone market share, developers won't port the apps over to it, and other hardware partners have no reason to make Windows phones. Windows Mobile 10 will be dead. But if MS can get people to buy the phones, even with a reasonable bump in market share, developers will get on board, and hardware partners will get on board.
I don't believe they'll sell the phone so cheap it creates the impression that it's a cheap phone, or that hardware partners have to take a loss to build alternative Windows Phones that consumers might buy instead. But they have to use price to give people a reason to buy a phone that doesn't have developer support.
History has shown time and again that, if MS makes good pricing decisions, it can close a market gap, but if they come late to the party and try to price their product in line with those who developed products first, MS loses. MS was late to the party with the original Xbox, and they discounted prices below the competition and, for a time, won the console war. MS was late to the party with the Zune, but that time they tried to price it in the same range as the iPod. Look how that turned out. Then, with the Xbox One, MS also insisted on charging a premium price and dug deep into a hole, which they're still digging out of by selling at prices well below the PS4.
With mobile, MS was later to the party than they were with any of those other devices. So, they have no real market share, which means no real developers, which means no meaningful support from hardware partners building Windows phones. To avoid extinction in mobile, MS needs to do something drastic.
One possibility would be phones that are truly so far above the competition they can't be ignored. The 950 and 950XL are very nice phones, but there are plenty of nice phones with great specs out there. So that won't cut it. MS is clearly banking on Continuum being important, but I don't think that's going to radically change the landscape. If MS is going to do something drastic (as it must), it needs to price these phones to get people to take a chance on an OS that no one is buying.
I think $450 for the 950 and $500 for the 950XL gets people's attention. These would be great phones at those prices, and Continuum et al. would be a bonus on an already great bargain of a phone. If they come out with those prices, I'll buy an XL the first day the unlocked version is available. But I don't think they will do that. MS has such a history of bad decisions on pricing that I suspect they will try to ignore the fact that they are late to the party and repeat the experience of Zune. They will charge $600 for the 950 and $700 for the XL. And no one will buy them. Even me, a die-hard Windows fan, will wring my hands, and at the end of the day, I may pick one up, but I'm just as likely to keep using my Icon for now and eventually pick up something like the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (a super nice phone with a great camera and an OS that developers actually support).
We'll see.
I don't believe they'll sell the phone so cheap it creates the impression that it's a cheap phone, or that hardware partners have to take a loss to build alternative Windows Phones that consumers might buy instead. But they have to use price to give people a reason to buy a phone that doesn't have developer support.
History has shown time and again that, if MS makes good pricing decisions, it can close a market gap, but if they come late to the party and try to price their product in line with those who developed products first, MS loses. MS was late to the party with the original Xbox, and they discounted prices below the competition and, for a time, won the console war. MS was late to the party with the Zune, but that time they tried to price it in the same range as the iPod. Look how that turned out. Then, with the Xbox One, MS also insisted on charging a premium price and dug deep into a hole, which they're still digging out of by selling at prices well below the PS4.
With mobile, MS was later to the party than they were with any of those other devices. So, they have no real market share, which means no real developers, which means no meaningful support from hardware partners building Windows phones. To avoid extinction in mobile, MS needs to do something drastic.
One possibility would be phones that are truly so far above the competition they can't be ignored. The 950 and 950XL are very nice phones, but there are plenty of nice phones with great specs out there. So that won't cut it. MS is clearly banking on Continuum being important, but I don't think that's going to radically change the landscape. If MS is going to do something drastic (as it must), it needs to price these phones to get people to take a chance on an OS that no one is buying.
I think $450 for the 950 and $500 for the 950XL gets people's attention. These would be great phones at those prices, and Continuum et al. would be a bonus on an already great bargain of a phone. If they come out with those prices, I'll buy an XL the first day the unlocked version is available. But I don't think they will do that. MS has such a history of bad decisions on pricing that I suspect they will try to ignore the fact that they are late to the party and repeat the experience of Zune. They will charge $600 for the 950 and $700 for the XL. And no one will buy them. Even me, a die-hard Windows fan, will wring my hands, and at the end of the day, I may pick one up, but I'm just as likely to keep using my Icon for now and eventually pick up something like the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (a super nice phone with a great camera and an OS that developers actually support).
We'll see.