3 months later - WHERE ARE THE BIG APPS??

[paulm187]

Some on the inside want to see it fail?

No I didn't mean it like that, I meant with the lack of push from even within MS its as if they want to see it fail. WP success is very important to MS but the infighting is not always in Wps interest.

 

[bb1137]

i can see peoples points about how far behind wp8 is, but i got mine because i wanted something different form android i still have my htc sensation. but i now much prefer my 8x.

would i give up on my wp8 just because it hasnt got the same apps as apple and android no! the wp8 hasnt been going that long compared to apple and android so you have got to give it a chance for developers to get on the case.
did read that facebook is working on bring out an app for wp8.

 

[ikhfa]

Notification centre - Pin everything important to your start screen and set the screen timeout to never.

OS hangs? dont have issues on my 8x since portico.

So weve been promised a few apps that we havent got. I was promised a new bike for christmas when i was 8, never got it. Still love my parents though.

My phone was free at upgrade so I havent actually laid out any money and you can hardly call WP8 a failed product. Its missing a few things i will give you that, but what OS has everything?

I have yet to receive the Portico update.

The analogy about the parents and the bike seems odd. I bought the phone and I am sure no one bought their parents. So the comparison looks awkward at best.

As for the notification centre, in another thread, we can see how devs are frustrated with MS implementation of how things run too.

Apps? Someone said a year is too long a time and people would have jumped ship by then. 3 months now, that is 25% of a year.

Users are frustrated. Devs are equally frustrated. Many here are complaining. But we can't all be trolls can we?

 

[martinmc78]

I have yet to receive the Portico update.

The analogy about the parents and the bike seems odd. I bought the phone and I am sure no one bought their parents. So the comparison looks awkward at best.

As for the notification centre, in another thread, we can see how devs are frustrated with MS implementation of how things run too.

Apps? Someone said a year is too long a time and people would have jumped ship by then. 3 months now, that is 25% of a year.

Users are frustrated. Devs are equally frustrated. Many here are complaining. But we can't all be trolls can we?

OK will explain the analogy seeing as a couple of people didnt get it.
Analogy was more about broken promises than about me buying my phone or as you put it buying parents? It wasn't even in the same paragraph as me talking about getting my phone for free, so cant really understand how people are getting confused here.
Promised bike > didnt get it > still love parents. Promised apps > havent got them > still like microsoft.
Are we all clear on that now?

Notification centre. I use the phone the way MS intended it to be used and for me it works. I know others wont like it or use the phone the same way. If youve come from Android, Apple or BB your going to miss something that youve got used to. Devs will undoubtedly be frustrated by alot of things MS does and the way they have locked parts of the OS down.

Same goes for the Apps. I understand why people are getting frustrated, why devs are getting frustrated, I read alot of the threads and editorials on here and other sites. Ive already stated in a previous post that if you want all those apps bottom line is you will probably have to jump from WP8. I get by with what I have. I use the tools Ive got. There are things that WP8 cant do the bug the crap out of me, but theres things about android and ios that bug the crap out of me too hence me staying with WP8.

And no we cant all be trolls, some of us whine like little girls about every little thing while others get on with what theyve got and offer alternative solutions to the problems put in front of them.

 

[x I'm tc]

Even their own apps aren't working well.

I think this is the major grievance. If you are using a WP, it is because you prefer the MS ecosystem to those of their competitors, for whatever reason. MS has a lot of clout, and the WinRT environment will go a long way toward making apps appear on WP8, because they will be written for W8. But first, W8 has to earn significant market-share (which it will because it is Windows). However, in the meantime, MS should make sure their own stuff is working well. (Some of) the things on W8 that are fully under MS's control but are horrifically lacking are:

• The email client is an unusable mess (can't edit contents of emails before forwarding or replying; can't attach anything other than items on the camera roll; can't send or forward from a different account than the one received in; can't do simple text-editing like bolding, lists, etc.).
• PDF reader is an absolute joke, even after today's update. Worse, they had a poor-but-passable one in WP7.
• Skype works better, by far, on iOS and Android than it does on WP.
• PhotoSynth is where, exactly?
• Office can't edit Office binary files, only the newer XML formats. Theoretically forgivable except that on WP7, it could, until they took that feature away. And unfortunately, in the real world, a pretty large majority of the Office documents I encounter are still of the old variety. And furthermore, any document with any kind of special formatting (especially imported images) doesn't display properly or at all on WP.
• Remember when we used to have a way to manage music on our phone from our PCs? Gone. Remember when I could scrub through music tracks? Oh wait, that was on WM.
• Xbox Video's "three screens" promise? Two thirds of the way there...and guess which screen isn't working.
• Xbox games. Nothing more need be said about the sorry state of this property on WP.
• IE10 Mobile fails to work on so many Web sights. Some of these problems could be fixed by letting a user simply spoof the user agent, which we can't. Although, many of these same Web sites worked great on WP7 (like the essential nextbus.com).
• WP8 is a crash-prone, unstable mess.

