AT&T - Windows Phone 7 is doing "just fine".

[Winterfang]

Android can get to look pretty good with the right customizations but not everyone know how or has enough taste to do it.


A good example can be comparing Myspace/Android with Facebook/WP7. Myspace has (had?) way more customization and things to do while Facebook was simple yet barren.

Of course Facebook end up getting more features while not hurting your eyes so people end up going there.

 

[jalb]

Ugh, I went to the AT&T store today to see if they had Windows Phone certified SD cards. Nope. They don't. Nor do they sell them online. Nor do they know where I can get one. And they kept calling it a Windows 7 phone. Blegh.

 

[TheAngelOfElysium]

You know what, while I'm out tomorrow, I'll go ahead and run this little social experiment at the mall, since I'll be there anyways. There's a Phonestop, T-Mo kiosk...and that's it, now that I think of it, besides Cricket and Verizon. I'll have to find more shops around.

 

[Duvi]

Also... what I think M$ needs to do is have reps stay at these stores on a weekend, working a whole shift like they're an employee; preferably any where from 12-8 (busiest), to interact directly with customers. You can tell a rep all you want, but they will only push the product that they want to use. A majority of customers do not have the same needs/wants as a store rep, so they tend to push products they like, use and/or are comfortable with.

I was at the mall and this dude saw me playing with the Focus (was testing out the screen responsiveness) and the dude asked if I liked that phone in which I replied yes. He then tried to sell my the Atrix and the Torch. I happened to have both these devices on me as well as the Focus and told him how awesome the screen was and how I loved Metro UI. Well... dude didn't even understand me when I said the part about the Metro UI and just nodded and pretty much ended the convo. Lol. He realized I knew more than he could ever tell me.

I've been in stores and have sold customers on windows phone and the reps usually have this "who the heck he thinks he is" face on or "i'm glad he got the customer to commit to a phone because he was driving me crazy" nod.

I have a 100% success rate when telling those who have an Xbox to get a windows phone. My nephew is one of them and the dude uses it to check his gamerscore all day long like it's going to change without playing a game. Lol.

Another thing... start giving out free phones to wireless employees. Start a campaign where they have people going to different places in every state with a kiosk/booth educating and even having prizes for those who participate. People still think windows mobile when they think of windows phone.

 

[mmbond]

Shortly after I purchased my phone, I was in the Sprint store looking for Arrive Accessories, and a Rep there turned a kid away from the Arrive. He was insistent that the Android (Samsung and HTC phones) were "waaaay" better. I was kinda pissed. He was steering this kid toward the Evo Shift. When he walked away, I approached the kid and told him that the android phones were very good, but if he had time, he should play around with the Arrive some more. Explained a few things to him and he was very excited. Salesguy came back over and was not happy to say the least. Dont know what happened in the end, but kid thanked me for showing him that he had a choice.

Clearly at that location at least, they are in bed with Android. Makes me wonder if Sprint has instructed salesforce to push Android over WP7 or anything else for that matter. One thing that would help Microsoft besides better awareness (advertising), would have been to ensure that all handsets have 4g capability and the latest specs. That way no one could counter based on a hardware perspective. Even on CNET they are always pushing the latest and greatest hardware whether it truly affects performance or not. As well all know, perception is everything...

 

[Michael-Dallas]

Wow, interesting experiences. Mine was a little different.

I went to Best Buy, looked at the plastic dummies, then asked the Best Buy guy to tell me more about WP7. I wasn't expecting much as my previous experiences w/ Best Buy staff resulted in me getting more info from reading the packaging than the employee, but this dude was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about WP7. He whipped out an actual model (Surround) and showed me all the nifty features. I was ready to buy from him, but they didn't have the Focus.

So I went across the parking lot to an AT&T store and told the rep that I was interested in a WP7 phone, the Focus particularly, and he took me to that section and let me look at them w/o trying to sell me on Android or the iFruit. When I asked for differences between the WP7 phones, he went back and printed a comparison chart from Phonescoop and handed it to me, LOL.

Michael.

 

[jalb]

Oh wowsers, our best buy was even worse. The first guy I talked to smirked at me and said "we don't sell Window's Phones", and the second guy didn't know what they were at all. But then, when you say you went to Best Buy and looked at the plastic dummies, I assumed at first that you meant the sales people - that tells you how bad our Best Buy it.

 

[Winterfang]

LOL, I saw two of the rarest Windows Phone at my job today.

One guy had an LG Optimus ( first I one saw outside of mine ) and the other had a freaking Dell Venue Pro. ( I almost fainted when I saw it, It's huge )

The Optimus fella had it for a week or something but he knew every good tip already and we talked about apps, games and the Mango Update. How we where waiting for the Nokia phones but we the Optimus came out on our carrier we couldn't take it anymore. It was pretty exciting to now I'm not alone.

The Dell Venue guy was an old black man probably for the Bahamas or some small island, I had to teach him that you could pin contacts to the screen but the girl I pinned was from facebook and he say that he didn't talked to her much. It was kinda funny.


The point is that I'm seeing more of those phones in the wild.

 

[Michael-Dallas]

Oh wowsers, our best buy was even worse. The first guy I talked to smirked at me and said "we don't sell Window's Phones", and the second guy didn't know what they were at all. But then, when you say you went to Best Buy and looked at the plastic dummies, I assumed at first that you meant the sales people - that tells you how bad our Best Buy it.

It's the same here too, that's why I was mildly surprised.

