I tried for you Microsoft...just couldn't sustain it :(

[dby2011]

Here's my story: My the 13 year old daughter in 8th grade wanted a smartphone- "all her friends have one" and her 8gb iPod 4th gen was already a few years old and not working correctly. I had a HTC Trophy Windows 7 phone when it came out and then got a Lumia 822. I am a big fan of Windows Phone. I refused to buy a $600-$700 smartphone for a 13 year old on a 2 year contract. I researched and got her a Lumia 521 for $80.00 from HSN and signed her up for the $30.00 plan from T-Mobile- great deal!. She was actually very happy for a while. Then a few months in she was complaining about duplicate photos and her music suddenly disappearing. I had to reformat her sdcard and do a hard reset to fix that issue. It actually happened a few times until I learned a hard reset was needed to really fix it. Lumia Black came out and things were really good. She did day when wished she had a front camera and a flash. She was going on a trip to Washington DC and wanted to take a lot of pics. Up until this point she was very responsible with her phone and I figured I'd look at getting her a Lumia phone with a front camera. Ended up getting a Lumia 810 on ebay for $75.00. When I got it I put WP 8.1 dev preview on it and things were good to go. Well all her friends decided to stop texting and do everything on Kik. For those who don't know the Kik app on WP is old and no longer in development. It constantly crashes for her and occasionally she had to reinstall the app to get it to work. Also, she has the sound bug when sound will cut off on one side when she will get a notification while listening to music or watching videos. Only rebooting the phone will correct it. Despite updating her phone the bug still exists. Today, she came home from her second day of high school to learn the will be using Chrome books, Google apps and her French teacher told everyone not to buy a dictionary for class and she will be referring to an app instead that we found out is only on iOS or Android. Well....I tried. We will mostly likely get a iPhone now. I can't even use Office or Onedrive as a reason to stay since both are available for Apple. She really has no good reason to stay with Windows Phone 8.1 now. When her mother upgrades her IPhone 5 next month I'll be switching it to my daughter. So the main app she uses to communicate with all her friends is garbage on WP, she constantly has sound issues that has been a documented bug for a while now (who knows if it will get fixed but the 810 won't be getting the Cyan update despite the ability to put 8.1 dev preview on it), her school is using Google services and apps that are not available on WP, and services like Onedrive and Office are available for an iPhone. How does Microsoft expect me to stick it out with them? -especially when they offer services like Onedrive and Office outside Microsoft's ecosystem. I will still be sticking with Windows Phone but unfortunately I will be moving my daughter to Apple- I really tried for you Microsoft- sorry.

 

[chezm]

Fair assessment on your part, expect for:
Today, she came home from her second day of high school to learn the will be using Chrome books, Google apps and her French teacher told everyone not to buy a dictionary for class and she will be referring to an app instead that we found out is only on iOS or Android. Well....I tried. We will mostly likely get a iPhone now.

Wow, is this even possible? Sorry but that sounds somewhat illegal, basically they are telling YOU the PARENT you must have the app OR ELSE basically she could suffer in school. While i agree its crap WP doesnt have this app, i dont think this type of behavior should be accepted by parents whom dont have iOS/Android...or possibly even afford to buy their kids a Phone/Tablet.

 

[dby2011]

Kind of agree with you but the school is really trying to integrate wifi and cell devices in the classroom. They do have chrome books too for each student. We looked around today and we actually didn't go Apple. We stayed with T-mobile and got a newly released Samsung Galaxy Avant. Just spent an hour setting it up. What a great phone for $199, am very impressed with the performance and screen.

 

[chezm]

Its good you were able to allow her school not to suffer at a minor cost to you. While I don't have kids (so I don't know how school for youngers is these days), I still don't think it's acceptable to force parents to invest in electronics for kids at that young age, the school should provide all of it..but that's my opinion. But again, I'm not a parent so..

 

[switch side method]

I agree. I am a parent and if the school said that to me I will reply that they will have to fund the netbooks as I sure as hell won't. If they don't teach my daughter because I cant financially buy a chromebook I would sue the school for not adapting to pupils. They made the rule about chromebooks so they should supply it. Don't give in to them. I wouldn't

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Eh, why don't you buy a T100 (cheap little Windows tablet++ that could), and have your daughter prove that it will do the job just fine and pull off BYOD?

x86 Windows devices can run Chrome just fine

(Oops, misread the comment, I thought the school wasn't providing the Chromebooks)

 

[dby2011]

Our school provides chromebooks but you have to pay a $50.00 rental fee per year. I am certain if I approached the school they would accommodated me without getting a new cellphone but the school issues just added to the frustrations with WP for her and me. I was getting tired of hearing how she had no apps her friends had. I don't fault the school at all, they have been very good with BYOD at school and trying to utilize them since most kids have them. It was a culmination of things with Windows Phone that led to me switching for her. If it was just one app for school and no other problems then I would not have switched.