What is sad is that many of these things are areas where WP has actually been going backwards. Indeed, with the exception of background GPS and support for better hardware, I can't really think of anything WP8 does better than WP7, and there are a whole lot of things it does a lot worse.

 

[iamtim]

I really feel sorry for Nokia. They make incredible phones yet they are partnered with a company who doesn't give two ****s about its phone OS ... I understand that WP8 is new and I never expected it to have most apps but for the actual OS maker to be so completely lazy with their platform...it's just mind boggling.

See... that's my point, though. We don't know if MS actually gives two ****s or not. We don't know if they're being completely lazy or not. They could be working their asses off, but something in their corporate culture drags things out. Maybe there were shortcuts taken in the OS which need to be fixed before the apps we all want work properly, and they have to fix those first. Maybe it's just a simple question of which WP issues get priority and which don't. Maybe the developers have to cut through 40 billion yards of red tape to get apps released.

I get your point, though. I love WP8 and my 820 - I think the device and the OS are just awesome - but it's currently sitting at home on my dresser where I use it as a WiFi-powered mini-tablet while I carry my iPhone 4S because of app and functionality issues.

Ultimately... we just don't know what's going on at MS so to assume laziness or disinterest seems more like a rage-gasm to me than anything else.

 

[Cosmin Reti]

Basically saying "we would love to have Instagram, but, Facebook refuses to allow us to build it"

Microsoft is behind Facebook in some way, money, influence I don't know, but you are very wrong saying that... Mapping system in Facebook is Microsoft Bing, talking and video uses Skype engine. Windows 8 pc doesn't have an facebook app because facebook is integrated in people hub, and I love it compare with sh** facebook app on my android tablet.
Microsoft office with Note and Outlook sync for calendar wich sync with facebook and twiter and linkedin is awesome, some of the big business in this world rely on on Outlook calendar and tasks and work and sync perfectly.
I have a tablet and a phone with android, compared to Windows 8 desktop, I had a windows phone 7, Android is a great toy gadget, that's all, it relies on 3rd party for simple things. I have an galaxy nexus wich come with original Google OS and it sucks big time, I had before HTC with SENSE and that is the best Android interface to date. My ******ed Phone can't send a simple sms with a contact attached, I had to install GOLauncher with GOsms to have a good sms app, and go launcher apps have their own problems and so on. Microsoft is the first to creat an environment with Windows 8, phone, tablet, pc, Xbox and I hope will be right in the end. Android is great fun, great gadget, but that's all, productivity wise it suck big time, can't wait to use office on my Phone connected to my windows 2012 server and exchange, sharepoint etc... Same with Apple, why we should by a product that heavely relies on competition, office from Microsoft maps and gps from google and so on. I hope Microsoft will never release Office for Iphone and Ipad, and google will stop supporting ios for thei apps to see the true thing that Apple has to offer beside Marketing bull****, the amazing retina disply on iPhone 5 wich doesn't have the minimum HD resolution of 720p.

 

[martinmc78]

Ultimately... we just don't know what's going on at MS so to assume laziness or disinterest seems more like a rage-gasm to me than anything else.

Rage-gasm - going to make it my mission to use that word in a spoken conversation. Awesome term.

 

[Cosmin Reti]

See... that's my point, though. We don't know if MS actually gives two ****s or not. We don't know if they're being completely lazy or not. They could be working their asses off, but something in their corporate culture drags things out. Maybe there were shortcuts taken in the OS which need to be fixed before the apps we all want work properly, and they have to fix those first. Maybe it's just a simple question of which WP issues get priority and which don't. Maybe the developers have to cut through 40 billion yards of red tape to get apps released.

I get your point, though. I love WP8 and my 820 - I think the device and the OS are just awesome - but it's currently sitting at home on my dresser where I use it as a WiFi-powered mini-tablet while I carry my iPhone 4S because of app and functionality issues.

Ultimately... we just don't know what's going on at MS so to assume laziness or disinterest seems more like a rage-gasm to me than anything else.