I was even more surprised when the AT&T rep told me that the Focus didn't support microSD expansion so don't bother getting a microSD card. I wasn't going to argue so I just smiled and shrugged. Then I went home and researched the Focus (after purchasing it, of course) and the dude was [kinda] right!

Michael.

 

[Rhody#WP]

It's the same here too, that's why I was mildly surprised.

I was even more surprised when the AT&T rep told me that the Focus didn't support microSD expansion so don't bother getting a microSD card. I wasn't going to argue so I just smiled and shrugged. Then I went home and researched the Focus (after purchasing it, of course) and the dude was [kinda] right!

Michael.

I had the opposite experience at the Sprint store (the flagship store on Preston Rd.). This condescending, self-declared phone geek told me the Arrive had 4GB internal and a microSD slot for expanded storage (it actually has 16GB and no microSD slot). He said expandable storage is a standard feature you will find on all smart phones, to which I said, "except the iPhone." I say he was a condescending phone geek because when I told him I was unhappy with the battery life on the Evo, he pulled his from his belt clip and said, "I get three days on mine, but I'm a phone geek and you're just a user." Anyway, for such an arrogant dbag, he sure was wrong about most of what he said.

 

[Winterfang]

I had the opposite experience at the Sprint store (the flagship store on Preston Rd.). This condescending, self-declared phone geek told me the Arrive had 4GB internal and a microSD slot for expanded storage (it actually has 16GB and no microSD slot). He said expandable storage is a standard feature you will find on all smart phones, to which I said, "except the iPhone." I say he was a condescending phone geek because when I told him I was unhappy with the battery life on the Evo, he pulled his from his belt clip and said, "I get three days on mine, but I'm a phone geek and you're just a user." Anyway, for such an arrogant dbag, he sure was wrong about most of what he said.

Jeez what a d-bag. Thankfully I had never found nobody like that when buying my actual phone.

Funny story the brought me an Optimus S, ( Understandable I guess since it's named Optimus also) and ew there's no comparison, I think the Optimus 7 was the prettiest Optimus at the time.

Also when I activated my account the girl told me be sure to turn off facebook to save on battery life. I said: Thanks. ( It's my first Smartphone after all, so I didn't knew WP Facebook was not that good)

Then she told me I needed a Gmail account, and I was like Say whaaaat?. Then I told her this is from windows, then she reply. No this is an Android phone.

We went back and for a couple of times and I show her that it said Windows Phone on the back. She told me, she got wrong info but I wasn't mad because it was an old lady.

 

[Tobyus]

Ok so if I were to walk up my highstreet next week with a list of specifications that point perfectly to Windows Phone 7, I wonder how many reps would point me to a WP7 device.

If I were to think up specs that should get me pointed to a WP7 device they'd be:

Able to quickly search for public phone numbers
Great phone for downloading and playing music (should point me away from Android this one)
Very fast, very reliable
Great games available
Ability to read documents on the go
Full integration with Facebook

Anyone got any to add to that list? Remember I (and anyone else who want to try the experiment) will be saying this to sales staff which should point them to WP7, we don't want to make it obvious by saying things like "Microsoft Office support"

A couple of things I would add (from my personal must have list):

Netflix streaming support
Removable Battery

 

[Michael-Dallas]

I had the opposite experience at the Sprint store (the flagship store on Preston Rd.). This condescending, self-declared phone geek told me the Arrive had 4GB internal and a microSD slot for expanded storage (it actually has 16GB and no microSD slot). He said expandable storage is a standard feature you will find on all smart phones, to which I said, "except the iPhone." I say he was a condescending phone geek because when I told him I was unhappy with the battery life on the Evo, he pulled his from his belt clip and said, "I get three days on mine, but I'm a phone geek and you're just a user." Anyway, for such an arrogant dbag, he sure was wrong about most of what he said.

Yeah, that's pretty bold of the rep to make assumptions like that.

(I'm just up Preston Rd in Frisco)

Michael.

 

[wheelerk]

It is a very interesting point this one. In owning the phone I've showed it to several people, one 22 year old like myself who then bought an HD7.
My father (57) who used it for a few minutes, proclaimed "This just makes sense, and I can actually read all the fonts" (his eyes have been better) then bought an HD7.
Finally my uncle (42) who was looking to switch from his Nokia N97 mini, who then went and bought an LG.

Everyone who I show the phone to is very impressed by the OS and finds it intuitive and easy to use, even friends of mine using Android and iOS compliment the OS everytime they see me quickly replying to a text and responding to e-mails.

So it really begs the question, what is the issue here? The age range WP7 appeals to is staggering, and all the money in TV & billboard advertising will only get people to the store. I think Microsoft need to invest quite heavily in sending reps round to talk to sales staff and try and get past the stigma that's left over from Windows Mobile and the PDA years.

Microsoft has an online training site for sales associates for WP7. I went throught the training back in I believe September. The training stressed the importance of getting the phone in the user's hand. Show them a few features and let the phone sell itself. I think the training is right on, but I be the sales folks aren't take the course. There is even a certification test too.

 

[wheelerk]

Ugh, I went to the AT&T store today to see if they had Windows Phone certified SD cards. Nope. They don't. Nor do they sell them online. Nor do they know where I can get one. And they kept calling it a Windows 7 phone. Blegh.

Get a Kingson 32GB class 4 from Amazon. I bought mine right before I bought my Focus on Nov 8th. I have certified it. No issues here.