been a long-time supporter of the platform, started with a Samsung Focus, then had a Focus S, Lumia 900, Lumia 920, and upgraded this year to the 1020 and I love the hardware, I love the OS, but the apps and peripheral devices, or lack thereof is really killing this platform! lets start with the apps..
While all the major apps are on the platform (still waiting for minecraft & candy Crush, btw...), there are so many apps that I would use on a daily basis that just aren't there, and their 3rd party iterations are depressing. Map my Run & Map My Ride are horrible, don't work, have been abandoned by the developers. I am the parent of a competitive swimmer, and there is a great app called Meet Mobile on the other platforms, devs have NO plans on making a WP app. Other than Fitbit (which just got support for the platform) none of the other smartbands are compatible. I am holding out that the MS smartband is actually decent, BUT, if it uses Bing Health & Fitness as the core app, then I will throw my 1020 in the garbage. Bing health would be good, if it were user friendly. Adding an exercise to it, or got forbid tracking your daily eating is so cumbersome, its almost un-usable. MS needs to buy MyFitnessPal and call it Bing Health and Fitness, so much more user-friendly!
Xbox Music & Xbox Video, I have 2 words for you "Amazon Prime". Make your products walk and talk like Amazon prime or you will continue to lose marketshare, right now, these apps are barely usable. Imagine a flat rate for the "Xbox Marketplace" where you could stream music, watch the vast library of TV & movies, and here's a thought...add the B&N Nook account in for a reader/book store??? Why did they invest so much money with Barnes & Noble to turn around and do ZERO with the relationship??? How can you not expect to dump subscribers when you allow Amazon prime on the Xbox One? Imagine it, a single app that has music, video, books & magazines, and you pay a flat rate for all services? I would pay $100 a year for that, heck I pay $15 a month for a "barely decent" music service from MS. If Amazon Prime ever came to the Windows Phone, I would cancel my Xbox Music account immediately!
Like I said before, I like the OS, but what MS has done to make it better is ridiculous! The core services are so disconnected, and to be honest, the future looks so dismal with no flagship phone coming out for the holidays...its not looking very good for the platform anyway...I hope I am wrong.
I am looking at the Kindle Fire Phone as a serious replacement, and I don't even have a prime account with them...that's how disappointed I am in the platform. Cortana isn't enough to make me stay...im sick of not getting access to the services that Android & IOS get.
While all the major apps are on the platform (still waiting for minecraft & candy Crush, btw...), there are so many apps that I would use on a daily basis that just aren't there, and their 3rd party iterations are depressing. Map my Run & Map My Ride are horrible, don't work, have been abandoned by the developers. I am the parent of a competitive swimmer, and there is a great app called Meet Mobile on the other platforms, devs have NO plans on making a WP app. Other than Fitbit (which just got support for the platform) none of the other smartbands are compatible. I am holding out that the MS smartband is actually decent, BUT, if it uses Bing Health & Fitness as the core app, then I will throw my 1020 in the garbage. Bing health would be good, if it were user friendly. Adding an exercise to it, or got forbid tracking your daily eating is so cumbersome, its almost un-usable. MS needs to buy MyFitnessPal and call it Bing Health and Fitness, so much more user-friendly!
Xbox Music & Xbox Video, I have 2 words for you "Amazon Prime". Make your products walk and talk like Amazon prime or you will continue to lose marketshare, right now, these apps are barely usable. Imagine a flat rate for the "Xbox Marketplace" where you could stream music, watch the vast library of TV & movies, and here's a thought...add the B&N Nook account in for a reader/book store??? Why did they invest so much money with Barnes & Noble to turn around and do ZERO with the relationship??? How can you not expect to dump subscribers when you allow Amazon prime on the Xbox One? Imagine it, a single app that has music, video, books & magazines, and you pay a flat rate for all services? I would pay $100 a year for that, heck I pay $15 a month for a "barely decent" music service from MS. If Amazon Prime ever came to the Windows Phone, I would cancel my Xbox Music account immediately!
Like I said before, I like the OS, but what MS has done to make it better is ridiculous! The core services are so disconnected, and to be honest, the future looks so dismal with no flagship phone coming out for the holidays...its not looking very good for the platform anyway...I hope I am wrong.
I am looking at the Kindle Fire Phone as a serious replacement, and I don't even have a prime account with them...that's how disappointed I am in the platform. Cortana isn't enough to make me stay...im sick of not getting access to the services that Android & IOS get.