How to make Windows Phone killer

[Ebuka Allison]

Now that WP 8.1's brought some well needed improvements. Surely there are ways to improve windows phone to such an extreme even developers would want to use it.
Easiest way is to, update the default apps in the GDRs and add the ability to theme them. Change the accent color and background color from black and white so we can truly be #more colorful
Alarms
Add more functionality like stopwatch, timers. Allow us to choose the default snooze times. Allow us to control the alarm volume (Maybe a toggle with cjhoose alarm volume or use universal volume)

Calculator
Ape Calculator[SUP]2[/SUP] here. Add all the niche Calculators that one could ever need
Calendar
Show more than one item on live tile, Support for multiple live tiles. Return agenda view
Camera
Merge with Nokia Camera or at least absorb all the functionality from the Nokia Camera apps
Games, Music and Video. Reintegrate all three into the core OS ASAP at GDR1 if POSSIBLE. Make sure the lockscreen music controls work consistently, provide support for offline video playback in Videos. I mean seriously...

News- Provide support for comments in articles that support them, articles which are pulled off the web because you are interested in a topic should open in the app and not IE
Finance
Sport
Health and Fitness-Integrate with Rubntastic or Endomondo AND HEALTHVAULT
Maps
Internet Explorer-Make it the BEST. Use webkit if you really have to.
Skype- Bake it into Windows Phone. Each WP device should come with its own Skype number and free VoIP and video calls
Office
Podcasts absorb all functionality from podcatchers in the store, increase number of available podcasts that can be found...

Anything I left blank, I couldn't quite think of something for it....

 

[N_LaRUE]

Those are all your own opinions. Some people simply won't care about half of that.

As for reintegrating those apps back into the OS, not going to happen. Get used to the app-centric idea. Same will go for Skype. It's just too painful to update the whole OS whenever a bug is found mostly due to the carriers, so get angry with them not MS.

How about a novel idea. Let's get the latest and greatest apps on WP now. There's a good start. Features can come in time. What's needed now is a reason for people to switch.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Those are all your own opinions. Some people simply won't care about half of that.

As for reintegrating those apps back into the OS, not going to happen. Get used to the app-centric idea. Same will go for Skype. It's just too painful to update the whole OS whenever a bug is found mostly due to the carriers, so get angry with them not MS.

How about a novel idea. Let's get the latest and greatest apps on WP now. There's a good start. Features can come in time. What's needed now is a reason for people to switch.

Yes some people won't care about half of that and so what? Some people don't care about Cortana. some don' care about Transparent tiles, some don't care about the notification centre. Should MS just do nothing then? Games, Music and Video SHOULD never be separate from the OS unless they are built with special permissions that allow them to run as if they were built on the OS (I don't know about the technical side of things but those apps need MOAR SPEED.)
As for latest and greatest apps, yeah, they will come. But the developers would be more interested in using WP and thus making apps for it if every native, MS built app on it was Office 2013 level.

 

[jmshub]

As far as the separate apps, if high quality apps already exist, why should Microsoft wrap them into the OS when they are already freely available for download? For those who want a particular calculator or podcast app, they can find and use the one that they prefer.

Music, video and games hubs were just removed for a reason. This has been talked about to death. They were separated as apps to allow them to be updated on a cycle completely independently from the OS and carrier restrictions. While I liked the idea of the hubs, carrier interference proved that this was a failed concept.

 

[anon5997296]

Yes some people won't care about half of that and so what? Some people don't care about Cortana. some don' care about Transparent tiles, some don't care about the notification centre. Should MS just do nothing then? Games, Music and Video SHOULD never be separate from the OS unless they are built with special permissions that allow them to run as if they were built on the OS (I don't know about the technical side of things but those apps need MOAR SPEED.)
As for latest and greatest apps, yeah, they will come. But the developers would be more interested in using WP and thus making apps for it if every native, MS built app on it was Office 2013 level.

You are right. I don't care if these apps are baked in the OS or not. If they are going to be apps, give them special permissions to behave like native apps so I don't see the splash screen everytime I open the app. Let's not forget smoothness of the whole app. Look at the music, video and games app. Using these gives me a feel that I am using Android device. Even newer androids do these tasks better.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

You are right. I don't care if these apps are baked in the OS or not. If they are going to be apps, give them special permissions to behave like native apps so I don't see the splash screen everytime I open the app. Let's not forget smoothness of the whole app. Look at the music, video and games app. Using these gives me a feel that I am using Android device. Even newer androids do these tasks better.

This

 

[radmanvr]

I disagree I think the best way to make Windows Phone a killer is having unstable battery that explodes.

 

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[N_LaRUE]

As for latest and greatest apps, yeah, they will come. But the developers would be more interested in using WP and thus making apps for it if every native, MS built app on it was Office 2013 level.

You're right. I don't care about 90% that's come out of WP8.1 and care less about your list and most advanced options because features are just mostly bloat in the OS.

What the average user wants and I'm as well as 80% of users of smartphones are, is knowledge that if I'm on WP I can get x, y or z app. That's the most important thing after a good music/media player and browser experience.

Image means a lot to most users as well that's why iPhones sell. No one likes having a second rate experience. Maybe we might be happy with that but there are many who wouldn't be which is why WP still sits at 3% in the USA.

You can put every amazing feature in WP but lack the main apps everyone wants and you might as well not bother. The thing that will make WP killer is being on the same level as the other OSs in getting apps. Saying the devs will come is nonsense I've heard that for almost 1 1/2 years on WP. We're still waiting. Some have even left.

You cannot win people over with just features in the current market. Maybe 5 years ago that was an option but not anymore.

Lastly , I don't understand your last bit about office 2013. What's that got to do with anything?

