Poll - Are tech reviewers Prima Donnas?

[tbeagl]

Yeah, I want WP7 to succeed but it's sort of difficult to imagine how that happens when Android gains more market share in a few months than WP7 has total. It's not at all clear to me how WP7 succeeds given the current market. But competition is good.

they actually include windows mobile so the decline is on that part. But I wouldn't expect you to notice that

 

[bobsentell]

Personal experience: Android users are nerds. iPhone users are women.

Again, that is just what I have personally seen. Perhaps the rest will find a home with WP.

 

[tekhna]

they actually include windows mobile so the decline is on that part. But I wouldn't expect you to notice that

I don't see any indication one way or another that WM is included or not. But maybe you know something I don't.

The phrasing here would indicate that it's just WP7 in that bracket, "Microsoft?s Windows Phone dropped 1 percent to from 5.4 percent to 4.4 percent between October and January, but hit another major snag as it dropped to 3.9 percent between November and February."

comScore: RIM, Microsoft face mobile market share crisis | ZDNet

Frankly I'd be shocked if WP7 were ever at 5.4% marketshare, so it makes sense that they lumped WM 6.5, although why they didn't break that out is less than clear. Also, when was the last WM phone released? 2009? Who on earth is still using their WM phone?

 

[bobsentell]

Frankly I'd be shocked if WP7 were ever at 5.4% marketshare, so it makes sense that they lumped WM 6.5, although why they didn't break that out is less than clear. Also, when was the last WM phone released? 2009? Who on earth is still using their WM phone?

Live Search used to be a gutter dweller but now Bing alone has a 15% share. And that's not counting Yahoo which is powered by Bing.

In other words, Microsoft has been here before.

 

[Gaiking]

"Microsoft’s Windows Phone dropped 1 percent to from 5.4 percent to 4.4 percent between October and January, but hit another major snag as it dropped to 3.9 percent between November and February."


This is all about to change.

 

[bobsentell]

"Microsoft’s Windows Phone dropped 1 percent to from 5.4 percent to 4.4 percent between October and January, but hit another major snag as it dropped to 3.9 percent between November and February."


This is all about to change.

All that shrank was their market share. What these same people fail to point out is the smartphone market as a whole grew. Yes, Microsoft had a smaller share of the growth, but that doesn't mean they aren't selling.

But I agree. The Lumia 900 will change that.

 

[Adiliyo]

i agree with many comments on here, namely, with a successful push from at&t, nokia, and msft with the lumia 900 the platform can gain some foothold in the minds of potential new smartphone customers, ones who aren't happy with their android phones, blackberrys, and the few who don't like their iphone (while personally, i can't stand using an iphone because of the dated OS design and tiny screen, one has to admit, and most people who get an iphone are going to keep using one).

if the lumia launch does as well as wp fans hope, i'm sure msft will also have an easier time getting AAA developers to start porting apps over quicker than they have been doing since they'll start to see the demand in a rising market.

and i wholeheartedly agree that sales reps can make or break a phone, especially one that is new, different, and doesn't already have a massive amount of marketing money or buzz around it to where people come in asking for it specifically. This is especially true to first time smartphone buyers who don't know exactly what they want. unless they're techy, they assume whatever the rep tells them is the gospel and that's how many first time users were suckered into the crapfest of the droid eris, the moto atrix, any various other bottom of the barrel android handsets.

to end my rambling, yes many tech reviewers don't write with the casual user in mind, they write for the geeks and nerds (us) who actually go to their sites, susie iphone isn't going to the verge or engadget to find her next phone, so why would they write with her in mind?

personally i don't use the reviewers opinion to base what i want for my next device, (ie josh's problems with the WP ecosystem, i know what it can and can't do, and for me, it's fairly good and more importantly, it's still getting better) i read reviews to see the pictures, and to see if they find any general show stopping quirks with the hardware, and then i make up my mind based on how various reviews speak to the things i need my phone to do for me.

 

[krayziehustler]

"Microsoft?s Windows Phone dropped 1 percent to from 5.4 percent to 4.4 percent between October and January, but hit another major snag as it dropped to 3.9 percent between November and February."


This is all about to change.

I believe most stats combine WM with WP, so as peoples Windows Mobile devices die and people upgrade and move on, the market share will drop.

For all we know WP came up 1% percent and WM drops 2% then we will have a net loss of 1% even though WP went up.

I can't wait for ALL WM devices to die their slow painful death lol

 

[Judge_Daniel]

I'm going to shift the convo away from market share (I've seen this topic in too many threads, lol) and bring up PPI.

Is PPI that big of a deal? I am pretty sure that when I look at my friend's 4S and then look at my phone, I don't notice any difference in pixilation. I have seen it in many reviews of the L900 as a negative aspect of the phone, but when I played with the phone in a store, I didn't notice tiny pixels, but the bright, beautiful screen. I think "going by the numbers" is what bothers me most about tech reviewers.

 

[ejb222]

I can't believe how ignorant most people are when it comes to things like this. Nobody gives any honest objective reviews because they don't objectively work with the product. I downloaded the Win8 comsumer preview on my PC and l love it....but it's amazing to see how many people bash it and say it's worse than Vista without ever trying it. It really pisses me off. And I mean, I would slap someone silly, pisses me off.

 

[ejb222]

Reality is if no one ever knew what hardware was in a phone Android would be dead...period. And could you really tell the difference in 720p and 1080p video on a 4inch screen? Maybe, but doubtful, you would notice on a PC monitor. But the WP experience(smoothness, responsiveness) is equal to what Android SHOULD be on 4 cores. I'd rather drive a 1.8T VW than a 400hp Commercial bus anyway.

