Disheartened by lack of support and this is what I do/did so far for Windows Phone

[bawboh86]

I fear we are still far away from that point. Lumia sales volume was sufficient to keep Nokia's head above water in Q4 2012. Keeping their heads above water during Q1 2013 will require yet more Lumia sales, as Symbian continues to dwindle. Those sales are good enough for Nokia, but still nowhere near where WP needs to be.

Better 3rd party platform support will likely require at least four to five times the sales Nokia reported for Q4 (assuming Nokia's market share of WP device sales remains constant).

What about the other WP devices? We still haven't heard from HTC or Samsung on how their sales are going.

 

[Residing]

I was on my people hub and saw a posting by Laridian makers of the pocket bible for windows mobile and iPhone and palm os bible apps and they are wanting beta testers for pocket bible for windows phone. I am very very excited about this development I haver been asking them repeatednly about this and its in the tube.

Good news! There is another Bible App that I had on my N8, and I e-mailed the developer who is planning on developing for WP, but can't right now due to a tiny addition to their family . It's called MeeBible - super extensive with many translations. And free with no ads.

I found the Laridian FB page, and clicked on their link to the beta - Lol! It's a Google group and you need a Google id. I went ahead and signed up since I had an old YouTube account. We'll see how things go.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I put my lumia on h&m counter while paying for my sweater and a staff member called another showing him "this is lumia" - people are noticing it

 

[irvin792]

I had my phone out at Starbucks and I heard people talking "that's the new Lumia windows phone, pretty sick looking"

 

[robmif76]

I had my phone out at Starbucks and I heard people talking "that's the new Lumia windows phone, pretty sick looking"

I put my lumia on h&m counter while paying for my sweater and a staff member called another showing him "this is lumia" - people are noticing it

If people are so dying to see "a lumia" why don't they just go to a phone shop?!?! or are they meant to be an indicator of all the great things that are coming on to WP?

 

[a5cent]

What about the other WP devices? We still haven't heard from HTC or Samsung on how their sales are going.

At this time nobody has hard numbers. All we have are "guestimations", which seem to indicate that Nokia sold about four times as many WP devices as all the other OEM's combined. Those extra sales don't make WP's situation notably better. Neither in terms of market share nor in developer interest. I suspect China and India are the only markets that can really help WP gain market share, but WP8 has barely started selling in there. Wait and see...

 

[irvin792]

If people are so dying to see "a lumia" why don't they just go to a phone shop?!?! or are they meant to be an indicator of all the great things that are coming on to WP?

I don't think they were dying to see one, the guy was just talking to his friend saying like "hey there is that new windows phone , it looks pretty sweet"

 

[VisceralMonkey]

This entire topic is ridiculous. If you have to start a campaign to get developers to write apps for your product, it's a failure, pure and simple. Don't beg. the product has to generate the interest itself.

 

[rockstarzzz]

This entire topic is ridiculous. If you have to start a campaign to get developers to write apps for your product, it's a failure, pure and simple. Don't beg. the product has to generate the interest itself.

I hope you voted for the 4th option.

 

[Chregu]

This entire topic is ridiculous. If you have to start a campaign to get developers to write apps for your product, it's a failure, pure and simple. Don't beg. the product has to generate the interest itself.

I wouldn't go that far. If it helps to make a developer publishing an app, it was definitely worth the try.

Personally I just don't know if this ever happened, and I also think having bought 4 Windows Phone devices since release is enough effort from my side.

 

[cckgz4]

I understand the disappointment. I'm watching from a distant but I had to adopt a phone that could keep up with my needs in life, and right now windows isn't there yet. I'm sure it will get there though

 

[VisceralMonkey]

"I hope you voted for the 4th option. "

Of course.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

I fear we are still far away from that point. Lumia sales volume was sufficient to keep Nokia's head above water in Q4 2012. Keeping their heads above water during Q1 2013 will require yet more Lumia sales, as Symbian continues to dwindle. Those sales are good enough for Nokia, but still nowhere near where WP needs to be.

Better 3rd party platform support will likely require at least four to five times the sales Nokia reported for Q4 (assuming Nokia's market share of WP device sales remains constant).

Sometimes, I feel like people forget key facts:
1. The WP8 Lumias and the Lumia 510 have only been released in select markets.
2. The Lumia 620 has not been released yet.
3. Symbian has likely found its own little niche in the form of the 808 PureView, the C5-00, and the N8
4. I plan on buying the Lumia 920 when it comes out in the Philippines.
5. Tomi Ahonen is wrong.
6. WP7 devices will truly be on firesale this Q1 (however bad that is for ASP)

Though, Nokia lacks ONE thing.
Its massive legion of Symbian/MeeGo fans.

