Joe Belfiore uses an iPhone

[fly_branch]

I wonder if Tim Cook uses a windows phone to see what it is like.

 

[winboy]

I wonder if Tim Cook uses a windows phone to see what it is like.

All hell would break loose within the apple community if that ever happens. MS needs to start paying attention to their own platform first...now!

 

[VermaEklavya]

iphone 6s is the best iPhone.

No, iPhone 4 is the best iPhone.... /s.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

 

[justmoe40]

lol microsoft is not in trouble

 

[xandros9]

No, iPhone 4 is the best iPhone.... /s.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Well I did like the 4 and the upgrades it packed.
The Retina display was a big deal when it was announced, great camera then too.

lol microsoft is not in trouble

Nope, just the mobile OS and maybe brand, which isn't going to help them succeed.

 

[fatrat727]

He uses multiple devices. Lot of top ranking people have different devices for different reasons. For that reason I think that will be a good area for the surface team to focus on. One device to replace them all. How that is accomplished we have no clue. Investors wanted a tablet and they got a new definition of what a tablet is and what it can do. Can they accomplish this with a phone is a different story.

 

[slimchap]

Using multiple device isn't an issue... But posting a picture to social media proves which his daily driver is... I can remember once when someone wrote about loving his android phone on crackberry, I guess he was fired. I even judge the WP team sometimes too cos of their multiple device usage. Cos their daily driver could be a samsung S crap while they come up here and write how wonderful life is using a 930. But I trust Dan.

 

[Varun Rajan]

Actually it sums up pretty much everything about wp a great OS to brag about, lot of features but when it comes to actual usage , well i better get an iphone or an android, until you know, the OS matures.

 

[mms-pc]

Oh, I did pretty much similar thing before. During my two years of employment in Microsoft, I got a task that required using a Mac machine, my superior did get me a Mac computer, and that was my first time using Mac OSX.

 

[zkyevolved]

Not defending him or anything, but, when you travel abroad, you generally only want to rack up the roaming charges on ONE device. So that device was the iPhone in this case... When I was in Japan, my partner and I didn't use our phones without renting a 3G hotspot, and we used that for all our data. But I'm sure if he has 2 phones or 3 phones, the others were on Airplane mode and only one was connected. Or I could be completely wrong and didn't care and used them all, or doesn't even use a WP, or prefers iPhone to WP... Who knows! Just throwing out there the possibility...

 

[FirstWatt]

He uses an iPhone because he likes it better?

Well, that's the most blatant admission that he failed with WP and W10M.

 

[hwangeruk]

Joes response:
joebelfiore-wp
Joe here ? I wanted to comment because I think it?s useful for anyone working in tech.. or ASPIRING to work in tech.. to think about the trade-offs involved in what somehow appears as a "dramatic" decision! I suspect the significant majority of you will land on the same side of the issue that I have?
My job for the last couple of years has been (1) to curate the PC experience for Windows PCs (including tablet devices) and (2) to curate the experience for Windows Phones. In both capacities, it?s very important for me to understand products like the iPhone and Android phones, which are heavily used by PC users around the world, and which represent the competition for Windows Phone. Consumers and business users expect their PCs and phones to work in concert? so to satisfy our customers we need to consider the devices they use AS WELL AS the devices we?d like them to use.
On a 9-month leave-of-absence, I have a HUGE AND UNUSUAL opportunity to get to know these products deeply. To understand the benefits and drawbacks of a full ecosystem like Windows, Android, iOS ? you have to LIVE IN IT. You have to feel its strengths and weaknesses, be let down, be delighted. And you can?t do that just "playing around" with a device for a couple of days. You have to learn the UI, upload your photos, use cross-device apps and tools? all of it.
When we are developing a release of Windows, we MUST use it all the time, on all devices, in order to find the bugs, iterate the design. There?s really no choice or we can?t build Windows as well as we should. On a leave-of-absence, there are tons of talented people doing that every day, which gives me the possibility of spending depth time on other devices, and using Windows very much like you Insiders do, without full knowledge of what?s happening "behind the curtain".
Furthermore, there?s a lot of work happening at MS which integrates Windows PCs with iOS and Android devices? like bringing Cortana to these phones so your intelligent assistant can help you whereever you are. I want to experience and understand all that work deeply too.
So ? I think Vlad has it right when he says "it?s OK". (Thank you, Vlad.) But, I?d go farther and say "it?d be CRAZY not to"! In fact, when I posted on FB that I was taking a leave, I did mention explicitly that I would do this? and (horror of horrors) I?ve followed through, spending a bunch of time using Google Maps, Spotify, Periscope, a MacBook, a Nexus phone, etc.
And.. in today?s Microsoft, this practical, customer-focused attitude is well celebrated and supported. (and.. btw? I love my Surface Book!)
That?s all from me. Back to quality time with my family, well, and thinking about the (still-obviously-so-entertaining) question of what I could do next with my hair?

