Folks who make up the 1% - why are you holding on?

[Nokia_Lumia]

Really liked Windows Mobile, the old "Android". Didn't like Windows Phone 7 at first, but it grew on me. Loved the Nokia design, amazing camera, and enhanced capabilities of Windows Phone 8 vs. 7. Was very impressed with 8.1, and even bought an 8.1 RT 2520 Nokia tablet, also being in love with the design, colors, and the smoothness of the OS. My love evolved for sure, but I just cannot bring myself to like Windows 10. It is buggy, unstable, and ugly compared to 8.1. It is unfortunate that instead of a polished product we have a continuous beta test. And what happened to the wonderful Nokia designs? I guess the current products are from their pipeline, and there is no reason to blame Microsoft.

 

[Grimwar]

^ The tactical goal is to have an UWP capable option available at all form factors. That includes phones. IMHO that's the better way of describing the phone aspect of MS' strategy. For some people this is hard to understand, since it's a software centric strategy, which is comparatively abstract, particularly for folks who aren't accustomed to thinking beyond hardware sales.

I love you too a5cent? Well sorry no i love Bill More
Yes you said it so clear, It's the software link or for Windows 10 the complete link!
One Ring too rule.......i know Cortana is Evil

 

[GazH71]

My first phone was an iPhone 4S and wow, I couldn't get rid of that thing quick enough. As soon as the contract was up I sold it on eBay and moved to my current Lumia 640XL. I was a bit meh with 8.1 but W10M is just fantastic, I love the integration with the PC. But that's where my new problem has arisen from. Who the hell is making the decisions at Microsoft's mobile division?

They had the perfect selling point there, the way the phone and the desktop work together, the new anniversary edition adding the ability to get notifications from the phone and reply to text messages, etc. But instead of making it purely a Windows thing, where people would need a Windows Phone to be able to get that link, they instead add the whole thing to Cortana and hand it out like candy to the Android and iOS users. What the..?

I've signed up to the subscription for Groove Music, I get all my music from the desktop onto the phone and vice versa, but you can get the Groove app on Android and iOS too. I purchase movies from the store, same deal there. Windows Store apps? I can get the same apps and more on Android or iOS.

I just don't get it. Did someone say, "Here, Microsoft, take this gun.. oh, and this foot of yours.. yeah, you know what to do.". If they want to sell more mobile devices they need to make a reason for people to purchase those mobile devices. If they're giving every other damn mobile device in the universe the same perks as the Windows Phone, what do they expect? They're never going to get over that 1% share.

The integration between desktop and mobile was the perfect selling point and they've just given that away. Madness.

That said, I'm sticking with WIndows Mobile because I hate the iOS and Android looks like an ugly cluttered mess of icons and menus. Here's hoping Microsoft actually realise they have their own devices to sell, not just the software.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

My first phone was an iPhone 4S and wow, I couldn't get rid of that thing quick enough. As soon as the contract was up I sold it on eBay and moved to my current Lumia 640XL. I was a bit meh with 8.1 but W10M is just fantastic, I love the integration with the PC. But that's where my new problem has arisen from. Who the hell is making the decisions at Microsoft's mobile division?

They had the perfect selling point there, the way the phone and the desktop work together, the new anniversary edition adding the ability to get notifications from the phone and reply to text messages, etc. But instead of making it purely a Windows thing, where people would need a Windows Phone to be able to get that link, they instead add the whole thing to Cortana and hand it out like candy to the Android and iOS users. What the..?

I've signed up to the subscription for Groove Music, I get all my music from the desktop onto the phone and vice versa, but you can get the Groove app on Android and iOS too. I purchase movies from the store, same deal there. Windows Store apps? I can get the same apps and more on Android or iOS.

I just don't get it. Did someone say, "Here, Microsoft, take this gun.. oh, and this foot of yours.. yeah, you know what to do.". If they want to sell more mobile devices they need to make a reason for people to purchase those mobile devices. If they're giving every other damn mobile device in the universe the same perks as the Windows Phone, what do they expect? They're never going to get over that 1% share.

The integration between desktop and mobile was the perfect selling point and they've just given that away. Madness.

That said, I'm sticking with WIndows Mobile because I hate the iOS and Android looks like an ugly cluttered mess of icons and menus. Here's hoping Microsoft actually realise they have their own devices to sell, not just the software.

