A special request to all Windows Phones users.

[tgp]

But, Yes the community is also at fault.

I don't agree. We are free to choose whatever device we want. It's Microsoft's fault, if anybody's, for not providing a product that we can't resist. Nobody should have to use what they feel is a compromise.

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

 

[SSgt Bruskowiz]

1. If you love or like this platform stop complaining and use the platform as is.

2. Use official apps over third party apps more frequent.

3. Don't be cheap support your favorite apps and games developers no matter what the cost.

4, Support your favorite OEM:s.

In the second quarter, Microsoft's smartphone shipments dropped to 7.4 million units from 8.2 million in the same period of 2013. At the same time, the Windows Phone global market share fell from 3.4% to to 2.5%.

Is MSFT is to blame for this decrease or would you blame the Windows Phone community?

Your thoughts?

My thougts?
1: No complaines, no reason for improvement. ( a real complain is something else than whining about it and should be taken seriously )
2 a: pt 2 is in conflict with pt 3
2 b: pt 2 is in conflict with a yel from MS.....we need developers developers developers
2 c: if a app is a better build than the original you do your self short.
3 a: see pt 2a
3 b: That means probably ( most surtain ) the instand death of a good platform.
3 c: When i buy a app, i want to use it whenever i want, and dont want to be confronted that a app is redrawn from the store and there is no way to install or retrieve it.
4 a: hm like huawai? or HTC with there briljant suport of a surten phone ( 8S) witch is no longer suported.
4 b: You mean the big corporation that leaves 18000 families out in the cold while there managers making more in a month than most people in a year, o yea they surtain need our suport........or was it our money.

So, those where my thougts

Here is a little extra.
Be realistic, its a phone os, just like any other, dont hype it up to a religion, whe already have Apple and there late S Jobs for that.
What MS needs is a person just like that, i didn knew him in person but his enthusiasm for his or there products is something you cant deny.
Elop seems to go where the money is, dont blame him but if you believe in your product or compagnie you dont sell them out.

They laughting there asses of, aspecialy at the end of the month.
Making lots of money over the backs of a hard working underpaid labourforce.
I bought this Noki because i needed a phone, it came in cheap and bought it cheap.
Just like the one before.
Besides the point that i wanted something differand.
When your money is gone, and your phone is lying outhere to dry were is there suport to you or any other user.
They dont care if you "at the club" for 1 or ten years.
Or do you realy think that they will give you one for free because you suported the os so many years........think again.
but i now the answer.............its starting with a N

The biggest suport is the suport of the users for the users, just like developers/desingers and betatesters
The oems building the phones, MS building the OS, but we the users and developers make it work.

They are doing a great job to serve the lowbudget market.
But almost no one knows about it, hell i even see more advertizing about my vacuumcleaner than about MS.

Remember the day's of the release of Windows 95?????????????????
That was advertizing.
Almost everyone now the frase "where do you want to go today", that was 20 years ago and people stil know it.
Look at computer and laptops.................mostley MS operating system.
But phones, if people ask and i say i have a windows phone....the most answers starts with....a what???????
Strangely enouth i like that answer, means that i am not one of the many, not a follower and certainly not influenced by commerce.

I have warm feelings about this OS,
but when persons can buy a compete basketballteam and doing big and chearfull on the internet and on the other hand sending others away for a wellfarecheck i realy gets mixed feelings.
I know, there are more compagnies but not all there formar workers/founders reaches the state of richest man on earth ( twice ) or that managers buying complete teams and stil saying that buzniss is going bad.
I dont buy that story.