I think one major problem is that most of things developed on other platforms, like ios and android, are covered by Microsoft apps wich are to good to be replaced. Can't fight Skype, i'm an Viber user on Android and I hate it, I get so many messeges like: Viber is busy or it blocked the connection, try again later, some days is not usable, Skype may sound bad for a few seconds but it works, if u pay some little subscription work like a charm, Not to say that Viber end the call almost every few minutes, rarely I spoke for 15 min without interruption.
Gps and maps, who do you think will develop apps for WP8 with Nokia maps, drive, transit and bing maps wich are free.
Email, tell how many email clients compare to Outlook, the one from Lotus IBM (way too bussiness)and maybe from Firefox, that's all.
Word, Excel, Powerpoint no competiotion, and free with WP8, I have used and provided for poor client with Open Office for many years, it sucks big time.
Outlook Calendar and tasks best in class free with WP8, no need for 10 000 calendar app, widgets, to do apps, etc... like on android.
So wich apps are required from developers:
Photo, games, design, news, and maybe a few more.

So where are the money to be made from Microsft windows 8 phone, very few for small developers who made a buck with 99 cent to do apps and widget with nice design and email clients etc... And WP8 has maybe 10 million devices sold when Android tops 500 million. So if u are a small developer on wich platform will u channel your efforts, not on WP8, it is normal and logic. I would not expect to have lots and lots of developers and apps for wp8, can't compare to Android or iOS where there is rooms for money to be made.

 

[Bob Hoil]

Personally as a developer myself I can see why it is taking a bit for certain apps to show up. There is currently only so much Microsoft can do including throwing money at developers but it will still take time. Nothing is going to happen instantly especially with a large company like Microsoft.

Nokia seems to be doing a decent job getting for some larger name games over to the platform, though they maybe exclusive to nokia phones for a time.

It is no different then early adopters of Android. Same issues then. Just have to wait it out but with wp8 should help drive easier ports over.
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express

 

[TheJoester09]

Could the reason for slow adoption by developers have anything to do with the SDK only being available on Windows 8? A lot of so-called "power users" seem to be rejecting Windows 8, and if a developer refuses to upgrade to Win8, then they're basically refusing to develop for WP8. I'd be interested to see if there would be an uptick in app releases if MS allowed the SDK to run on Windows 7.

 

[jdhooghe]

See... that's my point, though. We don't know if MS actually gives two ****s or not. We don't know if they're being completely lazy or not. They could be working their asses off, but something in their corporate culture drags things out. Maybe there were shortcuts taken in the OS which need to be fixed before the apps we all want work properly, and they have to fix those first. Maybe it's just a simple question of which WP issues get priority and which don't. Maybe the developers have to cut through 40 billion yards of red tape to get apps released.

I get your point, though. I love WP8 and my 820 - I think the device and the OS are just awesome - but it's currently sitting at home on my dresser where I use it as a WiFi-powered mini-tablet while I carry my iPhone 4S because of app and functionality issues.

Ultimately... we just don't know what's going on at MS so to assume laziness or disinterest seems more like a rage-gasm to me than anything else.

Rage-gasm XD LOVE IT! I already sold my 4S for 450 bucks to pay for my 920 so no such dice for me. I just don't know, man...disheartened. Hopes dashed....

 

[omniusovermind]

Given the deficit of apps, you really have to look and ask what does wp8 offer over the iPhone? The home screen isn't really much different than it. It's just an app launcher. Live Tiles for 3rd party apps aren't really live at all so all that leaves you with are number notifications for email, calls and SMS. IPhone does that.

The staggered portico update has proven that WP is just as much a slave to carriers as android. IPhone isn't.

The number of complaints of hardware and software defects is significantly higher than iphone. The resale value is awful in comparison.

This leaves you with devices that don't have really any features that an iPhone doesn't, more defects, Android type update fragmentation, and a much lower developer support. I just don't see what could come to mind to argue a case for this platform against the iPhone.

 

[robmif76]

Having used the 920 for the past couple months I've nearly decided on cutting my losses and go back to iOS especially now that the iPhone5 is jailbroken. It's a great piece of kit and yes WP8 is nice and fresh but as we all agree, it needs time to develop. It's the price early adopters pay. As a consumer I am not prepared to hang around another 12-18 months for the platform to develop having to make do with alternative functionality. I blame myself for this normally I'm very good at restraining myself from impulse buys, but this time I got carried away with the WP8 candy. I agree iOS is dull in comparison and badly needs a facelift but it's much more functional and mature.

 

[Cosmin Reti]

Given the deficit of apps, you really have to look and ask what does wp8 offer over the iPhone? The home screen isn't really much different than it. It's just an app launcher. Live Tiles for 3rd party apps aren't really live at all so all that leaves you with are number notifications for email, calls and SMS. IPhone does that.
The staggered portico update has proven that WP is just as much a slave to carriers as android. IPhone isn't.

The number of complaints of hardware and software defects is significantly higher than iphone. The resale value is awful in comparison.

