Has Microsoft lost faith in Windows Phone?

[Matthew Mazzenga]

The Zune Software is redundant and probably shoulnd't exist. It doens't do anything WMP cannot do (it actually does a ton less than WMP) except access the the Zune and App Marketplace. I don't know what Microsoft was thinking making a redundant piece of software when they already have a media player basically built into the OS.

I gotta admit, I never understood this either. I forced myself into using Zune on the desktop, since I had to have it anyway for the WP phone, but I really don't like it much. I've gone back to using WMP becuase, well it works. It does everything I need it to do (unrelated to the phone, of course) and it's already there. I don't see why they couldn't have just taken the few functionalities of Zune that aren't in WMP, and added them into it.

When I had an iPhone, I hated having to have iTunes on my desktop, because the phone was the only reason I had to have it. Now I'm in the same boat with Zune.

 

[KingCrimson]

I honestly can't believe that some people think Windows Phone is stagnant. The Lumia 800 is currently selling out all over the UK. 2012 is going to be a big year for wp7. That's for sure.

Merry Christmas, peeps.

New Nokia smartphone fails to turn tide - Reuters -

Maybe the Lumia 800 has sold out on occasion, but from small amounts. Whereas the iPhone sells out daily at a rate of a million. I tried to reserve an iPhone 4S last night and there were none!

 

[Big Supes]

New Nokia smartphone fails to turn tide - Reuters -

Maybe the Lumia 800 has sold out on occasion, but from small amounts. Whereas the iPhone sells out daily at a rate of a million. I tried to reserve an iPhone 4S last night and there were none!

Put lightly - surveys from some blogger? The proof is in the pudding. What service providers decided to stock the 800, ran out of stock. It doesn't get any better than that.

The iSheep will always want the next gadget that has an 'i' in front of it.

 

[littlesteelo16]

Again, ****ing analysts. What does some financial company know about this? Every single report of WP failing has come from some sort of industry analysts. Wait until we get the official WP global sales numbers for November and December, and then we can see how the Nokia phones and the other new mango devices have sold. People are basing these opinions on October sales figures, when few people will have bought devices.

 

[Kahuna Cowboy]

Burying your head in the sand won't change the fact MS is not gaining any meaningful traction in the mobile phone market. Yes, Titan and Lumia 800 "seem" to be doing well, but we don't know how many units have made it to the market for sale. People bought like crazy in October, they just bought the iPhone 4S. It's always something in some people eyes, it's the carriers not pushing WP enough, it's the closed minded iPhone owners, it's the Android stranglehold, it's not enough marketing..... it's never the overall mass appeal of WP.

I mean come on, warmed over Android hardware circa 2010 specs, a UI that does nothing more than iPhone, and a heck of a lot less than Android. A dozen or so actual live tiles. Once you get past the pin screen people are greeted with a line item Windows'esqe file tree. A woefully lacking app store, and virtually no interegration with existing Microsoft products beyond a nifty Xbox remote, syncing with Zune, and MS Office on a phone screen that no one in their right mind would work on.

WP is a work in progress, and until MS addresses the above the only people who will make the jump to WP will be those who are just tired of iPhone or Android. It's simply not ready for prime time to lure people away from the big two. It has no hook beyond a pin screen, a small handful of live tiles, and Facebook interegration that I think is more of a hindrance than a selling feature. I don't want my whole Facebook friends list merged in with all my contacts, the WP FB app and hub is lacking many features than the iOS and droid counterparts anyhow.

Mango was supposed to be the "big get" that would launch WP, the the Nokia phones were supposed to do that. Now it's Tango that will spur the WP into the stratosphere.... Yeah, something tells me once Tango hits and Microsoft once again over promises and under delivers we will hear how Apollo will be the one.

 

[littlesteelo16]

Burying your head in the sand won't change the fact MS is not gaining any meaningful traction in the mobile phone market. Yes, Titan and Lumia 800 "seem" to be doing well, but we don't know how many units have made it to the market for sale. People bought like crazy in October, they just bought the iPhone 4S. It's always something in some people eyes, it's the carriers not pushing WP enough, it's the closed minded iPhone owners, it's the Android stranglehold, it's not enough marketing..... it's never the overall mass appeal of WP.

I mean come on, warmed over Android hardware circa 2010 specs, a UI that does nothing more than iPhone, and a heck of a lot less than Android. A dozen or so actual live tiles. Once you get past the pin screen people are greeted with a line item Windows'esqe file tree. A woefully lacking app store, and virtually no interegration with existing Microsoft products beyond a nifty Xbox remote, syncing with Zune, and MS Office on a phone screen that no one in their right mind would work on.

WP is a work in progress, and until MS addresses the above the only people who will make the jump to WP will be those who are just tired of iPhone or Android. It's simply not ready for prime time to lure people away from the big two. It has no hook beyond a pin screen, a small handful of live tiles, and Facebook interegration that I think is more of a hindrance than a selling feature. I don't want my whole Facebook friends list merged in with all my contacts, the WP FB app and hub is lacking many features than the iOS and droid counterparts anyhow.

