The Future of Windows Phone...

[Bballbenb]

Now before I start my rant, I am not trying to flame windows phone. I own one and love it and wish to see the brand succeed. I am slightly worried about the future though. So many articles out there saying it wont survive, first sales have been bad, nothing will overcome apple and google, etc. One person I really respect and enjoy reading from is Robert Scoble. HE generally has a pretty unbiased opionon on technoglogy. Here is what he has to say about windows phone on his blog.

Oh, Charlie, you should have been here for Christmas

some quotes i thought were interesting from him...

One thing I learned working the counter at several Silicon Valley consumer electronics stores is that there?s only one thing people really care about when it comes to buying things:

Not looking stupid.

Now, let?s look at the ads on TV right now. There?s all sorts of people saying to get their app, including the local TV news departments. Do they talk about Android? Yes, of course. iOS? Of course! Windows Phone 7? **** no. RIM/Blackberry? I haven?t heard that in an app advertisement in, well, forever.

So, when a consumer goes into a carrier store to buy a new phone, what is going on in the back of her/his head?

Android=safe.
iOS/iPhone=safe.
Everything else=not safe.


He goes into more about how windows phone is not safe yet for developers. So HOW exactly does windows phone change this? How does it become safe?



My next concearn about Microsoft and windows phone is the lack of integration on products. When i look at google I am very impressed I wont lie. They have Google Chrome, search, Google plus, Google books, A marketplace which contains mp3, books, videos, Gmail, and so many more things that are "google". They do a GREAT job of integrating all of this together.

Yes microsoft has most of that except for books, but I think they lack in the integration department. I asked a family member of mine of what companies make Zune, Xbox, and Bing, and they only knew xbox was microsoft. I think Microsoft needs to somehow integrate these all into each other more than what they have now. It is not very well known that all of these are microsoft products. I am not sure how, it might just be advertising.

Also, I think it would be great if Zune added a books department for when Microsoft makes tablets.

I hope 2012 can be a better year for Microsoft. They have a chance with windows 8 but MUST get it right. Tablets will be hard to sell at first, they need to come up with a low cost, effiecient model for busineses I think to sell well.

Whats everyones thoughts?

 

[cedarlog]

there is nothing safe in smartphone market take RIM for example or symbian
windows phone will get what it deserve once people realize how good its really is

i believe people like to change their smartphone OS a lot
symbian was top one
then Blackberry
then iphone
then android
then ..........
its just a matter of time nothing else

 

[mhans311]

The problem I see is that many people are NOT going to want to change their OS because of what they have already invested money in that platform in apps and things like that. The good thing is that there are many people moving from dumb phones to smartphones. I think that is what Microsoft should focus on. They need to get them before they become too far invested in another platform.

Sent from my mwp6985 using Board Express

 

[Bballbenb]

Mhans311, thats a great point. I am totally on par with that. I think thats why amazon has had a great success with the Kindle Fire. So many people bought kindle books and those cost money and now could be used on the fire. Microsoft needs to use there biggest seller, Xbox, to get more people to the phone too. They need to make somehow a Windows phone be a huge perk to owning a xbox.

 

[fogel35]

Mhans311, thats a great point. I am totally on par with that. I think thats why amazon has had a great success with the Kindle Fire. So many people bought kindle books and those cost money and now could be used on the fire. Microsoft needs to use there biggest seller, Xbox, to get more people to the phone too. They need to make somehow a Windows phone be a huge perk to owning a xbox.

xbox is one way to get people invested into windows phone but I wouldn't discount applications and brand name. I have two xbox 360's in my house and it being on WP7 is nice but not a deal maker.

The only thing that is going to make my decision to jump from android to WP7 is some applications I am going to miss. DropBox, Time Warner Cable app, google voice visual voicemail, and a great google chat client. Did I also mention I am concerned about the lack of always on wifi sleep policy and something as stupid as a LED notification light.

The brand name of Windows Phone has been truly tainted by it's Windows Mobile predecessor. I know a couple of people that would not even consider Windows Phone because they used to hate their Windows Mobile phones. Even though WP7 is not even remotely close to it people still have that soft reset button stuck in their heads. Branding it MetroOS would have probably removed the poor brand image their old phone OS had.

Microsoft would not be so stupid to abandon the mobile phone business. They have a great start and it just needs more maturity which comes with time.

 

[Reflexx]

Integration if MS products should improve in the future since the handcuffs that were placed on them due to the antitrust settlement has finally expired. 10 yrs was an eternity in the tech world. And that whole time they were specifically not allowed deep integration with any of their products with Windows.

I do think MS should leverage XBOX more. But not through just linking information, but by adding some sort of special functionality that just makes it super awesome. It would be neat to have a whole XBOX LIVE that is tailored for mobile multiplayer gaming. Even if real time gaming required WiFi. Also, MS first party games should always have some extra beat functionality that is available for free on Windows Phone. Like they have with Halo. Avid gamers will eventually see the value of getting it for free as opposed to paying for it with iOS or Android. It would also be nice if there is also some extra stuff in it that is exclusive to Windows Phone. I think things like comics setting up the game's story would be awesome to use in that manner.

As for the Windows brand name... I'm sort of partial to LIVE OS myself.