Anyone else getting annoyed that apps come out as "Lumia" exclusives?

[EauRouge]

whats good for nokia is not good for WP in general

 

[DanBB1]

I'm not sure why a couple of people keep saying HTC didn't "invest" in WP8. Why, because they aren't going out of their way to create HTC-only proprietary apps but were still willing to get on board and make a couple of very nice phones that's not good enough for some of you? Heck, the CEO even stated in interviews that they will continue to support WP8 after the 8x. Announcing a 2013 lineup that will have even better specs and who knows what else isn't good enough either I suppose? How about you hire and delegate a large team of engineers like they did and build one then if that's the case. What a colossal sense of entitlement.

Luckily I'm realistic enough to know that you 2-3 people in this thread who feel that way represent 0.00000001% of WP8 users and an even smaller proportion of smartphone users.

No. You're not realistic. You're delusional. Probably 0.0000001% of WP8 users feel the way you do. Compared to HTC's Android offerings, HTC's WP8 phones are clearly sub-par. You couldn't call 8X even a mid-range phone. I haven't seen HTC bringing much to wp8 software-wise, HW-wise or design-wise. All they tried to do is to piggy-back the WP8 train with as little effort as possible, and count on WP8 momentum and MS's advertising efforts.

 

[Jay_wpcentral]

As a Lumia owner, of course, no.

I actually wanted an HTC 8S, but I eventually sided with Nokia because of its Nokia Music service. It is not our fault that HTC and Samsung don't really care about making the post sales experience pleasanter. I still think HTC products look great, but I also need utility on a windows phone. Eventually settle with a 820. The 820 has its problems, but I am loving it in spite of that

 

[Jay_wpcentral]

Nokia doesn't intercept apps that were being made for everyone and stop them from going to HTC and Samsung. They pay developers to hurry and make a WP app, and after an exclusivity phase that they deserve to get some advantage from their investment, they release it to everyone. The time it would have taken the app developer to make the app without Nokia's intervention could be a year or two, or they might never have done it. So even if you don't get the app when the Lumia users do, you are still getting it sooner, all thanks to Nokia to whom you didn't pay a cent. You should be grateful, not angry. It's like being angry at your friend who freely gives you his used Xbox games after he beats them, because he got to play them first.

Best argument I have read so far. I agree with you completely. Just a weeks ago, Mirrors Edge lost its exclusivity. I am sure if not for Nokia's efforts EA would not have bothered with windows phone at all!

 

[Residing]

Nokia is not liked by all. This exclusive crap is not helping WP. That means that there are less sales for WP. You have no idea how many times I was told that holding a Nokia product in your hand is like holding some cheap Ikea product.
Sent from my SGH-i677 using Foroplex

Microsoft is not helping WP!

 

[Huime]

Not so far, other than with Nokia Drive, which has now moved out of exclusivity. The apps and games that are exclusives now are largely not of sufficient standard to warrant any jealousy, although it does make me wonder why HTC are not doing anything, even releasing their existing apps for Windows phone 8.

The Lumias themselves are enough to put me off them. The 920 is the worst Windows Phone 8 device there is. The phone is too big and too heavy and the device is so unstable compared to the 8X. We've got three at work and the Mrs has one at home and they freeze all the time, even with the latest updates. I've, touch wood, never had the 8X freeze on me.

I just hope HTC continue to support Windows phone as I can't see myself buying a Nokia unless they improve a lot.

You made me laugh at the same time making yourselves feel better. Good one.

 

[stmav]

If some of these posts are any indication some Nokia owners are starting to sound like Samsung Android owners, and I don't mean that in a good way

Then what does it make the HTC owners sound like? I'm sure you'll find a good way to put it.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

They sound the same as their HTC android cousins complaining lol.

Then what does it make the HTC owners sound like? I'm sure you'll find a good way to put it.

 

[pnhd]

Nokia needs WP8. So making light of others being upset is pretty foolish unless you enjoy seeing the platform sit at 2% market share. You let me know how well those exclusive apps are working out for ya when people get peeved and move to another OS, Einstein.

Smh

Correction, windows phone needs Nokia. Without Nokia windows phone is dead. It would have been dead in 2012,and it would be dead now. And consider this, Nokia owns 8-% of the windows pie, and from that another 80% only are nokia fans and not wp fans. If nokia leaves, those people will leave too and never look back. Then you can tell me what htc and samsung will do. Will they continue to invest in the platform, or abandon it completely?