In brief, MS gets money and visibility by having apps across all systems and not just exclusive to MS products only. MS knows that even if they kept all MS apps exclusive to the windows products only, it still wouldn't bring in new users since ios or android users will claim the lack of apps such as the google ecosystem or games or obscure apps. So better to have office mobile running on over 300 million mobile devices than on 3 million windows mobile devices. It's also about data gathering and research

 

[Chintan Gohel]

At present stage, MS is not about hardware but dominantly about software and it always has been about software. MS wants their software to be used by as many people as possible and that means having applications and software available for all systems, regardless of who the competition is. What's the share of MS in the 2 in 1s market? Can we complain when an ipad or an android tablet has word or powerpoint when we know these bring revenue to MS?

 

[a5cent]

I love you too a5cent? Well sorry no i love Bill More

Damnit! I knew this was gonna be my bad luck day. So, who's Bill More? :wink:

 

[libra89]

At present stage, MS is not about hardware but dominantly about software and it always has been about software. MS wants their software to be used by as many people as possible and that means having applications and software available for all systems, regardless of who the competition is. What's the share of MS in the 2 in 1s market? Can we complain when an ipad or an android tablet has word or powerpoint when we know these bring revenue to MS?

This.
Can't forget that Microsoft is really a software company first. For reference, Cortana kind of sucks on iOS, so I have it installed, but I never really use it. Cortana on Android is better, but not better than it on Windows Mobile.

 

[theefman]

^ The tactical goal is to have an UWP capable option available at all form factors. That includes phones. IMHO that's the better way of describing the phone aspect of MS' strategy. For some people this is hard to understand, since it's a software centric strategy, which is comparatively abstract, particularly for folks who aren't accustomed to thinking beyond hardware sales.

But how does that strategy work when there is no significant hardware install base, which is the way things are going now as Microsoft withdraws from their dominant position? Do we really expect Microsoft to continue to develop the software for a practically non existent userbase? That work involves expending resources to develop, test, and support and the software is now free so there is no direct revenue stream to make that worthwhile. They may be taking a software centric approach but software runs on hardware, so we cant ignore it when the available hardware is declining significantly at an ever increasing rate.

Sent from mTalk on my Acer A12

 

[Chintan Gohel]

This.
Can't forget that Microsoft is really a software company first. For reference, Cortana kind of sucks on iOS, so I have it installed, but I never really use it. Cortana on Android is better, but not better than it on Windows Mobile.

Others may differ with you on Cortana on windows :winktongue:

The current strategy seems that MS wants other phone companies to develop their own phones for W10M as opposed to MS doing it themselves. Let's be realistic, if you just have one manufacturer of a phone that uses windows, the kinds of phones you get will severely limited. But having at least a dozen manufacturers developing and selling the phones will result in a higher variety and more chance of unique features

 

[a5cent]

But how does that strategy work when there is no significant hardware install base, which is the way things are going now as Microsoft withdraws from their dominant position? Do we really expect Microsoft to continue to develop the software for a practically non existent userbase? That work involves expending resources to develop, test, and support and the software is now free so there is no direct revenue stream to make that worthwhile. They may be taking a software centric approach but software runs on hardware, so we cant ignore it when the available hardware is declining significantly at an ever increasing rate.

I started working on an answer to your post and soon realized I'd have to write an article to really make my point... which I'm far too lazy for. Maybe if WCentral decided to pay me for it ;-)

I do think there are viable enterprise-developer focused approaches where MS could reasonably ignore market share and the selection of hardware afforded to consumers, with it still being reasonable for MS to continue making significant investments into W10M. Would Terry Myerson pursue such an approach? I have no idea. I've already sent him dozens of pictures with puppys and kittens that will "get it" if he doesn't spill the beans, but he's apparently without a heart ;-)

 

[Shamshi-Adad]

They can't and won't get rid of windows mobile because it's part of the windows 10 family. They need it running so that the whole system can be complete. Updates are being released every month, bugs are being squashed, features are being added at a rapid pace -all this cannot mean that the mobile arm is dying

YESSSS !!!!!!! :winktongue:

Peace. Alan
MS Lumia ICON 929 [Win10 M, Insider Preview, Redstone 14393.5]

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Others may differ with you on Cortana on windows :winktongue:

Cortana, base for advanced functionality in W10, available ... Well, the list of countries where it works is more miserable than soaking wet cat

 

[PGrey]

^ The tactical goal is to have an UWP capable option available at all form factors. That includes phones. IMHO that's the better way of describing the phone aspect of MS' strategy. For some people this is hard to understand, since it's a software centric strategy, which is comparatively abstract, particularly for folks who aren't accustomed to thinking beyond hardware sales.