Suport for developers, great idea.
But the love must come two ways.
There are a lot of bright young minds out there who doesnt even getting a chanche because the lack of funds.
They cant afford a pc/laptop or a testphone or even a internetconnection and dont forget a dev account to test multiple apps.
Apple/Droid same story.
That developers idea is needed to be reviewed, this entire concept sucks.
Ms must going to invest in there developers, not scaring them away.
When someone has a briljant idea then there must be a possibilty to contact one of MS agents.
And if its good enough they should provide and guid him/her in his/her needs,
there are lots and lots of old phones and pc's, let them use it ( perhappes borrowing it for a while ).
And having a briljant idea doesnt mean he/she can or build it by him/here self, somebody else can build it.
The most ideas are comming from people who doesnt even know how a app looks on the inside.
Do you realy think al those who working on windows or windowsphone are codetypers....
Comming to that
How many books are written about appsdesigning? and how many about WP apps?
I mean real books, the old fashion ones on paper, the ones in the libraries.
School education, there are even Steve Jobs schools.....okey not realy healthy for there social skills but still.
There is a lot to learn and a long way to go.
And it starts with trust and believes.

I believe WP is going to die.
Not in that manner, but in the manner of evolving.
Wp and Windows itself are growing closer and closer.
The phones are starting to look like small tablets and so is the os.
The kernell is partial the same and the future wp is more and more suporting larger screens.
So its a small, cheaper and logic next step to build one operating system for all devices.
.........Surface phones if you wish..........
Apps are written multiplatform, but for how long?
They are speaking of smaller tablets , 7" with regulair windows 8.1
Next step, smaller tablet, windows 8.1 and with a celphone opt.
And the surfacephone is born.

One market, one OS, one design platform.
Easyer to develop, easyer to maintain and less costs.
a old mans wet dream................( Not mine, i am not old;-) )

 

[hs k]

Which community?
On-line
Developers
Power users
Business users
Generic consumers
Vehement fans of the platform

I'll take the blame for using and being mostly quiet.
My take is:
Oh shoot this doesn't work now ... Grrrrrrr ... oh well a chocolate doughnut with coffee sounds good about now.
Or:
Golly when did this start working? ... I haven't checked this in months and forgot to uninstall it.


I already am here mostly, yet I like to complain ... however I get tired of others complaining.
My complaints matter so I don't listen to the complaints of others.


Okay I will


No problem ... I love in-app nickel and diming :smile:


Right on!
Which one?

This could be like a phone pledge of allegiance...

I have a feeling kode is going to be medieval on someone later on in this thread.

Ok, look more phones. Androids going well with Moto in the lower range. Now xiomi, is going to be another Pita. Especially in India. I'm constantly surrounded by Motos, Sammys and Htc.

Getting an average processor (mid-high)+1gb ram+****ty ffc (no matter how ****ty) would be a killer at the price of a 520 unsubsidized (around 150$) would be a killer.

Plus advertisements. I see Sammy this, Moto that, HTC Yolo, Sony swag no Microsoft class. It's ridiculous, but not even billboards can be seen.

Even a 50$ phones got a ****ton of cases but I have to scour the earth for a case for my 720.

The point being, advertisements and the price matters in countries along with good accessories matter in countries where carriers don't subsidize the phones.

 

[irvin792]

It is hard to get people from other platforms that are invested in that ecosystem and use to apps that have additional abilities that windows phone is late to the game with or still cannot yet do.


Unleash the APIs MS!

 

[anon8962102]

I blame MS. MS is too greedy. It wants everything! Just give up source code and give it to OEM like samsung, sony, lg, htc etc. Freedom always wins. Restriction is not answer.

 

[colinkiama]

I blame MS. MS is too greedy. It wants everything! Just give up source code and give it to OEM like samsung, sony, lg, htc etc. Freedom always wins. Restriction is not answer.

in my opnion. Microsoft should have gave WP to nokia. They know how to make a smartphone OS.

 

[EC Translating Services]

1. If you love or like this platform stop complaining and use the platform as is.

Humble opinion. Nonsense. WP improvements are being driven by critics and requests by users all around the world. According to your theory initiatives like USERVOICE should not be in existence as they contain essentially complaints in forms of suggestions. The platform will never improve thanks to a bunch of compliant individuals.
An ecosystem driven by fanboys will get old in no-time due to lack of critics and therefore lack of innovation (you buy it anyways bad or good...). We're not supporting football teams. We're paying to buy phones.