Mango was supposed to be the "big get" that would launch WP, the the Nokia phones were supposed to do that. Now it's Tango that will spur the WP into the stratosphere.... Yeah, something tells me once Tango hits and Microsoft once again over promises and under delivers we will hear how Apollo will be the one.

While it is true that WP has gained little market share, we still need to wait for sales figures before we can see how it has actually performed. Whilst advertising has been lacking in the US, here in the UK and Europe we have been bombarded with ads for the Lumia 800 and the other mango devices. If that hasn't spurred sales, then the phone industry is lost to iOS and Android.

The good thing is that MS won't let it die. They know they have a decent product, and can easily afford to throw the necessary money at it to keep it going. If WP wasn't made by Microsoft, they would be in the same position as Palm, and soon to be RIM. It will be a very slow growth at first, but as long as MS stick with it, which it looks like they intend to, it will eventually become a big player.

 

[scottcraft]

The way some of you guys talk WP has nothing at all going for it that would make someone want to buy one. I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what I missed about android and iPhone that makes it so much better. I had a droid, I played with all of the new at the time androids and my wife has an iPhone. Where did I go wrong in picking WP? Maybe I should have let the sales rep charm me with the virtues of motoblur and HTC sense that do so much more without being slick and smooth. Or maybe I should have listened to them tell me more about the retina display and massive app store Apple offers with the iPhone. Somehow I managed to end up with a phone that does exactly what I want every time I want it to do it and manages to look nice doing it. If a WP can do this for me is it too hard to imagine that others could choose this platform over android and iPhone?

Sent from my Windows 7 Phone using Board Express

 

[Silverdogz]

If Microsoft renamed the Windows Phone so it wouldn't sound like Windows Mobile they would draw more customers.

Sent from my FOCUS S using Board Express

 

[HeyCori]

You know what else won't help Microsoft? "You" (not in the literally sense) complaining about low sales every week. Being afraid to buy and convincing others to be afraid to buy doesn't help anyone. You vote with your wallet. If you want a product to succeed then support it. Go out and convince others how good it is. Playing armchair analyst isn't enough.

Android launched in 2008 but it has really exploded in the past year and a half. That also means that Android struggled out of the gate and it really took a while to gain traction. Same with the original iPhone. However, with constant marketing and word-of-month Android has exploded. Now Microsoft is fighting off two giants that are backed by two giant companies (Apple/Google). You can even toss RIM in there. From the beginning I knew it was going to be a drag out fight but that's not going to stop me from enjoying my Windows Phone to the fullest and it shouldn't stop you.

 

[martin_strahilovski]

One of my friends neighbor has bought LG Optimus 7 and here in Macedonia in my city there is just one more Optimus 7. Selling here is very good. We have Radar, Surround, Optimus 7, Focus and they are selling very well. Still waiting for some Lumia series to hit Macedonian market You can judge someones market on EU markets when you don't have enough info from every country where the Windows Phone 7.5 are selling. So, from my experiences and people around me buying WP 7.5 phones i know that the numbers are just wrong.

 

[scottcraft]

You know what else won't help Microsoft? "You" (not in the literally sense) complaining about low sales every week. Being afraid to buy and convincing others to be afraid to buy doesn't help anyone. You vote with your wallet. If you want a product to succeed then support it. Go out and convince others how good it is. Playing armchair analyst isn't enough.

I agree. Seems like so many are worried about whether the platform will grow or not when they should buy it if they like it. No one really knows how this will turn out, so why not give it a shot?

 

[littlesteelo16]

You know what else won't help Microsoft? "You" (not in the literally sense) complaining about low sales every week. Being afraid to buy and convincing others to be afraid to buy doesn't help anyone. You vote with your wallet. If you want a product to succeed then support it. Go out and convince others how good it is. Playing armchair analyst isn't enough.

Android launched in 2008 but it has really exploded in the past year and a half. That also means that Android struggled out of the gate and it really took a while to gain traction. Same with the original iPhone. However, with constant marketing and word-of-month Android has exploded. Now Microsoft is fighting off two giants that are backed by two giant companies (Apple/Google). You can even toss RIM in there. From the beginning I knew it was going to be a drag out fight but that's not going to stop me from enjoying my Windows Phone to the fullest and it shouldn't stop you.

I think the same also applies to the number of apps. People complain about there only being 50,000, yet when iOS and Android were a year old, they both had similar numbers. What do people expect? 500,000 apps in 12 months?

Also, RIM is going down the pan. Slowly, but surely. The existing software/hardware is getting old, the service outage didn't help, and the new OS been delayed until next year. That is the final nail in the coffin. It will hopefully open the market up a bit more for WP.