That's a nice way of saying they're willing to abandon home soil so they can hire cheap labour. American car companies do this too but they still keep their American plants. If they didn't there'd be an uproar, and people would stop "buying American". Do Nokia deserve any less? I personally wouldn't trust a company that operates that way with my business, and I'm not Finnish.

Nokia closed it's favtories because it didn't make sense to have parts built in china, then shipped to europe for asembly, then ship them again to the rest of the world. Nobody does this anymore, everybody moved to China for this reason. The suply cahins are perfect there, the chines are fast to adapt to whatever demand because of their infrastructure they built. And another thing, China is a big source of rare minerals used for smartphone and electronic parts in general. And they passed a law some time ago, that made it either illegal or very expensive to export them. So everybody needs to go there for manufacturing.

And don't compare it to the car industry. They are completely different things

By the way, as a Nokia fan, i only came to wp because of them. I'm not a linux fanatic and don't blame them for sacking meego, but still you need to consider that the only reason wp has the market share that it has today and 150.000 apps in the marketplace are simply because of nokia presence. And right now the moaners are in minority. All the other oems only master a 20% piece of the pie. And from those probably only a quarter are concerned about the exclusivity, and even less are butthurt like you.

One humble advice that i can give you , is that if you are so concerned about exclusives, you should take some money out of your own pocket and give to those developers to bring their apps to wp. Otherwise( again i'm telling you humbly) shut up and get a life.

Nokia contribution to the platform- full line up of phones to cover every price point.
-release follow ups to those phones
- work with microsoft to lower the hardware requirements on the os
-work to bring their software expertise in general to the platform(language support, optimization,features)
-work in the camera department developing the barebones(probably even the lens feature) - said by bellfiore in june last year at the wp8 presentation
-give their mapping data to the entire platform.even if microsoft pays for a license, you dont see the other oems license their stuff
-give some of their apps like nokia maps and drive for free to the other oems, and who knows what they will give in the future
-release quality hardware for the platform, true flagships and original devices. the lumia 920 with ois,supersensitive screen,wireless charging is the only reason why you see windows phone being compared to the other flagships form android. and now they will bring the full pureview and who knows what else
-make accessories for their phones(unlike the other oems who only make accessories for their android offereings)
-gives money and works together with developers to port their games to the platform. limited exclusives for them for a couple of months, then the whole platform can use them for free because of their work
-in the first year with htc, dell, samsung, lg, acer, fujitsu and zte the marketplace only reached 10.000 apps. Nokia then joined, but lg abandoned the platform along with fujitsu,acer and lg. Despite this in the year since nokia joined, the press started to give windows phone more chances of surviving, developers gave more attention to the platform and that resulted in another 100.000 apps. That was all because of nokia.

Now besides releasing uninspiring hardware with no special features or functions, what do the other oems have brought to the platform? With what are they contributing exactly? I'm just curious and eager to be educated on the matter

 

[gsquared]

/SHAKES HEAD

You all have beat this poor dead horse into nothing but a pile of dust! Funny as I've also noticed an increase in the number of really old posts brought back up to the front. You haters must be getting real desperate for new *****ing material.

 

[jasonxz]

I've had my 920 since launch day & the only time it has frozen on me was the day, two weeks ago, that I dropped it 6 feet onto a tile floor. It froze for a while but I haven't had any problems since.

 

[Olerius]

I'm on board with sniffs and nbktonic (posts #1 and #6); manufacturer exclusive apps are not good for the ecosystem as a whole.

There's a lot of love for Nokia on this forum. I've seen several reasons backing up Nokia's stance: Nokia is doing it to promote their brand, Nokia is offering customers support beyond day-one purchase, other manufacturers are not supporting Windows as much, Nokia's funding is bringing some apps to WP sooner than independent developers could, Nokia is seemingly doing more for the WP app store than Microsoft itself, etc. All of these are strong, valid arguments. HOWEVER, the over-looked issue at play is that it is creating a fragmented experience that weakens the overall WP experience. EauRouge said it best:

whats good for nokia is not good for WP in general

Nokia's exclusivities are creating a two-tiered app store that inhibits WP from growing as a cohesive brand. Would I be buying a Lumia-phone, or a Windows phone? You don't see other manufactureres doing this. Apple would never offer iPhone 5 exclusive apps (beyond a technical requirement from the phone); you don't hear Samsung-only apps on the Google Play store; even BlackBerry says "if the phone can run it, you can have the app". As a company, Nokia may well live-or-die based on WP taking off. Especially considering the shrinking market share available after iOS/Android, WP needs more to create customer/brand-awareness, and a failing BlackBerry standpoint won't be enough for WP to carve out market share. As it is, WP is barely recognized in my neck of the woods, and Nokia-exclusive apps do little to promote WP. (Full Disclosure: I am a recent Samsung ATIV S purchaser who lives in BlackBerry's back yard (Waterloo, ON, Can.))

