I was recently informed by the wonderful Cortana that an article was posted on Digital Trends titled "Why You Should Not Buy a Lumia, or a Windows Phone". As much as I'd rather not support this click-bait, I feel that this would be a good way to address biased and poor journalism in general and help put an end to it.
My comments on the article:
All in all, I personally believe this is just another stab at Microsoft by a biased journalist that wants to see them crash and burn. The past issues have already been solved and Microsoft is in a good position now. Everyone sees that. But there are still journalists like Andy who seem to completely dismiss the positives and put all the negatives front and center, even though these "negatives" aren't even issues anymore. People go to news sites hoping that they're reading a trustworthy and reputable article. Throwing biases against companies they don't have interest in doesn't make them any more reputable and I personally would like to see a change in this. As much as Windows Central is the most popular news site for Microsoft, they only have so much power and influence on others who don't see the real message.
Constructive criticism is needed. This Digital Trends article isn't.
How do you all feel about this? I would love to hear what you have to say. Thanks for reading as well! I realize it's a bit of a long read.
My comments on the article:
As much as Andy makes some decent points on the state of Windows and Microsoft's "restarting", the very extreme bias against, and negativity towards Windows and Microsoft as a whole is strong in this article. Not to mention the rude remarks on Panos and Brian's looks are completely unnecessary.
Now we're all no stranger to Microsoft's restarts with Windows Phone, but since Andy managed to blatantly leave the reasoning of their restarts out of the article and possibly purposely make Microsoft's OS look worse, let's go back in time and address the situations.
Windows Phone 7 was Microsoft's quick-fix to put themselves back in the phone market since Windows Mobile was no longer an attractive consumer option. As powerful as Windows Mobile was, it didn't have the appeal iOS and Android brought to an average consumer. Microsoft even laughed them off because of their lack of real programs at the time, compared to the level of productivity Windows Mobile brought. Now, we all know Microsoft messed up by not realizing the potential of iOS and Android at the time, and they also messed up by releasing WP7 on a CE kernel.
Thus brings Windows Phone 8. Microsoft wanted a unified ecosystem and consistent experience across all Windows devices. Being released in Q4 2012, Microsoft had this One Windows vision for quite some time, but because of the impulsiveness and necessity to bring something fresh to the market, they obviously didn't have a lot of time to waste, and had to put WP7 out on an older kernel until they were able to bring WP to the NT kernel with version 8. With the kernel change brought many new possibilities for advanced features.
These advanced features came in the iterative update known as Windows Phone 8.1. Most people would call this another "restart" but it was nothing more than another phone update, like every other OS. WP8.1 came a year and a half after the release of 8, but had a slow rollout due to carrier dependencies. Despite the delay, Microsoft brought feature-parity to Windows Phone with this update, making it a true competitor to iOS and Android. This was also the beginning of Microsoft's Universal Windows App platform, where a purchase on one Windows device brought it to all devices, such as Xbox, PCs and tablets. Still, with a year and a half passed since the re-release of Windows Phone, developers didn't have much interest in the OS.
Now here we are in 2015, only weeks away from a new version of Windows for phones. Windows 10 Mobile is probably the biggest game-changing update to any phone in years, because of the possibilities it brings in advanced productivity and sheer power. Windows phones are, arguably, already the most advanced and productive phones on the planet. The potential of UWA's is unparalleled to any current mobile app strategy, and Microsoft is ahead of the game, future-proofing their devices, because they know that mobile is the future. It may have taken 5 years to come to light, but yet after 5 years of work, plus the many years of experience in mobile Microsoft has with Windows Mobile, tech journalists such as Andy see Microsoft as a company simply "giving up". They still don't see the amount of work Microsoft has put into making a truly no-compromise mobile solution. They're only looking at the fact that we don't have Snapchat, we don't have Tinder, and Microsoft laid off thousands of employees to simply streamline their mobile business.
In my opinion, Microsoft only restarted twice. Once with WP7, and again with WP8. Windows 10 may not be coming to all phones, but considering the phones that are eligible for an update came out with an OS made in 2012, it's probably in their best interest to kill off support for the phones in the first place, since it's been over 3 years AND the world of technology moves faster than imaginable.
In terms of the presentation of the phones, I personally think it was presented with a hell of a lot of passion. Panos said himself that he hasn't worked with the team for very long, but taking that into consideration, he really showed off the work they put in to making these phones. Oh, and a dedicated camera button means a lot to a lot of people, whether or not it's been nearly a decade. They've given us a phone with specs that are on-par with phones that were just released, such as the Nexus 6P. As of right now, where technology stands, there isn't much more they can innovate in, hardware-wise. "Innovations" from competitors such as Live Photos have been around for months now with Living Images. Besides, they can't really showcase the phone without showing off the OS that makes it, and the OS isn't even ready yet. That and the fact that every tech site gave away every inch of the phones' specs and design, it wasn't very easy to talk about anything. That's why the presentation seemed rushed. But had they not even talked about mobile, journalists like Andy would still think Microsoft "gave up". There's no winning.
We all know why Windows doesn't have Google apps, and why it doesn't have Snapchat. Neither of them have any interest in supporting Windows in the first place. You can't put the blame on Microsoft for that. Other companies that have taken their apps out of the store simply can't see much reason to be on there, given the popularity of the OS itself. We can only hope that they'll come back in the future. But to point fingers at Microsoft, when it's entirely possible to build quality apps for the platform (which third-party developers have already proved) is absurd.
Carrier exclusives, carrier-dependent phone updates, lack of developer support, and a restart that happened 5 YEARS AGO are in my opinion, the only reasons why Windows on phones hasn't taken off. And aside from eliminating carrier exclusives, not depending on carriers to update the products the carriers don't even make, and marketing their devices a little better, there really isn't much Microsoft can do to remedy this situation. They're practically throwing app support in developers' faces with the soon to be released app Bridges, the growth potential of UWA's and adding a device market in the hundred-millions with PCs and Xbox, and the game-changing hardware they've put into their mobile devices (let's not forget who FIRST brought OIS, sunlight readability, super sensitive touch, liquid cooling and 60fps display speeds to mobile). Just because Microsoft hasn't succumbed and made an Android phone, doesn't mean they've given up. If they did make an Android phone and "listened to consumers", journalists like Andy would still think Microsoft gave up on Windows Mobile. This is why they're sticking to their guns and not conforming to a world of Android.
Microsoft isn't clinging on to the past. As much as the timing was never right for them, the wait is over. They're developing technologies for the future. If developers and carriers can't see the potential of this, then that's their loss. Microsoft has not given up on mobile, and is doing (practically) everything in their power to gain traction in the mobile market. So putting the blame on Microsoft is just ridiculous, especially after they've learned from their mistakes and grown immensely from them.
All in all, I personally believe this is just another stab at Microsoft by a biased journalist that wants to see them crash and burn. The past issues have already been solved and Microsoft is in a good position now. Everyone sees that. But there are still journalists like Andy who seem to completely dismiss the positives and put all the negatives front and center, even though these "negatives" aren't even issues anymore. People go to news sites hoping that they're reading a trustworthy and reputable article. Throwing biases against companies they don't have interest in doesn't make them any more reputable and I personally would like to see a change in this. As much as Windows Central is the most popular news site for Microsoft, they only have so much power and influence on others who don't see the real message.
Constructive criticism is needed. This Digital Trends article isn't.
How do you all feel about this? I would love to hear what you have to say. Thanks for reading as well! I realize it's a bit of a long read.
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