2. Use official apps over third party apps more frequent.

If only Nokia and Microsoft HAD what people need, i'd gladly avoid using apps from unknown developers who take my usernames, passwords without me even knowing who they are. Fact is, there isn't official nor third party applications for a lot of things.

3. Don't be cheap support your favorite apps and games developers no matter what the cost.

Sometimes it's not a matter of being cheap. For a start apps are missing. Example: I bought Pleco suite for 75 euros on Android (but paid directly on Pleco website, not with Google), I bought Hanping, i bought Docs to Go and i bought much else on Android.
on WP i simply don't find things worth buying (and i have free vouchers too still unused). I bought Nextgen reader because it's worth every single penny. I bought a chinese dictionary and it sucks. The platform lacks, put simply. Quality of apps is simply miserable in the market. And apps that are free on Android (Angry birds in all their iterations for example) have to be paid on WP.

4, Support your favorite OEM:s.

In the second quarter, Microsoft's smartphone shipments dropped to 7.4 million units from 8.2 million in the same period of 2013. At the same time, the Windows Phone global market share fell from 3.4% to to 2.5%

Is MSFT is to blame for this decrease or would you blame the Windows Phone community?

Market, since its inception is consumer driven. If you try to impose something on consumers and you're so lucky they like it you may get away with it (Apple and its closed fruit called ecosystem). If you try to impose something that is incomplete and lacking to your users (Windows RT, WP) you have consumers looking elsewhere. So i am confident Microsoft is not making customers happy. There is also an unrecorded but active churning of users from Windows 8 to various versions of Linux. It's still early to speak about this but it's happening and there is a variety of reasons for this.

Bottom line: A good phone costs 700 euros. I don't buy things to "Support OEMs" for a hobby. I buy a phone because i need it. Then, secondarily i appreciate the tech behind it but my goal is productivity.

Like me, all other professionals (non fanboys), non OEM-driven users who need a device to work, which apparently are millions.

My humble two cents is the WP sales are freefalling because A) Microsoft is slow and doesn't listen, B) The OS has been unoficially in a permanent Beta forever (also when it's not called beta because it's never complete), C) It's 4 years and i have to remind everyone, once again, that WP doesn't allow a fair bunch of users to type in their language because it lacks basic inputs and won't allow you to amend Office files. This while all others use "normal OS'" that have split screen, real multitasking (some even a functional pen to go), plentiful office suites, total, global integrated functions within apps (you can transfer files from most third party apps in Android and new apps are often added in the list of shareable...Microsoft being limited to a few things, normally belonging to Microsoft itself, which is again what users don't want).

BTW: Huawei has just dropped support for WP because "They have been losing money for two years". Living between Taiwan and China i think i know why.

 

[Ian Too]

in my opnion. Microsoft should have gave WP to nokia. They know how to make a smartphone OS.

I understand the sentiment, but really? Didn't Nokia have Symbian and weren't they circling the drain before they signed on with WP?

It's clear that only Apple has the might to succeed with a single OEM OS and that only because they got in first. Having a cult-like following helps too, though that appears to be slipping.

Not only is Windows Phone Microsoft's operating system, but only they could have built it because only they had the Windows CE and NT kernels to build upon.

When it came to designing the user interface, Microsoft had courage and imagination enough to do something different from the start; something good enough that the designers at Nokia left it largely untouched and something the designers at Google failed to do. What's more, the implementation of the live folders shows that that spark of ingenuity is still there.

Finally, the clear superiority of the M8 for Windows over it's Android cousin is difficult to explain if the Windows Phone team had done a bad job. The fact that they were able to adapt their code to accommodate the dot view case shows they are fleet-footed too.

So please, while the heart gets to set the destination, it's head's job to have the hand on the tiller.

 

[Karthik Naik]

I understand the sentiment, but really? Didn't Nokia have Symbian and weren't they circling the drain before they signed on with WP?

It's clear that only Apple has the might to succeed with a single OEM OS and that only because they got in first. Having a cult-like following helps too, though that appears to be slipping.

Not only is Windows Phone Microsoft's operating system, but only they could have built it because only they had the Windows CE and NT kernels to build upon.