 

[KingCrimson]

Burying your head in the sand won't change the fact MS is not gaining any meaningful traction in the mobile phone market. Yes, Titan and Lumia 800 "seem" to be doing well, but we don't know how many units have made it to the market for sale. People bought like crazy in October, they just bought the iPhone 4S. It's always something in some people eyes, it's the carriers not pushing WP enough, it's the closed minded iPhone owners, it's the Android stranglehold, it's not enough marketing..... it's never the overall mass appeal of WP.

To be fair, the Samsung Galaxy SII is outselling the iPhone 4S in many markets. But between those 2 phones they are dominating the entire market.

 

[Big Supes]

I just don't understand this logic that Windows Phone will run before it can walk. You just can't go into the smart phone world and expect, after a year, that you'll make a huge impact. MS are aware of this and everything surrounding WP and Windows 8 points towards the long haul - the bigger picture.

My only complaint at the moment regarding MS is their marketing... mainly advertising. They need to take a look at Nokia's recent campaign, as these cheesy American (no offence) adverts don't cut the mustard in Europe.

 

[N8ter]

They don't cut it here either.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[GekkoAce]

It seems simple to me... MS is trying to get the word out that they've changed. If they can get a few users on iOS or Android to download their app and say to themselves "This isn't half bad" then MS is making progress. MS has a HUGE brand name problem to overcome before WP7 can take off.

 

[N8ter]

I think brand name has a lot less to do with it than people are convincing themselves.

Lots of people simply won't move regardless, because ecosystems lock you in.

They aren't going to throw away potentially hundreds in app-media purchases and perhaps even allow themselves to be forced to use services they don't want (like Windows Live) just cause the OS looks good. Most iOS users I've spoken to won't consider this platform precisely because they don't want to sign up for Windows Live, a service that is nigh impossible to cancel after you create an account. They sight privacy issues. On the flip side, it takes 10 seconds to delete a Google Account and you can use any email address as your Apple ID. iCloud barely asks for any information (uses your Apple ID acct for that).

Money talks.

And that's not even going into the fact that many iPhone users are also Mac users and some of them are deeply entrenched. Apple TV is cheap to buy, etc.

The average Android user is oblivious to the issues we discuss here, or most of them anyways, an are perfectly content with their devices.

With wp having so little market share, there is very little word of mouth advertising, and a higher proportion of it is negative due to that. I think that hurts more than what the OS is called. Windows Phone is actually pretty good branding for the product.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[Big Supes]

They don't cut it here either.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

They must be even worse over there then!!!

 

[N8ter]

I think picking on blackberry was the wrong move. Would have been nice if they launched with commercials showing galaxy s phones freezing and lagging.

A phone to save us from out phone was a failure. Most people don't know what that means and when you're in te business of making money and selling phones you don't want to save people. You want them coming back every year paying a premium for them like apple and android customers.

It was just a bad concept, though some of the commercials were witty... At least to someone who has used a blackberry

I would have much preferred a more Zune Centric advertising campaign. The Xbox remote should have launched a lot sooner, perhaps with a Zune PC remote app integrated into the hub. They needed one phone with an exceptional camera as well. Launching with ffc and Skype would have also boosted their sales a bit.

Mango is decent, but people forget what the OS was like prior to mango. Aside from a refreshing UI, it was rather barren and reviewers constantly branded it as basically beta software. A lot of people who gave wp a look back then and didn't buy it may still have the perception of a half finished smartphone OS missing a ton of basic functionality.

First impressions really do last. Squandering the launch hurt them more than anything IMO.

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[littlesteelo16]

I think brand name has a lot less to do with it than people are convincing themselves.

Lots of people simply won't move regardless, because ecosystems lock you in.

They aren't going to throw away potentially hundreds in app-media purchases and perhaps even allow themselves to be forced to use services they don't want (like Windows Live) just cause the OS looks good. Most iOS users I've spoken to won't consider this platform precisely because they don't want to sign up for Windows Live, a service that is nigh impossible to cancel after you create an account. They sight privacy issues. On the flip side, it takes 10 seconds to delete a Google Account and you can use any email address as your Apple ID. iCloud barely asks for any information (uses your Apple ID acct for that).

Money talks.

I was in the same position. I have probably spent nearly a couple of hundred pounds on apps/games since I got my first iOS device, the 1st gen iPod touch. I do regret spending so much, but it was over 4 years, so it doesn't seem too bad. I just got so bored with the iPhone that I had to switch to WP.

The Windows Live thing was fine with me, since I already had my account for my Xbox. I refuse, however, to put my card details on it, which pretty much prevents me from buying apps (not necessarily a bad thing). A few years ago, I had my Live account 'hacked', and had hundreds of pounds worth of stuff bought with it. Luckily, Microsoft's fraud department is fantastic, and they refunded me the money, and I got to keep all the games and MS points that were downloaded. I still however don't want to risk it again.

I may still go back to iOS in the future due to the amount of apps I bought, but until Apple rethink their OS, it won't be for a while.