This. An excellent summary, of the ecosystem as a "whole", which is how MS views it, and will continue to implement it. They're invested in the end-to-end, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.
Thinking of Windows as an abstract layer on top of various h/w makes this simpler, as a5cent has noted.
If mobile starts to gain ground, well that's even better, but either way, it will persist for the foreseeable future.

 

[PGrey]

Others may differ with you on Cortana on windows :winktongue:

The current strategy seems that MS wants other phone companies to develop their own phones for W10M as opposed to MS doing it themselves. Let's be realistic, if you just have one manufacturer of a phone that uses windows, the kinds of phones you get will severely limited. But having at least a dozen manufacturers developing and selling the phones will result in a higher variety and more chance of unique features

Yes! The competition will hopefully enrich things again, now.

Yeah, I have a good example here, in terms of Cortana.

I used to work on a bunch of voice components at a key voice implementer, and owned a bunch of agents, or areas of voice technology (it's all insanely more complex than most can imagine, believe me...), both as a tech PM and development lead.
Anyway, Cortana on 8.x was my "gold standard" to test against, even a couple of years back, it almost always beat out our agents. I can't say who it was (it's a background co. anyway, most don't know it), but I will say it's on a lot more phone devices than Cortana.
I LOVE to pull out my Windows phone, and say "let's see what Cortana will do" when everyone is pulling out their Apple, Samsung, LG, whatever phones. Cortana almost always wins, hands-down.
I don't know why MS doesn't do a better job of telling the world about this fact, it truly baffles me.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I LOVE to pull out my Windows phone, and say "let's see what Cortana will do" when everyone is pulling out their Apple, Samsung, LG, whatever phones. Cortana almost always wins, hands-down.
I don't know why MS doesn't do a better job of telling the world about this fact, it truly baffles me.

I think they are doing this, through the pc though

 

[shibiyi]

I am still sticking to windows because i hate the fact that android is not secured enough amd it scares me Apple product with their old specs are always too expensive for me and there is nothing exciting there for me. If i will jump ship, it will be for another dying platform. The BlackBerry. Why? I use my mobile strictly for work and a few entertainment ( music and movies) so blackberry will just fine but for now i am loving windows and i am staying.

 

[anon(50597)]

I have a BB10 device, an Android device, and recently sold my iPhone 6.
As the improvements to W10M have come, my Lumia 950 has become my go to device because it gives me the smoothest, most satisfying experience. I could nitpick about things but they cannot overturn the overall experience of my 950. Extremely satisfied.

 

[libra89]

I have a BB10 device, an Android device, and recently sold my iPhone 6.
As the improvements to W10M have come, my Lumia 950 has become my go to device because it gives me the smoothest, most satisfying experience. I could nitpick about things but they cannot overturn the overall experience of my 950. Extremely satisfied.

I must ask, why did you sell your iPhone 6? Was it for the 950? I'm not going to lie, considering what I have heard about the 950, it is tempting to give it a try, just to see how it goes for me. I need a buyer for one of my phones though :grincry:

 

[anon(50597)]

I must ask, why did you sell your iPhone 6? Was it for the 950? I'm not going to lie, considering what I have heard about the 950, it is tempting to give it a try, just to see how it goes for me. I need a buyer for one of my phones though :grincry:

Personal preference is the best answer I can give you. There is no doubt the iPhone is a great device that works for many people. I find it......boring is the best I can describe it. Since this is a bit of a hobby for me, I need to be excited about which device I use and the iPhone just doesn't cut it for some reason. My wife and many, many others find it appealing.

The 950, as I stated earlier, feels right. I enjoy the live tiles, glance, the removable battery and sd slot. It just works better for me.

 

[libra89]

Personal preference is the best answer I can give you. There is no doubt the iPhone is a great device that works for many people. I find it......boring is the best I can describe it. Since this is a bit of a hobby for me, I need to be excited about which device I use and the iPhone just doesn't cut it for some reason. My wife and many, many others find it appealing.

The 950, as I stated earlier, feels right. I enjoy the live tiles, glance, the removable battery and sd slot. It just works better for me.

Ohh okay, I see. Thank you for the response. I do agree about the iPhone being boring, it is.