August 14 story on WPCentral is unbalanced and I don't buy it

[Jazmac]

I for one don't buy the very unbalanced Aug 14th story John Calahan posted from the IDC.
It happens anytime a major advance from WP drops, no matter what it is, bloggers tear at it. This time its 8.1 GDR 1, Cortana, Folders, Cyan and talk about HTC's M8/W8 coming, without fail, here come the tales of woe from the usual sources. Moreover, I think any of these reporting outfits given a big enough check will say anything those with an active interest in stopping WP wants them to say. Skewed statistics and news stories are not new and the very weak blogger community out there only care about page views. So here we are and its gonna get worse and more advanced the closer we get to the fall.
But whatever gets us talking and then believing of WP's demise, we'll get them. I still say we don't yet know what MS has in store for WP. Redmond continues to advance but they want to get it right, so they are not rushing things. I am still amazed with WP, Are you?

 

[Ashish Gupta888]

Numbers don't matter to me, at least! I am enjoying WP and will continue to do it, cheers

 

[z33dev33l]

Numbers don't matter to me, at least! I am enjoying WP and will continue to do it, cheers

I agree, I'm upset by the numbers but this guy is off his rocker

 

[Laura Knotek]

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[JamesPTao]

I for one don't buy the very unbalanced Aug 14th story John Calahan posted from the IDC.
It happens anytime a major advance from WP drops, no matter what it is, bloggers tear at it. This time its 8.1 GDR 1, Cortana, Folders, Cyan and talk about HTC's M8/W8 coming, without fail, here come the tales of woe from the usual sources. Moreover, I think any of these reporting outfits given a big enough check will say anything those with an active interest in stopping WP wants them to say. Skewed statistics and news stories are not new and the very weak blogger community out there only care about page views. So here we are and its gonna get worse and more advanced the closer we get to the fall.
But whatever gets us talking and then believing of WP's demise, we'll get them. I still say we don't yet know what MS has in store for WP. Redmond continues to advance but they want to get it right, so they are not rushing things. I am still amazed with WP, Are you?

I agree. Most bloggers are mostly clueless, but definently biased fanboys. Looking to bloggers for unbiased articles is like watching fox news looking for unbiased reporting. I love WP and will remain with them. Made the switch permanently two years ago and have no plans on turning back.

 

[teckris]

Even threads are flowing on WPC forums about END of WP!!

 

[snowmutt]

The main thing about this is to keep a larger perspective. If Samsung has a bad quarter or three, Android having over 80% of the market means someone else is picking up the slack. So sure, the GS5 sales have disappointed, but LG G3 sales have surged. As a result, Android itself looks fine.

Problem is, Nokia was almost 90% of WP sales. So, as Nokia sales have basically ground to a slow "thud" due to the purchase of the handset division by MS, no one else is there right now to fill that WP vacuum. HTC will have a nice option soon, but honestly does anyonethink one WP phone will fill the void left by a Nokia/MS slump right now?

Now, does this mean the death of WP? Or a lack of interest? No, not at all. It means there is no push from a WP manufacturer right now. But with WP 8.1 finally out and a ton of new manufacturers rolling out handsets slowly but surely AND MS ironing out the Nokia handset purchase, I feel WP is in good shape to recover any loss sales.

The overall stragety is the same for WP: Fight to own the lower end, budget, developing market sales. This will increase the overall % of smartphone sales. Then, developers will see the growth as viable and continue to get the WP store more apps. This, in turn, will support the middle and higher end device sales where WP is still looking to break out. The top countries for smartphone sales are the U.S., India, and China. WP needs to improve in those three countries. 2 of them expect lower end, cheaper devices that sing. One of them is a premium market. I believe the stragety is a good, long term one that will pay off.

The L520 proved this all by it's lonesome.

I hate that WP has to endure this bad press right now. Hoping that it will make it all the more sweeter when MS's investments in WP finally start paying off.

 

[Ian Too]

I have to agree with the OP, but that this is not news. That fact that tech sites would sound the death knell of WP given just one easily explainable bad quarter just shows how biased they are. It's time they realised that Windows Phone is an important third option for those of us who need a smart phone but for whom Android and iOS are simply unsuitable.

The BBC recently ran a story on the Hudl, a cheap Android tablet sold by Tesco's here in the UK. The article explains that when you reset your Hudl before selling it on eBay, the device only deletes directory, so all the user data is still recoverable by the new owner of the device using a freely available piece of software. This flaw is common to all Android tablets and I see no reason to think Android phones are any different.

Predictably, Google's response is: "If you sell or dispose of your device, we recommend you enable encryption on your device and apply a factory reset beforehand,". Once more it becomes the customer's responsibility to cover the weakness' of Google's platform and once more, non-technical people are expected to understand and master skills without the slightest guidance. Potentially millions of people are laid bare to identity theft and nobody is told until the BBC raises the issue.

Why aren't we technophiles outraged by this negligence? These potential victims are our friends and family. Don't we have a duty of care to these people and isn't my stance of don't buy Android EVER proven as fully justified?

Google are at the head of a chain of shame that includes OEMs like: Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony, retailers like Tesco, Expansys, Clove, Carphone Warehouse, service providers like Verizon, AT&T, Vodaphone, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile and salespeople in shops like Carphone Warehouse and others. Any of these people could have asked the question 'what happens to the user's data when they get rid of the device?', but none of them did; they just took the money.

This is of course, just history repeating itself. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, millions of PCs were sold without adequate protection for users who were not technically able to protect themselves. As Paul Thurott said, Android is the new Windows. Android is both ubiquitous and unsafe, and that is nothing short of a shameful disgrace.

Ironically though, the only people who seemed to have learned anything is Microsoft and they are the ones being pilloried by the technical press, who have to join Google at the head of the chain of shame.

 

[Aggemam]

Two years ago I convinced my GF to buy a Nokia Lumia 710. She loved it. This april she was free from the contract and went looking for a new phone. I coulden't point her to a new WP at that time, and told her to wait for one of the upcoming models like 730 or 830. But she coulden't wait and bought a Sammy S4 mini. She have had it for 3-4 months now and she hates it! Only good thing about it, she says, is the wider range of games available. Other than that she feels it's unnecessarily complicated. Next time she'll be getting a WP again.

My hope is more people will have similar experiences. Problem is, people tend to use/get what they know. It's hard to make the switch.