 

[a5cent]

Sometimes, I feel like people forget key facts.

I doubt people are forgetting any of those key facts.

Many of the people on this site were Nokia nihilists but three months ago. That has changed entirely. Nokia isn't out of the woods yet, but I believe 2013 will be the year that changes.

However, Nokia's financials and sales numbers aren't a direct indicator of whether or not a large enough market exists to make app development worthwhile. That these things are unrelated is the core of my message. WP8 likely made up less than 3% of sales marketshare for two months... that install base isn't yet going to attract developers. WP will get there... eventually.

 

[Mafiatounes]

The preliminary numbers are also based on Q4, Nokia started to sell in November in a few markets with limited supply, Q1 will show how well WP8 is doing since now there are bigger markets (China, India) involved and supply is getting better. Hopefully more big apps/games will come to WP8 and i know WP8 is a hit everyone is buying or considering to buy in my surroundings (Belgium, Netherlands and Germany is where i work) and everywhere i look someone is holding a WP8 device most of the times 8x and 920.

 

[rockstarzzz]

The app numbers haven't changed since Oct. They said 125,000 apps during launches and even yesterday they said 125,000 in CES.

Does this mean that those efforts to grab devs haven't been enough? Or Microsoft simply doesn't try anymore? Maybe with WP7 they needed to build the following. Now they think, "ecosystem" will slowly sell itself?

 

[a5cent]

Does this mean that those efforts to grab devs haven't been enough? Or Microsoft simply doesn't try anymore?

Microsoft has sponsored the development of hundreds of apps, which resulted in a lot of apps that aren't up to par with their iOS and Android counterparts. I don't know how much of this continues, but certainly much less than 9 months ago. I believe Microsoft is correct to abandon this approach. I agree with the monkey, that the platform must sell itself. You can't force people to develop great apps for WP, if their bread and butter is earned on iOS or Android. The market doesn't work that way.

WP must turn the dynamic around. Instead of constantly trying to catch up with the competitions app count, WP needs a lot of its own highly desirable exclusives, particularly games. Many will not care if WP has 400'000 fewer apps, if the best games are exclusive to WP. Unfortunately, this isn't going to happen for WP8 as I once hoped. Games will come, but only ones with which to catch up... somewhat... not the desirable exclusives with wich to pull ahead. That task has been placed on WP9's shoulders.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Microsoft has sponsored the development of hundreds of apps, which resulted in a lot of apps that aren't up to par with their iOS and Android counterparts. I don't know how much of this continues, but certainly much less than 9 months ago. I believe Microsoft is correct to abandon this approach. I agree with the monkey, that the platform must sell itself. You can't force people to develop great apps for WP, if their bread and butter is earned on iOS or Android. The market doesn't work that way.

WP must turn the dynamic around. Instead of constantly trying to catch up with the competitions app count, WP needs a lot of its own highly desirable exclusives, particularly games. Many will not care if WP has 400'000 fewer apps, if the best games are exclusive to WP. Unfortunately, this isn't going to happen for WP8 as I once hoped. Games will come, but only ones with which to catch up... somewhat... not the desirable exclusives with wich to pull ahead. That task has been placed on WP9's shoulders.

Maybe you are right. Looking at the enthusiasm of WPCentral members towards WP, I was hoping the poll results to be much different. But 50% thinks that once they've paid for there phone, they don't really need to do anything more even if they are disappointed with WP! Are dimensions of our community here changing? Last year this time around we had threads on sharing ideas about how we show off our WPs.

 

[mayne222]

Right now I can't even find a simple news reader service that can sync between my Surface and WP.

Just a suggestion for you, I use NextGen Reader on my Lumia 920 and there is a nice metro app for my W8 desktop.

 

[a5cent]

Maybe you are right. Looking at the enthusiasm of WPCentral members towards WP, I was hoping the poll results to be much different. But 50% thinks that once they've paid for there phone, they don't really need to do anything more even if they are disappointed with WP! Are dimensions of our community here changing? Last year this time around we had threads on sharing ideas about how we show off our WPs.

Yes, I think the community is changing. Although WPC certainly gains new active WP supporters every day, activists now represent a much smaller portion of the entire WPC member pie.

Assuming existing activists don't just vanish into thin air, I imagine this is a good thing.

Anyway, WP activists are just as necessary as they ever were, but right at this moment, the most important thing we can do is continue to educate people as to what WP is, and under what circumstances a WP device may be a better choice than iOS or Android. Help grow the user base, and the rest will sort itself out.