When it came to designing the user interface, Microsoft had courage and imagination enough to do something different from the start; something good enough that the designers at Nokia left it largely untouched and something the designers at Google failed to do. What's more, the implementation of the live folders shows that that spark of ingenuity is still there.

Finally, the clear superiority of the M8 for Windows over it's Android cousin is difficult to explain if the Windows Phone team had done a bad job. The fact that they were able to adapt their code to accommodate the dot view case shows they are fleet-footed too.

So please, while the heart gets to set the destination, it's head's job to have the hand on the tiller.

while i agee with you,i must also agree with Colinkiama, Nokia did make MeeGo,Maemo and symbian
why they failed is the reason WP succeeded,imho they should make WP9 with MeeGo stuff etc
Meego would have killed off android if Elop hadnt given up
so would have symbian if s60 v3 was released before android 2.2
though we have one thing to be thankful for,Nokia/MS based alot of the design etc of apps on Meego as found on the nokia N9 and also a bit of symbian like functions

 

[jomarr]

1. If you love or like this platform stop complaining and use the platform as is.
- I agree partly. But we still should address to Microsoft the problems we encounter.

No one complains = Microsoft thinks there's no room for improvement

This is the reason I keep complaining on Xbox Music in uservoice and in their app rating. I don't say "Fix this, you suck M$!", I tell them what the problem is and how it's frustrating

2. Use official apps over third party apps more frequent.
- I do although I am tempted to use 6Tag instead of the BETA.

3. Don't be cheap support your favorite apps and games developers no matter what the cost.
- I do buy paid apps, but don't count on me paying for extra "coins" for games. When it's over for the day, IT'S OVER. But that's just me

4, Support your favorite OEM:s.
- I already am. Starting on Windows Phone, I bought Office 365 for my PC and Android Tablet (Eventually I hope they'll support it), then get Windows 9.

In the second quarter, Microsoft's smartphone shipments dropped to 7.4 million units from 8.2 million in the same period of 2013. At the same time, the Windows Phone global market share fell from 3.4% to to 2.5%.

Is MSFT is to blame for this decrease or would you blame the Windows Phone community?

Of course they are the one to blame. Again, MARKETING MARKETING MARKETING. They need to make a contract for the people in the spotlight (the phone sellers) at carriers that they should do a fair judgement with phones and not persuade WP away. They should also be knowledgeable of the product. The phone will not sell if the sellers do not make anything out of it. I'm not from the US but based on stories I read on WPCentral, there is a problem with the employees of carriers. Microsoft needs to address this issue and make them sign. I'm not saying they should put WP devices first but make a fair and unbiased judgement.

Anyways, they didn't release a flagship except for the Icon (930) which we know the release was a big *** mess. While WP went down this quarter, I think it's still impressive how WP still sold 7++Million phones considering the fact that they only released the 930 and the 630 this year which both didn't have much promotion. (The M8 was released last week so that doesn't count.)

Tl;dr: Microsoft is not in the verge of going out of the mobile market, in fact we're just at the end of Chapter One (Windows Phone 7 was the preface ).. It's been silent but I know Nadella is planning something that will change the way we look at Windows ecosystem.

 

[Pranshul Sood]

such a low share and literally bad marketing strategies. The phone start screen in ads look so ugly that people form negative impressions. And these I'm talking about wp8.1 running devices. Microsoft most aggressively market their products.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Excellent. But my point is this Laura.

All my friends with Android and iPhone devices swarm the stores when a new device is announced.

Been here at WP for a year haven't seen any swarm for any WP devices. NL930, HTC One 8, NL 1520.

I haven't seen anyone swarm the stores in a year time. 90% of Droids and iPhone users upgrade when a flagship is announced.

Not so for Windows Phone users.

