Why is there so much hate for WP?

[Andrea988]

I'll be honest, i never considered WP because I don't like Windows 8. The tiles interface is badly designed, your whole screen is taken up by just a few icons and you often have to scroll across quite some distance to get to where you want to be. With such a lot of wasted space above and below the tiles it doesn't make sense to me to have to work this way. I prefer all my icons on one screen so I use the "traditional" desktop".

So for that reason, I, like many others, have never considered WP. On WP though it just works! There is no wasted space and the tiles are all together, with a single swipe to the left to get to the A-Z list. After just a few days with it I love it and I'm sure that millions of other people would feel the same if they tried it.

Part of the problem is there is little choice when buying a Windows phone and although you could argue it's the same for the iPhone, a lot of people won't like the colourful shells, with comments like "cartoony" and "looks like a kid's toy" being common. Even black or white version will remind people that they own the same phone as the cartoony version, and I think if more manufacturers came along with classier designs like the M8 it would help a great deal.

The 'people' I can understand, what does annoy me is the so-called professional reviews where reviewers seem to be absolutely terrified of giving the WP's a decent write-up in case they look foolish in their little community.

It's weird that the surrounding metal bezel on the 930 is slated yet a similar thing on the iPhone is admired. On other phones a heftier weight "adds to the feeling of superior build quality" but on the 930 it just means it's a heavy phone which will weigh you down.

I don't understand it either but I always thought BMW made the best cars until I bought a Volvo. At the end of the day I'm the one who's really laughing. Who cares what anybody else thinks?

 

[Zachary Boddy]

The reason people hate Windows Phones is ignorance I believe. Android phones are cheap and abundant, meaning they're all you see. Only thing is, I know that most people who do use a Windows Phone love it. Maybe the problem with Microsoft is the lack of top notch phones. They have the 1520(love it) and the Icon/930(why two names?), but the average guy pretends to know what a Snapdragon 801 processor is. They pretend to know what the specs mean and go for the phone with the greater numbers. Fact of the matter is, even though the 1520 can easily compete with high end Android phones, the Android numbers are bigger. Snapdragon 801 not 800. Gorilla Glass 3 not Gorilla Glass 2(what kind of choice was that Nokia?).
My stepmom had a 520 and loved the interface, but she uses a Samsung Galaxy Note now(II I think) because there was no defined high end Windows Phone worth buying. And she thinks the Note is too big so the 1520 is out of the question.
Advertise, Microsoft, and mark a defined point between your budget, your mid-range, and your high end devices.
Make a name for the Lumia devices. A design people see and go "That's a nice looking phone." "That's a Lumia."
And most of all, keep your 2.7%. Don't focus on your budget and mid-range like you are now. Take some time to release new high end phones. The best specs. The newest technology. Impress people. 1530, 1030.
It's hard for someone to say Microsoft isn't revolutionary and be honest about it. Yeah they came after Android and iOS but that doesn't mean everything came from the two main OS. Their interface is slick, original, and with the new update very nice looking indeed.
We 2.7% want high end phones, right? I like the interface but between a mid-range phone with Windows Phone 8.1 and a top notch Android...I'd buy the Android device.

 

[paulxxwall]

LOL, Tech journalist/costumers hating is not the main cause of WP poor sales.

Here In America it is! Got to an att store for your self....ask for WP you'll see what happens has always happens to me! Most carriers salesman don't want to sell WP ...they didn't want to sell me one !

 

[Andrea988]

I don't see much if any hate. What I see more of is honest criticism that isn't received rationally by readers here, and then labelled as hate. I find it far more reasonable to conclude that there are justified criticisms that the tech media are pointing out than to believe there's some mass conspiracy of ignorance and hate by the tech media to attack and hate on a mobile OS just for page hits

I think hate is the wrong word, but having tried just about every phone out there I think much of the criticism is misguided rather than "honest". Now I have bought my first WP phone I honestly don't think that iOS or Android are better or more enjoyable to use.

There are some criticisms as you would get with any product but they are not as bad as many reviews make them out to be. WP phones get absolutely slated by a lot of reviewers and leave the reader thinking they must be really awful, when nothing could be further from the truth. The rest of the smartphone-using world seem to slag them off without ever having even seen one. That's the real problem in my opinion.

 

[fatclue_98]

Eric Zeman from Phone Scoop has always been high on WP. Critical of some of the hardware but very positive words about the OS.


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[mlm1950]

Probably for the same reasons there is so much hate for Android and Apple.

 

[Visa Declined]

Tech pundits and consumers alike believe that the only phone worth buying is the brand they have in their pocket. It's fanboyism really. There's been times where I've recommended WP to people, only to have them tell me they don't want a Microsoft phone. There is a stigma relegated to the Microsoft name in mobile devices I believe. People hear the name and think of their old, slow work computers. Sometimes I wish MS would have named their phone OS something that didn't have the name "Windows" in it.

 

[thepolicecall911fordetails]

Just read the question I had back in April, this should solve it.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/ph...one-superior-surrounded-iphones-androids.html

 

[Nokia1520]

2 Very Simple Things which have already been mentioned in detail.
Lack of "Popular Aps" ...if that is your thing and lets be honest here, that is most peoples thing! (Not mine)
AND....No surprise here.....People feel the need to justify their Non-Windows phone purchase. The don't want to feel they made a mistake and admit that. I could care less about social apps ( Seems to be the biggest stupid segment of aps these days) I like some games and maybe some productivity and Windows has those.