 

[omniusovermind]

Pretty long rant for someone accusing me of being the one who is... what was the word you used? "butthurt"? m-hm.
thanks for your contribution

:straight:
Uninspiring hardware. oh my sides. I think light leakages, screen dust, volume button and headphone jack among other common reports are pretty uninspiring now that you mention it. Oh dear.

Correction, windows phone needs Nokia. Without Nokia windows phone is dead. It would have been dead in 2012,and it would be dead now. And consider this, Nokia owns 8-% of the windows pie, and from that another 80% only are nokia fans and not wp fans. If nokia leaves, those people will leave too and never look back. Then you can tell me what htc and samsung will do. Will they continue to invest in the platform, or abandon it completely?



Nokia closed it's favtories because it didn't make sense to have parts built in china, then shipped to europe for asembly, then ship them again to the rest of the world. Nobody does this anymore, everybody moved to China for this reason. The suply cahins are perfect there, the chines are fast to adapt to whatever demand because of their infrastructure they built. And another thing, China is a big source of rare minerals used for smartphone and electronic parts in general. And they passed a law some time ago, that made it either illegal or very expensive to export them. So everybody needs to go there for manufacturing.

And don't compare it to the car industry. They are completely different things

By the way, as a Nokia fan, i only came to wp because of them. I'm not a linux fanatic and don't blame them for sacking meego, but still you need to consider that the only reason wp has the market share that it has today and 150.000 apps in the marketplace are simply because of nokia presence. And right now the moaners are in minority. All the other oems only master a 20% piece of the pie. And from those probably only a quarter are concerned about the exclusivity, and even less are butthurt like you.

One humble advice that i can give you , is that if you are so concerned about exclusives, you should take some money out of your own pocket and give to those developers to bring their apps to wp. Otherwise( again i'm telling you humbly) shut up and get a life.

Nokia contribution to the platform- full line up of phones to cover every price point.
-release follow ups to those phones
- work with microsoft to lower the hardware requirements on the os
-work to bring their software expertise in general to the platform(language support, optimization,features)
-work in the camera department developing the barebones(probably even the lens feature) - said by bellfiore in june last year at the wp8 presentation
-give their mapping data to the entire platform.even if microsoft pays for a license, you dont see the other oems license their stuff
-give some of their apps like nokia maps and drive for free to the other oems, and who knows what they will give in the future
-release quality hardware for the platform, true flagships and original devices. the lumia 920 with ois,supersensitive screen,wireless charging is the only reason why you see windows phone being compared to the other flagships form android. and now they will bring the full pureview and who knows what else
-make accessories for their phones(unlike the other oems who only make accessories for their android offereings)
-gives money and works together with developers to port their games to the platform. limited exclusives for them for a couple of months, then the whole platform can use them for free because of their work
-in the first year with htc, dell, samsung, lg, acer, fujitsu and zte the marketplace only reached 10.000 apps. Nokia then joined, but lg abandoned the platform along with fujitsu,acer and lg. Despite this in the year since nokia joined, the press started to give windows phone more chances of surviving, developers gave more attention to the platform and that resulted in another 100.000 apps. That was all because of nokia.

Now besides releasing uninspiring hardware with no special features or functions, what do the other oems have brought to the platform? With what are they contributing exactly? I'm just curious and eager to be educated on the matter

 

[theefman]

Simple question for all those who think Nokia exclusives are "bad' for WP. If not them, who? HTC, Samsung have shown no interest in pushing the platform forward and Microsoft, the platform developer are themselves struggling to get their internal divisions to prioritise WP and release software for it. So who is going to bring these apps to WP, promote WP with developer events at trade shows like MWC (hint, Nokia has a developer day planned, do HTC or Samsung?), blog constantly about WP (Nokia Conversations), hold contests for users and devs, basically throw WP in the face of the world every chance they get? Please tell us who will be the one pushing WP?