 

[Ian_Superfly]

If he and Microsoft has not deeply analyzed the iPhone and the rest of the competition before it is no wonder they are failing...

I?ve been in the car industry and I know that they make sure that any interesting new model by the competition is bought, deeply tested and then stripped into pieces to check and learn EVERYTHING.

I call his answer pure Bull ****!

 

[Roderick Zijp]

Joe Belfiore should use Windows Phone while he's away to experience how awful it is at the moment.

 

[Darren Vitarana]

If we're to give Joe the benefit of doubt and assume his reasoning is true, i think in the interests of continuing to be frank and honest, he should tell us exactly - in a no holds barred manner - what he really thinks of the iphone/iOS/OSX and android experiences and compare to the W10m/W10 experience. What do each do well? Where does he think W10/W10m needs to be improved and where does it excel? IS there anything he reckons has been overlooked and needs adding to the W10m product backlog?

Also can he hand on heart say he feels proud of the work being done at MS on W10m and that they have a chance to make a dent in the mobile marketplace?

IMHO there is nothing wrong with using a competitor device, anyone in his position would do so but he must understand the PR disaster that would ensue from so publicly using a device in a personal manner. He should do what everyone else does and set up some fake accounts and upload generic non-identifying pictures if he wanted to experience the end to end journey of using an iphone/android/whatever, but as long as youre one of the figureheads of MS Mobile then you should rep your brand.

 

[noobchief]

Joe Belfiore should use Windows Phone while he's away to experience how awful it is at the moment.

Maybe Joe Belfiore knew Windows 10 Mobile was so bad he cannot even bring it out with him

 

[Giddora]

Okay... I have officially given up on this community... I'm sorry... But it's the people in this community that drives newcomers away... Not the products. Jealous children.

Thank you all for the years, out.

 

[mariusmuntean]

Wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Not caring how the users are suffering from your own product. Not making your product the best and giving away the best of your product to the other platform. Lack of great hardware. Not being able to attract developer attention because your product sucks and goes through continual reboots is what is hurting the platform.

The WP8 on the 1520 was the closest they ever got to getting it right, even with the items WP8 was lacking and the phantom touch of the 1520.

Its that lack of a hardware upgrade path (for YEARS), the "coming soon" that never comes, and a OS DOWNGRADE that put an iPhone in my pocket.

NOW I have the BEST of MS, and it's on a iPhone.

Yep, Windows 10 Mobile is a huge downgrade from 8.1 in so many aspects, not all, but most of them.

 

[mariusmuntean]

Good for him in evaluating the competition. Makes total sense to me.
But that choice of hair color: that's a smidge disturbing.

Total sense? You mean after years of the iphone being sold, he does not know the competition and during his extended holiday he thinks of checking it out? ))) Phalease...how can you believe that??

 

[Spectrum90]

A really poor job how? If it wasn't for WP7 and 8 I wouldn't have given a crap about WP at all. NOT AT ALL. The problem was the lack of marketing and the lack of motivation from MS in getting this amazing OS out there. Now with W10M we can't even brag about having a rock solid OS with a great UI. A half-baked OS with a wannabe UI and an even shakier future isn't exciting anyone

These guys didn't foresee the smartphone would become the most important computing device for most people. They designed a companion device for the PC, a limited product closer to a feature phone. Besides, wp7 and wp8 have huge usability problems and a boring desing.

Microsoft had a big opportunity to enter the smartphone market, Belfiore and his team just blew it.