 

[AndreaCristiano]

Reality is if no one ever knew what hardware was in a phone Android would be dead...period. And could you really tell the difference in 720p and 1080p video on a 4inch screen? Maybe, but doubtful, you would notice on a PC monitor. But the WP experience(smoothness, responsiveness) is equal to what Android SHOULD be on 4 cores. I'd rather drive a 1.8T VW than a 400hp Commercial bus anyway.

Very good analogy

 

[Adiliyo]

I'm going to shift the convo away from market share (I've seen this topic in too many threads, lol) and bring up PPI.

Is PPI that big of a deal? I am pretty sure that when I look at my friend's 4S and then look at my phone, I don't notice any difference in pixilation. I have seen it in many reviews of the L900 as a negative aspect of the phone, but when I played with the phone in a store, I didn't notice tiny pixels, but the bright, beautiful screen. I think "going by the numbers" is what bothers me most about tech reviewers.

personally, i find the focus s i had to be equal in general use quality to my gnex or the galaxy note.

while the ppi is lower, unless you're doing weird stuff like trying to look at a web page completely zoomed out or other various tasks that are not really real world use but rather ones to showcase the "terrible" ppi of large wvga devices ppi is not a big deal at all.

personally, i feel like windows phone really makes great use of the screens with the metro UI, and to see it on an rgb based amoled is pretty stellar, regardless of the "low" ppi. the relatively low resolution also allows the phone to remain snappy in use with the low power soc's that gen1/2 windows phones are running.


most of the issues reviewers have with it is that it's not the latest and greatest in the endless spec wars, but i honestly don't see much (if any) real benefit from these tiny high res panels, even something like the new ipad, i really didn't see the benefit of the retina display over the low res one in my ipad2, personally i would have rather had something in the 720p range at most so that the new SOC they have on it wouldn't be using all the extra power to just run graphics at the crazy useless resolution.

 

[cj-m]

Here are two more?just read to compare

Review: Hands-on with the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone | Fox News

vs

Brier Dudley's Blog | Nokia Lumia 900 review: A sleek contender | Seattle Times Newspaper

Honestly, the Fox reviewer seems to have scribbled their review out at the last moment before submitting it.

 

[AndreaCristiano]

Here are two more?just read to compare

Review: Hands-on with the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone | Fox News

vs

Brier Dudley's Blog | Nokia Lumia 900 review: A sleek contender | Seattle Times Newspaper

Honestly, the Fox reviewer seems to have scribbled their review out at the last moment before submitting it.

I like foxnews but clayton morris has shown himself to be an iphone lover. Although his review is ok

 

[cckgz4]

I don't think they're prima donnas BUT I think they need to revisit some of their pre-Android reviews and realize that they don't hit any necessary key points in these vague *** reviews anymore. First they spend 5-6 minutes flipping the phone over and over, back and front, describing how NICE it is and pointing out where the camera and volume rocker is. Then they RACE through the home screen and app menu and type in how the quick brown fox ate potato soup in the text menu. That's it for part 1. Part two consist of a browser test on their native site, a few camera shots, and ridiculous data/cpu speed tests. Then more flipping and flopping of the phone saying how they like this phone better than the previous phone that was released a month or so ago, and repeat that cycle when the next device is released. Personally I'm SICK of it. There used to be an introduction and UI video, a messaging and apps video, and then a browser and camera test in three separate videos. Bring those days back, PLEASE.

 

[Adiliyo]

they really do write reviews with no regard for someone who is actually unsure of whatever phone they're reviewing.

it's like they're written for us tech geeks who already know quite a bit about the stuff they gloss over, but just want to see the new hardware and how it performs a few tasks.

while it's generally fine for us to get a jist of the new hardware, it's in general really poor journalism.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I'm going to shift the convo away from market share (I've seen this topic in too many threads, lol) and bring up PPI.

Is PPI that big of a deal? I am pretty sure that when I look at my friend's 4S and then look at my phone, I don't notice any difference in pixilation. I have seen it in many reviews of the L900 as a negative aspect of the phone, but when I played with the phone in a store, I didn't notice tiny pixels, but the bright, beautiful screen. I think "going by the numbers" is what bothers me most about tech reviewers.

To me it isn't, but to some consumers, it might be. I'm pretty satisfied with my Titan's screen even though it's barely 200 PPI. Although the images and text on the screen doesn't appear to be silky smooth like on the Retina display, at a normal viewing distance, I don't really see any pixelation on my Titan. For the average consumer though, I feel like a screen with over 300 PPI is just one of those things that they didn't know they needed until Apple told them they needed it.

 

[quek9]

By the way, support for my claim that many people weren't happy with Android is both anecdotal and proven by stats. In my own family, everyone with an Android has gotten rid of them except for my dad, and he's waiting for something else (but is on Verizon).

As for the stats, Apple overtook the top sales spots and for Q4 2011, the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS were the top selling handsets in the US respectively and Android lost marketshare to iOS. Only at 4th place does an Android device show up (Galaxy S 2). Add in the fact that HTC started to do poorly financially after several quarters of stellar growth and performance, and it's clear that the Android honeymoon period experienced by the industry is grinding to a halt. Currently, only Samsung is showing any real health in its business with Android. Motorola was bought by Google, HTC had to "quietly reinvent" itself and the rest of them (LG, Huawei, etc) are barely blips on the radar.

I, for one, welcome Android's fall from grace, but that's largely because of my entirely irrational hatred of all things Google right now (ok, it's not ENTIRELY irrational--I think they have become evil and arrogant).

I concur with this post 100%.