 

[pnhd]

:straight:
Uninspiring hardware. oh my sides. I think light leakages, screen dust, volume button and headphone jack among other common reports are pretty uninspiring now that you mention it. Oh dear.

It's not a rant, it's a detailed explanation . And i agree with you unfortunately with those quality issues. I don't uderstand why htc delivered the 8x with raised glass corners, bigger space between the glass and the plastic body that lets dust gather. Cheap plastic body that gets decolored very easily, just like the white one x, slim volume and camera buttons that aren't quite as comfortable to use as the ones on the 920. The only explanation i got is that while nokia worked on the design language and building technologies for the lumia for 2 years before the n9 came out, htc skipped directly to the ''inspiring'' part and missed on the part where craftmanship matters when you build phones with polycarbonate bodies that blend with the glass seamlessly

Simple question for all those who think Nokia exclusives are "bad' for WP. If not them, who? HTC, Samsung have shown no interest in pushing the platform forward and Microsoft, the platform developer are themselves struggling to get their internal divisions to prioritise WP and release software for it. So who is going to bring these apps to WP, promote WP with developer events at trade shows like MWC (hint, Nokia has a developer day planned, do HTC or Samsung?), blog constantly about WP (Nokia Conversations), hold contests for users and devs, basically throw WP in the face of the world every chance they get? Please tell us who will be the one pushing WP?

Do you really think you will get an answer? There's not time for that. Moaning is a full-time job

 

[omniusovermind]

I wish I could answer that but I'm starting to see a lot of similarities to Android happening here: One OEM squeezing out others, OS updates coming months apart depending on manufacturer and carrier. Me no likey fragmentation. I don't think anyone wants Android to just turn into Samsung, nor WP8 to be Nokia 8. The way I see it, Android OEM's all fight each other not just on the hardware, but by using their own UI skins to differentiate themselves from the competition. That was the worst thing Android being open source has allowed. Since WP8 is too locked down for that to happen, it looks like Nokia dug around until they came up with this idea of OEM apps instead. Do you want all of the OEM's now trending towards installing more and more bloatware to be 'different than the other guy'? I sure don't.

That's a very good example of how this trend could easily end badly. How much of a fan and cheerleader are you going to be when Nokia screws up a couple of times - and don't kid yourself, they ALL do eventually - and installs buggy troublesome bloatware that pisses you all off? And it takes them 4 months to iron it out and get it through all the carriers in a patch? So will it still be such a great idea? You're being short sighted.

 

[omniusovermind]

It's not a rant, it's a detailed explanation . And i agree with you unfortunately with those quality issues. I don't uderstand why htc delivered the 8x with raised glass corners, bigger space between the glass and the plastic body that lets dust gather. Cheap plastic body that gets decolored very easily, just like the white one x, slim volume and camera buttons that aren't quite as comfortable to use as the ones on the 920. The only explanation i got is that while nokia worked on the design language and building technologies for the lumia for 2 years before the n9 came out, htc skipped directly to the ''inspiring'' part and missed on the part where craftmanship matters when you build phones with polycarbonate bodies that blend with the glass seamlessly



Do you really think you will get an answer? There's not time for that. Moaning is a full-time job

How droll. All you've done is point out problems and raise no solutions. All I'm getting from you? "Both of these phones are riddled with problems, shop elsewhere." Is that your desired goal? Seriously.

If you're so clever, tell me how you're going to enjoy the scenario I pointed out above. Good luck with that, I'm on coffee break cya in a bit

 

[sravanv]

I'm on board with sniffs and nbktonic (posts #1 and #6); manufacturer exclusive apps are not good for the ecosystem as a whole.

There's a lot of love for Nokia on this forum. I've seen several reasons backing up Nokia's stance: Nokia is doing it to promote their brand, Nokia is offering customers support beyond day-one purchase, other manufacturers are not supporting Windows as much, Nokia's funding is bringing some apps to WP sooner than independent developers could, Nokia is seemingly doing more for the WP app store than Microsoft itself, etc. All of these are strong, valid arguments. HOWEVER, the over-looked issue at play is that it is creating a fragmented experience that weakens the overall WP experience. EauRouge said it best:



Nokia's exclusivities are creating a two-tiered app store that inhibits WP from growing as a cohesive brand. Would I be buying a Lumia-phone, or a Windows phone? You don't see other manufactureres doing this. Apple would never offer iPhone 5 exclusive apps (beyond a technical requirement from the phone); you don't hear Samsung-only apps on the Google Play store; even BlackBerry says "if the phone can run it, you can have the app". As a company, Nokia may well live-or-die based on WP taking off. Especially considering the shrinking market share available after iOS/Android, WP needs more to create customer/brand-awareness, and a failing BlackBerry standpoint won't be enough for WP to carve out market share. As it is, WP is barely recognized in my neck of the woods, and Nokia-exclusive apps do little to promote WP. (Full Disclosure: I am a recent Samsung ATIV S purchaser who lives in BlackBerry's back yard (Waterloo, ON, Can.))