This leaves you with devices that don't have really any features that an iPhone doesn't, more defects, Android type update fragmentation, and a much lower developer support. I just don't see what could come to mind to argue a case for this platform against the iPhone.

01 Microsoft Office is one huge advantage over IOS, hopefully Microsoft will stop saving Apple and discontinue office apps for mac, so Adobe should do after the way Apple spit on them with flash integration, telling that their are ******ed and Apple doesn't give a **** about them, hopefully CS7 will not arrive on Mac.
02 Maps, Nokia maps with Drive and Transit offline, off gps...
03 Devices full featuring all kind of conectors, USB 3.0, hdmi, etc...
04 Really good devices at reasonable prices, and diversity, not as much as Android wich rocks in diversity.
few reasons maybe but strong ones for some of us.
Apple is kept alive by Google Adobe and Microsoft, without MS Office, Google maps and apps, and Adobe design Suite, there is NO Apple, sorry. So why should anybody actually buy an Apple product ? because it sits nicely on the table when you are in a fancy restaurant, 95% of apple user don't know anything about their products, it is just fancy to be Apple user, great aura.

 

[lipper2000]

Given the deficit of apps, you really have to look and ask what does wp8 offer over the iPhone? The home screen isn't really much different than it. It's just an app launcher. Live Tiles for 3rd party apps aren't really live at all so all that leaves you with are number notifications for email, calls and SMS. IPhone does that.

The staggered portico update has proven that WP is just as much a slave to carriers as android. IPhone isn't.

The number of complaints of hardware and software defects is significantly higher than iphone. The resale value is awful in comparison.

This leaves you with devices that don't have really any features that an iPhone doesn't, more defects, Android type update fragmentation, and a much lower developer support. I just don't see what could come to mind to argue a case for this platform against the iPhone.

Although I got my 920 for a steal...most of them are going for almost the off contract price used here in Canada

 

[lipper2000]

Having used the 920 for the past couple months I've nearly decided on cutting my losses and go back to iOS especially now that the iPhone5 is jailbroken. It's a great piece of kit and yes WP8 is nice and fresh but as we all agree, it needs time to develop. It's the price early adopters pay. As a consumer I am not prepared to hang around another 12-18 months for the platform to develop having to make do with alternative functionality. I blame myself for this normally I'm very good at restraining myself from impulse buys, but this time I got carried away with the WP8 candy. I agree iOS is dull in comparison and badly needs a facelift but it's much more functional and mature.

I personally don't have this feeling at all but I totally understand it if you are missing some major app that you cannot live without...
However, I've had an iphone, and android devices and although I think I could go back to Android, I would not be able to go back to iOS in it's current form...using my ipad drives me nuts...perhaps it's because I'm used to WP8 now but I find it to be so much better in so many ways for me...
Even the little things like being able to edit a sync'd word document over sharepoint or skydrive is insanely easy on WP8

No point however sticking around with something you don't like...it's only a gadget afterall...

 

[Honestabebread]

When it comes to apps, its fine if I don't have them on my phone. However my tablet needs to have everything. Hence why I have an iPad. My phone is a communication device. My tablet is a creating / consuming device.

 

[lipper2000]

When it comes to apps, its fine if I don't have them on my phone. However my tablet needs to have everything. Hence why I have an iPad. My phone is a communication device. My tablet is a creating / consuming device.

creating with an iPad...seriously?

 

[iN8ter]

Although I got my 920 for a steal...most of them are going for almost the off contract price used here in Canada

The market in Canada is different. Apple has majority smartphone share in the US, with Android a not so distant second, followed by Blackberry and they have like twice the market share (or more) that WP8 has. Windows Phones have terrible resale value. Below that of the average Android phone and a lot has to do with the fact that the ecosystem and app support simply isn't on the level of iOS and Android. In some cases, even Microsoft gives better support to iOS than their own platform. Still waiting on Photosynth?

Another thing that has to be considered is order that devs port their apps. iOS is first for a majority of apps, followed by Android and then anything after that is given consideration, but not made a priority - due to the combined market share of the top two. Some people don't like getting an app late; they want it when all their friends get it, too... You can see this pattern in major 1st party apps as well.

Going with WP for a lot of people isn't just a question of Poor App Selection. It's also a question of Poor App Support, Inflated App Prices, and Significantly Lag compared to other platforms in App Introductions.

App Count means nothing anymore. It's all about Quality, Support, and the Speed at which new, great apps are introduced to your platform. Windows Phone lags iOS and Android in all those areas and given their lead now, it's not going to change in the near future. Getting today's top apps doesn't matter if tomorrow top apps are going to take forever to trickle down to this platform. That's a concern that simply doesn't exist on (especially) iOS or Android.