Positive Windows phone news thread

[Windowsmoose]

Wanted to create a thread for the positive news about Windows 10 mobile as hearing so much negative is becoming depressing!

 

[Windowsmoose]

Microsoft flow

 

[Windowsmoose]

Telegram messenger app gets updated with photos https://www.onmsft.com/news/telegram-messenger-preview-app-gets-new-photo-mode-on-windows-phone

 

[Windowsmoose]

Microsoft updrade advisor is now back up and running

 

[Windowsmoose]

Wiley fox releasing a windows phone later this year

 

[Windowsmoose]

Nice update to groove on the way http://m.windowscentral.com/microsoft-starts-add-music-videos-groove

 

[SeeVuPlay]

After being disappointed the last few weeks, I'm now back with team Microsoft (I never really left). Now I'm anxiously awaiting to see the MS Mobile Master Plan!

 

[anon(50597)]

My Idol 4s does everything I need and does it well.
Thanks for this thread!

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[Windowsmoose]

Your welcome

 

[Windowsmoose]

People sometimes forget that Windows mobile was very popular in countries other than USA. Although it is rapidly declining there are still percentages higher than 1% that gets quoted all the time. In the uk in my home town here they still have a large display in car phonewharehouse showing off continuum. For some strange reason the market share even went up in Japan!

https://mspoweruser.com/here-are-the-kantar-smartphone-market-share-numbers-for-february-2017/

 

[Windowsmoose]

Interesting take on possible Windows 10 mobile upgrade path, don't worry guys support for your phones should be around a little while yet http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/22135_Of_Redstone_3_WOA_and_upgrade_.php

 

[Windowsmoose]

And playing down the panic from the last few days......http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/22140_Dont_panic-the_Easter_break_ed.php

 

[Windowsmoose]

Windows mobile sales increase?!? Wonder what caused it.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows...he-us-and-uk-according-to-kantars-latest-data

 

[Drael646464]

Cortana bot intergration "coming soon". I saw this officially announced somewhere but I can't find it. Intergration will also include Alexa skill compatibility, and skills/bots will be invoked "contextually" and "dynamically", ie on demand.

https://blog.thoughtstuff.co.uk/201...n-work-with-cortana-tipping-point-of-awesome/

This is going to be huge.

 

[fatclue_98]

Windows mobile sales increase?!? Wonder what caused it.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows...he-us-and-uk-according-to-kantars-latest-data

I would have to guess it's sales of the Idol 4S.

 

[Drael646464]

Windows mobile sales increase?!? Wonder what caused it.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows...he-us-and-uk-according-to-kantars-latest-data

Probably the tech saavy young adopters who like the surface line. There's a sense in which "MS is the new apple", and the surface is "cool". Some of that probably bled over to windows 10 M.

Great thread. MS is in better form than it has ever been, with its long term vision. Next few years will be exciting.

Windows mobile sales increase?!? Wonder what caused it.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows...he-us-and-uk-according-to-kantars-latest-data

Whats even more interesting about that, is its marketshare growth, with year on year negative growth. Which would indicate we just had the first quarter of negative growth in the history of smartphones. Which would suggest we just hit saturation, or are so close, that the premium smartphone industry is about to take a slow, painful and inevitable dive in favour of new tech still in adoption, and budget pricepoint competiton. Premium makers will have to focus their attentions on countries without saturation, like India, and shift to budget sectors and new tech inventions.

If that's the case, it couldn't possibly be better timing for MS, and its Cortana bot plans, and new FF plans. It would be as auspicious as a harvest moon shining on a new crop, economically. Perhaps that's been their plan, market analysts have seen this coming for awhile. A lot of people thought it would be last year.

- Q4 2016 -

"Samsung’s share is down 2 percent year-over-year, while its shipments were down roughly 14 million. Apple saw its share fall from 15.9 percent to 14.4 percent, while shipments were down 9 million units."

"Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and Oppo, both of which saw an increase in their share year-over-year."

Okay, so 399.5 million shipped in q4 2015, and 432 million q4 2016. Not quite negative growth in q4, an 8% growth. But a growth in sales that was almost entirely the budget sector, with both apple and Samsung losing marketshare to Chinese companies like Oppo.

For q1 -

Loss in Samsung sales, and drop in US android share...

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/03/samsungs-high-end-smartphone-sales-dropped-q1-2017.html

Loss in profit from apple q1 (2.6 percent), despite 5% increase in sales, and slight increase in marketshare versus android in US-

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/appl...evenue-figures-apple-earnings-report-3581769/

Apple seems to be weathering the storm so far, and its not quite negative growth, but it is interesting.

Still makes me wonder how windows 10 mobile can have increased marketshare in US and UK, but still be down in units sold. Maybe its just the US and UK, the mature markets that are in negative growth?

I think perhaps that's it. Mature markets are hitting negative growth, like US, and saturation, but adoption in places like India is still driving growth globally.

If that's the case, expect Samsung and Apple to start neglecting US and UK in favour of growing markets.

 

[anon(9809330)]

My Idol 4s does everything I need and does it well.
Thanks for this thread!

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

^^^
This

 

[Axeelant]

My 2,5 year old Lumia 930 is still working like a champ, with a new battery Even the apps I regularly use do their job exactly as expected, and maybe, just maybe, we have this Surface Phone on the way, in whichever form it will come, I'm going to buy the hack out of it

PS: Good thread btw, nice to see something else than just complaining and whining 24/7 :winktongue:

 

[Drael646464]

I would have to guess it's sales of the Idol 4S.

Well to be fair, the 4s is a proposition like xiaomi's whole business model - premium specs for moderate price. With most growth occurring in budget sectors, those slimmer margins and lower advertising costs are becoming a better way to drive sales.

The Chinese have long known the value of price point competition, and competitive markets, the smartphone biz has just been waiting to get there.

The time of the reign iPhone and S series will soon enough come to an end, its written in every Q growth numbers for the last 3-4 years - especially in those exact mature markets the article mentions - US, UK, Australia, Europe.

A premium business phone will still sell IMO, but increasingly premium consumer phone markets are shipping less units, experiencing downward growth, while the opposite is true for everything priced below that - its going up year on year, every quarter.

So you are most likely right actually, that the Idol 4s is part of the reason for this pick up in win10 mobile sales (possibly also influenced also by the adoption of windows tablets, and the re-branding of MS/Windows). It's got exactly the right value proposition for consumers in mature markets.

It's affordable for what it offers, and that's increasingly what people, in those mature markets, want now. Not an overpriced gaudy status symbol that the easily impressed might buy into via marketing. But a good phone at a good price, the sort of product an experienced and grounded consumer buys.

 

[Windowsmoose]

Instagram app updated
https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows-10-instagram-app-gains-new-collections-feature and http://m.windowscentral.com/instagram-brings-disappearing-photos-and-videos-its-windows-10-app