 

[Jan Tomsic]

...Allow us to control the alarm volume (Maybe a toggle with cjhoose alarm volume or use universal volume)...

THIS!
Since they've separated volumes, I accidentally overslept because my alarm was silent!
Alarm should have separate volume control, but only inside the alarm app, so you set it once and forget about it, I really don't want to see yet another slider in already crowded volume control window.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

You're right. I don't care about 90% that's come out of WP8.1 and care less about your list and most advanced options because features are just mostly bloat in the OS.

What the average user wants and I'm as well as 80% of users of smartphones are, is knowledge that if I'm on WP I can get x, y or z app. That's the most important thing after a good music/media player and browser experience.

Image means a lot to most users as well that's why iPhones sell. No one likes having a second rate experience. Maybe we might be happy with that but there are many who wouldn't be which is why WP still sits at 3% in the USA.

You can put every amazing feature in WP but lack the main apps everyone wants and you might as well not bother. The thing that will make WP killer is being on the same level as the other OSs in getting apps. Saying the devs will come is nonsense I've heard that for almost 1 1/2 years on WP. We're still waiting. Some have even left.

You cannot win people over with just features in the current market. Maybe 5 years ago that was an option but not anymore.

Lastly , I don't understand your last bit about office 2013. What's that got to do with anything?

If every app was as good in its category as office 2013 I mean. For example, many have left because of Xbox Music. We have apps. A lot of them. But the built in ones need to be compelling as well

 

[anon5997296]

Well, why not have both? Apps and features??

 

[tgp]

Well, why not have both? Apps and features??

Because that's what Android has. We certainly don't want that!

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Because that's what Android has. We certainly don't want that!

Sarcasm? I cant tell because someone just made that comment with complete seriousness

 

[tgp]

Sarcasm? I cant tell because someone just made that comment with complete seriousness

Yes, sarcasm. I know that posts like this are made with complete seriousness. I was just putting in a little dig at those who actually feel this way. I do not understand it at all.

 

[e1tep]

Apps:
I hope they expand their universal apps to Android and iOS. This way more developers will consider WP and the quality would be on par across all platforms.

Keyboard + Text selection
I believe this is the most used thing in a smartphone.
We already have an awesome keyboard, but they should further improve it:
- developers should be able to add suggestion words, so that they work with word flow
e.g. Entering an address => street/country names are suggested
- arrow keys for cursor placement
- make all text selectable (as in every website)
- maybe hide the keyboard during selection, so that we can select larger parts of the screen

 

[anon5997296]

Look guys, it's pretty much simple and straight forward. We need apps no doubt, but features is the part of OS that draws people to it. Just take an example, imagine we suddenly have all the apps available to iOS (quantity as well as quality), still why would people throw away their already working iPhones and Androids and rush to buy Windows Phones? Even after getting all the apps WP will appeal to customers if it provides features that are absent in other OS. Let's talk about all the strong points of WP. Camera, what is it? It's a feature. Live tiles, a feature. Cortana, a feature. I myself want apps, a good Facebook app is one of them, but I want my phone to be different to other's on a feature level and I think others want it too. So, features and apps all are welcome!!!

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Look guys, it's pretty much simple and straight forward. We need apps no doubt, but features is the part of OS that draws people to it. Just take an example, imagine we suddenly have all the apps available to iOS (quantity as well as quality), still why would people throw away their already working iPhones and Androids and rush to buy Windows Phones? Even after getting all the apps WP will appeal to customers if it provides features that are absent in other OS. Let's talk about all the strong points of WP. Camera, what is it? It's a feature. Live tiles, a feature. Cortana, a feature. I myself want apps, a good Facebook app is one of them, but I want my phone to be different to other's on a feature level and I think others want it too. So, features and apps all are welcome!!!

Precisely. In addition. There is little to be gained by simply having all the iOS apps with a WP UI. We need unique apps of our own. Windows has office and literally millions more, OSX has the Apple Apps. We should be like OSX for mobile.

 

[loki993]

Now that WP 8.1's brought some well needed improvements. Surely there are ways to improve windows phone to such an extreme even developers would want to use it.

I dont think making os improvement will bring developers to the phone, unless its particularly difficult to develop for or something.

The only thing that's going to bring developers to the phone will be market share..and market share wont come until the apps come...is a vicious circle...

Android only had to fight apple...and had tons more phones. also they got in right when TONs of people were switching from dumbphones to smart phones. MS was late to the party and now they have to fight both of them AND most people have smartphones already, it will be an uphill battle. Also people are used to what they are used to...I know a few people that have actually used windows phones, not with 8.1 granted, and said they liked iOS or android better..but then when asked why they cant tell me. Its pretty easy to convince someone to go from a dumbphone that just makes calls to a computer in your hand....but once they are used to that one its though to convince them to try something different....

 

[Ebuka Allison]

I dont think making os improvement will bring developers to the phone, unless its particularly difficult to develop for or something.

The only thing that's going to bring developers to the phone will be market share..and market share wont come until the apps come...is a vicious circle...

Android only had to fight apple...and had tons more phones. also they got in right when TONs of people were switching from dumbphones to smart phones. MS was late to the party and now they have to fight both of them AND most people have smartphones already, it will be an uphill battle. Also people are used to what they are used to...I know a few people that have actually used windows phones, not with 8.1 granted, and said they liked iOS or android better..but then when asked why they cant tell me. Its pretty easy to convince someone to go from a dumbphone that just makes calls to a computer in your hand....but once they are used to that one its though to convince them to try something different....

We have apps, we need more. Making the base OS much better than Android and iOS would make it more likely for devs to spend time,with and enjoy using it.