There isn't much to swarm in actual fact. Nokia devices are all alike in general. Good quality high level plastic slabs in different colors, some better than others. Design is top notch but reused in all sizes it diminishes the enthusiasm. I went to see 1520 because it was 6" and thought WP was ready for prime time...i spoke to someone and i got it as a gift (unrequested as i had just said "It looks nice, WP has made progresses" and in one week i had one...so i felt obliged to give an identical one to the person who gave it to me....which sold it after two or three weeks)

Other manufacturers make subpar devices for most top level markets. Samsung doesn't make high level WP, HTC is restarting now (and i doubt it will last).


Till a while ago WP couldn't support high res, bigger screens and it's only yesterday it started to allow 3 rows of tiles (while bigger devices would need also 3 row wide tiles) and had tons of other limitations.

Android has everyone onboard (i don't like the Google method to be clear). This means variety of sizes, form factors, price ranges, performances, hardware, UIs etc. This "impression of lots of choice" and the hype surrounding devices that, ultimately, are all the same (since they share the same OS with different covers, conveys a marketing strategy where people don't think about Android anymore but focus on that part of hardware and form factor that makes the difference. Wow...a new graphic chip...wow a new octacore CPU (device will lag anyways as the software is unpolished and the platform fragmented)...wow a new SUPERMEGAMOLED Screen with 1 gigabillion Pixel resolution ........marketing does the rest.
Example: New Galaxy Note 4.....it's like Galaxy 3 (usual outfashioned metal chromed inserts that make it look like an 80s Daewoo), same form factor, some improvements on the pen and on the Samsung-Android thing which now claims that "you write better". I may have to buy it for specific reasons, already knowing the pen will work exactly like the others, taking notes is possible but not always as 5.7" is still pretty small (as opposed to a surface 2/3 which can become an A4 sized page if you really want) etc. Still, lots of people will jump on it after having owned the Note 3 for less than 6 months (Italians are specialized in this...they change phone as often as they change panties which is pretty often)
And people go.......choice and dyamicity + huge marketing (whose costs are paid with the crazy sales Android makes) fuel all this. + Android has something for everyone (if you are not paranoid like me and others about security and privacy and what's coming next) and that makes it a real flexible platform.

Imagine Android as a wavy beach swept by a nice cool breeze full of people wearing colourful shorts, girls in bikini and plenty people surfing high on those waves. Next to them there are the iphone beachboys, elegantly sitting in their chaise longues and admiring the sunset while riding hipster bikes.

WP is that standstill remote lake where occasionally a drop comes from sky (one update with 1 single new function all the others on the beach have had for years) and moves the water......wave propagates a bit but nothing really happens...the lake stays standstill....the people enjoying it are retired, older guys sleeping in the nearby cottages and enjoying the idea of exclusivity that may or may not be true.

Now, the image is colourful and somewhat a bit too exaggerated but it does give the idea.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

I do believe we should expect a huge advertising after Win/WP 9 launch.

AFAIK MS right now is trying to get rid of Win 8: no ads almost (or probably completely), no tries to push to consumers/business etc. WP 8/8.1 somehow reminds the Desktop/Tablet OS, so I think this is the major reason why the phone system gets low advertising, mostly some reminding to not be completely forgotten.

As WZOR mentioned, the advertising campaign budget for Win 9 (I believe WP 9 as well) is incredibly huge, so we just need to wait for a while

One thing you need to remember, is that MS has very big plans for its OSes.

 

[N_LaRUE]

1. If you love or like this platform stop complaining and use the platform as is.

But I like to complain!

Seriously speaking though. Without customer feedback of any sort MS would think they're doing well when they are not. They need to be told, along with OEMs when things go wrong. There's many people on here, including myself, who haven't exactly had the smoothest run with WP. On top of that the locked to carrier nonsense with regards to updating is rather painful.

2. Use official apps over third party apps more frequent.

I usually do and prefer to. Saying that, most are lacking features that exist on the other OSs. Who's at fault for that? The developer or MS? Probably both.

3. Don't be cheap support your favorite apps and games developers no matter what the cost.

That's being snide and it's not that straightforward. I'm not buying an app I can't try and if it's sub par I'm not going to buy it.

4, Support your favorite OEM:s.