In a sense, they do. Each of the manufacturers create their own "skin" that goes over the stock Android OS. Samsung has "TouchWiz", HTC has "Sense", and Motorola has "MotoBlur".

Is it a fully built app? Not exactly but it can be construed that way. In fact, Motorola patented "Smart Actions" or whatever that, for a period of time, nobody else had access to it (I believe).

Samsung had "S-Voice" which was similar to Siri. Fortunately, Android released Google Now soon after S-Voice and it overrode Samsung's exclusivity on that particular functionality.

HTC had dibs on integrated screen weather that technically couldn't be replicated on the other devices. They also had Beats hardware (and have it on Windows devices as well) although that's more of a hardware exclusive.

My point is that when you offer multiple manufacturers developing on one platform they're going try their hardest to differentiate their products over other ones. Nokia is desperate, which is why their offering is far more robust than HTC's. Do you think HTC or Samsung would just sit idly while Nokia did their thing if it weren't for Android? If Samsung and HTC were in Nokia's position, I guarantee that they would do the same thing. However, they have Android revenue that probably makes up at least 80% of their revenue stream each year. They have no financial incentive to try and match Nokia's offering.

HTC has one exclusive app on the market (maybe a few more?). That's not Nokia's fault. They are simply CHOOSING not to release exclusive apps because they do not see the ROI yet. Nokia sees the ROI because they only have one OS to work with.

 

[sravanv]

I wish I could answer that but I'm starting to see a lot of similarities to Android happening here: One OEM squeezing out others, OS updates coming months apart depending on manufacturer and carrier. Me no likey fragmentation. I don't think anyone wants Android to just turn into Samsung, nor WP8 to be Nokia 8. The way I see it, Android OEM's all fight each other not just on the hardware, but by using their own UI skins to differentiate themselves from the competition. That was the worst thing Android being open source has allowed. Since WP8 is too locked down for that to happen, it looks like Nokia dug around until they came up with this idea of OEM apps instead. Do you want all of the OEM's now trending towards installing more and more bloatware to be 'different than the other guy'? I sure don't.

That's a very good example of how this trend could easily end badly. How much of a fan and cheerleader are you going to be when Nokia screws up a couple of times - and don't kid yourself, they ALL do eventually - and installs buggy troublesome bloatware that pisses you all off? And it takes them 4 months to iron it out and get it through all the carriers in a patch? So will it still be such a great idea? You're being short sighted.

The worst thing Android allowed was stringent rules for OS updates. As for the bloatware? It's not bloatware if the apps are useful. Bloatware is Verizon trying to get you to download their music, movies, etc instead of using Pandora, Spotify, Netflix, etc.

Yeah I would be annoyed if Nokia screwed up on a couple of apps. Has it happened so far? No. I imagine that any non-independent developer app is going to be pretty robust.

I think apps are a great way for manufacturers to compete. It doesn't ruin the OS or even come close to "fragmenting" it. The only reason fragmentation exists on Android is because of Manufacturer/Carrier refusal to update. I don't know if it's because they're trying to push customers to buy the latest and greatest or if carriers don't want to bother with testing new OS updates on a bunch of different, older Android devices. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Regardless, developing apps for various manufacturers won't lead to fragmentation.

As for your "scenario"...how does scenario change if it weren't a Nokia exclusive and was open to HTC and Samsung as well? They still have to go through the testing and working out the kinks. Except in this scenario, Nokia users get to have the apps first.

 

[Squatting Hen]

I had a Titan II and the Nokia Exclusives were happening back on WP 7.5 too. It was very dissappointing that HTC was doing nothing for the OS. They would not even update their own apps. For example, the Connection Setup App was never updated for the Titan II. After calls and emails it was apparent that HTC didn't care. There were threads about this back then. I never got one SW update for my phone. I vowed then to never purchase a HTC product again if I could help it. I learned my lesson. Nokia showed they cared and were devoted. Now I own a 920.