 

[colinkiama]

2 Very Simple Things which have already been mentioned in detail.
Lack of "Popular Aps" ...if that is your thing and lets be honest here, that is most peoples thing! (Not mine)
AND....No surprise here.....People feel the need to justify their Non-Windows phone purchase. The don't want to feel they made a mistake and admit that. I could care less about social apps ( Seems to be the biggest stupid segment of aps these days) I like some games and maybe some productivity and Windows has those.

What apps do You think are missing?

 

[Andrea988]

Just read the question I had back in April, this should solve it.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/ph...one-superior-surrounded-iphones-androids.html

Yes but that's part of the problem. Everybody saying this is better than that and so on. Each should be considered on it's own merits, and let people decide from there rather than have so called professional tech journos slagging off everything they don't happen to like themselves which then leads to the general public doing the same.

'Davehow' made a good point about the way the public behave even to reasonable reviews though, and believe me I've dealt with the public all my working life and there are some real morons out there. But at the same time a lot of those reviews are left in there deliberately, to attract people to the website. Nothing better than a controversial post or two to attract attention!

Same with apps. OK so at least until recently WP was lacking a little but the promo video sums it up - over a thousand Android apps just to turn on the flashlight? It's just nonsense. People say there are not enough apps but you could spend the rest of your life evaluating each one and still never get to even see the vast majority of them.

 

[colinkiama]

People say there are not enough apps but you could spend the rest of your life evaluating each one and still never get to even see the vast majority of them.

That sentence alone... So powerful. So true.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

Windows Phones has most of what people want. They just don't try to look. In addition, what Windows does have is quality. What does having 3 million apps mean if half of them are worthless? How many of those apps do people actually install and like? Windows has quality apps, and the necessary apps as well. I haven't had any problems with finding apps except for a few games I'd probably not ever play.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

Exactly, what does sheer numbers mean? Any company can come and make any app for Android or iOS. Microsoft is particular, which is good. Numbers doesn't mean the best, no on is downloading three million apps on their phone.

 

[TonyDedrick]

A big issue is apps that have a social component to them. Candy Crush is a big one. Of course you could probably name a handful of alternatives available on WP right now. But are my friends playing these same games? It was the same thing with Fhotoroom. Absolutely high quality app. I enjoyed using it before Instagram (in its many forms) finally arrived. But it was no real replacement considering not one person I knew used the service.

 

[twint7787]

Combination of what others have said. Also some of the 'hate' probably comes from ppl who have been on WP or MS products for a while and have seen MS's lackadaisical attitude towards WP.
I have found even myself being critical in posts on the site. Its also hard to represent your tone in the written form. Words become even more important on the internet where representing yourself and your feelings are solely judged on what you write.
But honestly, regarding WP's market share, are you surprised. I have said before, for me personally, I love WP UI and design. Before that webOS. I used to take WP's shortcomings in stride because the user experience was so good. While the user experience is still normally good it has been lacking many things that do make a smartphone experience easier. WP 8.1 has addressed some of these issues (action center), but still iOS and Android are ahead feature wise.
I don't think that's a winning plan. They need to achieve 100% feature parity first, bottom line. You need to be able to do the same things, but you can do them differently.

 

[Visa Declined]

Windows Phones has most of what people want. They just don't try to look. In addition, what Windows does have is quality.

I'm stoked about all the apps that have come to the WP store these days, but I'm guessing you don't have any devices on other platforms, because if you did, you'd understand that there's a lot missing from WP still.

 

[Andrea988]

I'm stoked about all the apps that have come to the WP store these days, but I'm guessing you don't have any devices on other platforms, because if you did, you'd understand that there's a lot missing from WP still.

Having only just moved over from Android, I use my phone for it's apps far more than I do for calling and sending messages, but I have found everything I need on WP and more. With one or two exceptions I haven't had to install-try out-uninstall a dozen times a day either like I did with Android which is a huge bonus as far as I'm concerned.

 

[fatclue_98]

I'm stoked about all the apps that have come to the WP store these days, but I'm guessing you don't have any devices on other platforms, because if you did, you'd understand that there's a lot missing from WP still.

How many flashlight and fart apps does one really need?


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[salmanahmad]

The thing that many of you do not understand is that, not having apps is just part of the problem.

Many apps on Windows Phone that are there lag behind the Android/iOS counterparts.

For example both Android and Windows Phone have 9GAG, but honestly use both apps and tell me which is better.

The same goes for Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram and many others.

Plus Windows Phone Store still lacks a lot of quality titles such as Dead Trigger, Shadowgun: Deadzone, Minecraft, etc.

Even Microsoft's own apps such as Skype or Outlook have much more functional or beautiful builds on Android and iOS.

You could keep telling me the huge amount of workarounds, the 3rd party clients and other stuff like that but all that hassle contributes to why people dislike Windows Phone.

I like Windows Phone and Android(somewhat iOS as well) but there are many many logical reasons not to try Windows Phone. You can sugarcoat it all you want.

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