Really? To many there is only one, Nokia. Doesn't exist anymore. Second, the other OEMs aren't releasing anything in the UK. So how do I support them? I also don't want low end handsets.

In the second quarter, Microsoft's smartphone shipments dropped to 7.4 million units from 8.2 million in the same period of 2013. At the same time, the Windows Phone global market share fell from 3.4% to to 2.5%.

Is MSFT is to blame for this decrease or would you blame the Windows Phone community?

Your thoughts?

My thoughts are this.

MS has a long way to go. Apps and games are still missing. Features in the apps are missing. There's lots of garbage in the Store. The advertising has been dismal. The OS for the first year might as well been in beta as far as I'm concerned and what we have with WP8.1 is really what should have been released initially.

On the hardware side nothing of any significance has been released this year that appeals to the masses and what's recently come out is carrier exclusive. Really useful when you want to increase your user base. Example - L930 not available in the US except as the Icon at Verizon. HTC WP M8 not available in the EU and currently carrier exclusive with Verizon. Hardware is 6 months old and if it has exclusive as long as the Icon then it won't show up here until next year. Very useful.

What has made the numbers drop? It's two fold. Number of users have increased but they didn't on WP. Why? See what I wrote above. Why are people avoiding WP considering that we all think it's wonderful (well to some extent) is simply that their friends have something else, everyone else says WP is crap and it's still missing loads of apps, I think I may have mentioned that...

Nothing is black and white in this situation. You have staff at stores who aren't trained to know WP so they steer people to Android or iPhone. You have journalist constantly bagging WP and MS in general (especially the lack of apps). Then you have MS's bad reputation from years ago still lingering.

Take it from there.

 

[Michael Brooks5]

I first bought a 620 last year some time and was dead excited with the fact it's a WP device. Windows and Nokia are the only companies which excite me when it comes to new devices. I recently cancelled my contract early to upgrade to a Lumia 930 which I was so happy with and still am dead impressed with the device. I love showing off all my beautiful images and everyone just loves the colour and depth of the images.

I'm a bit disappointed with MS at the minute though, they keep making promises and not keeping to them. I'm still waiting on the new Xbox Music app which adds the wallpaper to the lock screen and a live tile when playing music. I will always happily wait it out though, because I have faith in what MS want to achieve.

I haven't actually purchased any apps with my own money, but I have purchased them with my free vouchers which I received for upgrading to the 930 so in a way I have supported them. I hardly ever purchase apps unless I'm excited about what it has to offer and really find a need for it.

 

[Stef8600]

1. If you love or like this platform stop complaining and use the platform as is.

2. Use official apps over third party apps more frequent.

3. Don't be cheap support your favorite apps and games developers no matter what the cost.

4, Support your favorite OEM:s.

In the second quarter, Microsoft's smartphone shipments dropped to 7.4 million units from 8.2 million in the same period of 2013. At the same time, the Windows Phone global market share fell from 3.4% to to 2.5%.

Is MSFT is to blame for this decrease or would you blame the Windows Phone community?

Your thoughts?

Both!

 

[psoham777]

Bringing apps would take time. How old is windows phone & how much old are the other OS' like Android & iOS?

 

[05Paris]

Until MS changes the retail end of things they will never make it big in the cell phone industry. For example when you go into a non-MS store the last thing a sales person wants to sell you is a Windows based product even when you request it. There are a number of reasons for this: 1) the sales person is not knowledgeable enough to feel comfortable in presenting the product; 2) they would rather sell a product "everyone wants" regardless if it is not the best, let it be the customer's fault if it fails; 3) the sales person is pressured to sell services over of products; 4) the sales force has the mentality, "anything but MS, it's not cool."

 

[N_LaRUE]

Bringing apps would take time. How old is windows phone & how much old are the other OS' like Android & iOS?

WP7 2010
WP8 2012

How much time is needed? Should age matter? What are the issues getting apps on the system? Usually we're told it's due to user numbers above all else.

 

[psoham777]

We are seeing a growth in the number of apps, its slow but still, they are growing. Now many useful apps have been made available which was not the case before. We could just wait, or jump to iOS or Android