Is Microsoft working too slow with Windows Phone..?

[vinayscxbox]

Okay. Microsoft is well aware of the iOS 8 and Android L that were announced recently. They are a big leap forward, when compared to WP. There are a hell lot of feature requests, sitting on the WindowsPhone UserVoice page. And Microsoft is very slowly fulfilling them. Just to give a Start Screen Background, it took almost 2 years. And I think by the time most of the UserVoice's features are included in Windows Phone, it will be easy too too late. WTF is the Windows Phone team so slow. Instead of adding some 100 features and releasing a new version at once, why can't it add some 10 features in each update, and release some 10 updates. This way, it can keep the Windows Phone users attached to the OS ecosystem...

 

[fiveaces01]

I think slow would be an understatement. The entire U.S. (with the exception of those of us with the preview) is still waiting on 8.1. They continually refer to the Microsoft ecosystem...yet the 8.1 for my PC came out 8 months ago. In this age of technology that is mind numbingly slow. At this rate I don't see the commitment to WP that is necessary for it to succeed. I hear naysayers refer to the speed of the iOS updates and also the Android updates...however those companies aren't sitting on a 4% marketshare. If MS doesn't start to become much more aggressive in both their releases and their marketing ...failure looks like a real possibility..

 

[houkoholic]

I'm not seeing the leaps and bounds features in iOS 8 and L. Actually the reverse is true - I'm seeing a lot of gimmicks - neat gimmicks to be certain - but still gimmicks which has no baring on the daily usage by average Joes. What I'm seeing is that both OSes has reach the glass ceiling of the ability to introduce useful features - just like feature phones about 7 years ago, and this is why the industry is blowing so much hot air into the wearable balloon and hoping that sector takes off so they don't have to bash their heads in trying to improve and innovate the smartphone platform.

Focusing on adding extra features - thus complexity - is not going to make the WP platform more enticing except to tech heads, just like them hap hazardly adding terrible WAP browsers and Java applets to feature phones didn't make them more attractive. MS needs something else disruptive on their platform instead of just feature matching their competitors, something that reinvents the experience, perhaps even sacraficing features to achieve it - much like what the iPhone did to the original Palm/WinMo/PDA phone markets as iPhones sacraficed many many features for a much better UX for the average people. Could this be the 3D gestures which would fundimentally change how people interact with their smartphones like touch screens did? Perhaps - I don't know and I can't say, but I don't believe adding features at a faster pace is the way forward anymore as the OS bits is now pretty much "good enough" that the average people are forgetting about them.

 

[SnailUK]

If MS doesn't start to become much more aggressive in both their releases and their marketing ...failure looks like a real possibility..

Why do you think the developer program exists?

4% means they get no effort from the telephone companies, and that is why its so slow, and that's something Microsoft can't do anything about.. How many months have "developers" had 8.1? And even once 8.1 officially starts rolling out, how many telcos will still not bother putting out the updates?

Lets also not forget, in 8.1, Microsoft have ripped a ton of apps (Xbox music, video, etc) out of the OS, and made them apps, so they can be updated more often.

Google also have exactly the same problem with telcos, and like Microsoft they are ripping everything possible out of the OS and making them apps, so they can be updated as and when they like.

 

[houkoholic]

Also I think the app situation is more of the contribution than anything else MS is doing. As long as WP Store doesn't become that third icon you see on that funky new app advertising posters or magazine spread besides Google Play and iTunes Store, then no amount of feature updates MS does will help marketshare. And how to solve that problem I have no freaking idea as pretty much everything MS has done from dev programs to throwing money to even offering to make the apps for the dev didn't help.

 

[tgp]

I'm not seeing the leaps and bounds features in iOS 8 and L. Actually the reverse is true - I'm seeing a lot of gimmicks - neat gimmicks to be certain - but still gimmicks which has no baring on the daily usage by average Joes.

Apple and Google have systems that are already established and mature. iOS and Android are both quite feature-rich, and development from here on out is for the most part coming up with new concepts, which we might call innovation. Microsoft is operating in panic mode, trying to play catch up. It has a lot more room to grow, since there's a lot missing that's already on the market. Yes, WP is adding features at a breakneck pace, but they're behind trying to close the gap, not leaping ahead. WP is adding very little that iOS & Android haven't had for years.

 

[12Danny123]

Apple and Google have systems that are already established and mature. iOS and Android are both quite feature-rich, and development from here on out is for the most part coming up with new concepts, which we might call innovation. Microsoft is operating in panic mode, trying to play catch up. It has a lot more room to grow, since there's a lot missing that's already on the market. Yes, WP is adding features at a breakneck pace, but they're behind trying to close the gap, not leaping ahead. WP is adding very little that iOS & Android haven't had for years.

I do wonder what Metro 2.0 will look like. Apparently the person that is leading the design change for Windows 9 and WP9 is the same person who designed the UI for WP and Zune OS

 

[Saiyyad Musharrif]

Not at all in last two years Microsoft is making windows phone much better than droid

 

[houkoholic]

Apple and Google have systems that are already established and mature. iOS and Android are both quite feature-rich, and development from here on out is for the most part coming up with new concepts, which we might call innovation. Microsoft is operating in panic mode, trying to play catch up. It has a lot more room to grow, since there's a lot missing that's already on the market. Yes, WP is adding features at a breakneck pace, but they're behind trying to close the gap, not leaping ahead. WP is adding very little that iOS & Android haven't had for years.

Again, those "features" are only cared for by geeks. Your average person really don't care about how Apple just released a new language to develop better games - what matters is that the devs will use it to make the latest games which the journalists will hype it to the sky or that their BFF is playing it on their iPhone when others can't. I'm not even seeing pure Apple people getting excited about the hand over technology between iOS and OSX. Rather I'm seeing more people getting excited that iPhone 6 is getting a bigger screen. You average joe worries about much more down to earth things than tech - geeks really don't understand this very well and is barking up the wrong tree. MS is losing mind share because of things like it doesn't get the same big name apps on the release day as iOS and Android, that's the part of the "ecosystem" they are losing out on, not because it is missing Bluetooth 4.0 LE profiles or whatever. It really doesn't matter how fast MS adds features to Windows Phone as the core is already good enough for the majority of the people who uses smartphones (which really isn't so far out from playing a the latest fad games, sending text and browsing, really, just look at the usage statistics), what matters is how MS can win developer support so they get very fast apps released for them by third parties, but that's not something they can easily control. Again, until you see the MS Store logo right next to Play Store and iTunes Store on the latest blockbuster app advertising, then WP is irrelevant no matter how many features it has or how it has leap frogged the competition in its technology. This is purely a marketing and mind share issue, not that of a technical one.

For an analogy you can look at how Linux was much more feature rich than Windows was and see what this is about. Windows won because of the fact it had apps people need, not because it was the best featured OS.

 

[Ivan Karpov]

A little bit slow, but only with updates.

 

[Cabo Blue]

I'm just wondering out loud here....

Should MS & the WP Team consider having a BIG convention, like in Las Vegas at that city's convention center,
A convention to bring together developers, MS & WP Team members to share, exchange, and possibly attack this WP OS & APP system front stage and cross-promote ideas towards successful solutions?