How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

[anon(50597)]

What happened to Groove?

 

[Jackie Earley]

Microsoft killed Groove Music Pass today. Going to be a local media player after December I believe.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-surrenders-spotify-kills-groove

 

[Bobvfr]

Groove will still be available as an app to listen to local and OneDrive music, but they are killing music pass, basically for a lot of us, killing off Groove, and killing off any chance of MS having any future in the consumer market, I have been a big advocate and fan of Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, my house is full of MS stuff, but how can I justify buying an Xbox One X as an update for my entertainment system when I now have 0 confidence in anything MS do, we all know they were retrenching for WP (It was dead a year ago) but this in my mind means they are quitting the consumer market altogether, will Films and TV be next, will they support any entertainment presence in the Xbox, will they kill that off, what service or product will they drop next. I have wasted so much time and effort to have an integrated system based around MS products, and that is without the money, we have three Groove accounts in our house, paid for it for 5 years and they drop it and tell us to go to Spotify.

Sorry to say I cannot trust them any more.

 

[anon(50597)]

Sad. There’s no rhyme nor reason for what they do and how they treat customers.

 

[mutant 9]

The app gap was their issue last year. Now there is now amount of apps that will fix this. They don't have a platform that is compelling for consumers. The PC market is shrinking. Mobile is where the investment is going. Without a phone platform MS will allways be irrelevant on the large scale. Not wanting to compete in mobile and giving up killed them. We will soon see the collapse of the rest of their services. Groove is gone, soon movies and TV, Cortana will fade to the background. The store will also be in trouble.

Their half *** attempt to stay in the mobile game the last 3 years and their recent bowing out of the space will take them out of this market. The next big thing they are working on if it comes out next year even if successful will not kill the phone immediately. They are on the sidelines for the next 4-5 years for sure.

I have been a fan of MS but have to say their decisions were made to get short term financial gains instead of long term strength.

 

[Jackie Earley]

I know at the end of the day, these companies are here for profits. The problem is, constantly getting consumers hopes up, along periods of silence, and then giving up on them is bad business. While their profits will benefit in the short term during all of this, in the long term, customers will choose not to be played by Microsoft again. Everything they were doing was setting them up for long term success if they kept at it. Instead, now they just give up on everything. This mentality of we will try something and then back out, will affect any future products and services. At this point, if they were to have even half the apps iOS and Android have, consumer confidence is lost. I was one of those all-in-Microsoft types. Band, Lumia, Surface, Xbox(Gold Subscriber), OneDrive (Subscriber), Groove (Subscriber), OneNote, Skype, Outlook, Cortana, and Office (365 Subscriber).

Not trying to get off topic but its all related. My Windows phone was my default gateway to everything Microsoft related to include Xbox (used the app heavily for social). Band was an extension of my Windows phone which augmented the experience. Skype was my SMS/IM/Video conferencing tool that was built it. Groove was my DAILY music streaming service that I enjoyed using because it was on all of my devices to include Xbox and with OneDrive music folder integration, i had everything and more. Cortana built in natively helped keep me organized and she popped up all over the place natively ensuring I never had to worry about anything. The overall seamless integration of all of these "apps" on my Windows phone is the reason why I still use it today and currently STILL considering an HP Elite X3. This is because despite playing around with Samsung's and Apple's latest offerings, they pale in comparison in the user experience that was being cultivated on Windows phones.

Because of this seamless experience and integration, the app gap didn't apply to me. I'm a very productive person and this phone helped me more than when I was carrying an iPhone or Android phone when trying to figure out which platform I could possibly go to. As for apps needed, as long as Microsoft continues to "retrench" mobile, killing off their own apps, and deploying new and maintaining current apps on competing platforms, you can dump 500,000 new apps and people are still going to second guess the decision to jump.

As for Microsoft saying use Spotify instead of Groove, Spotify already failed multiple times while streaming music yesterday and today on my Lumia 950. Good partnership Microsoft. Take the app that works away and tell me to use an app that has limited functionality compared to Groove and doesn't work properly.

So add Spotify to that listed of apps needed to delay the inevitable.

 

[anon(5327127)]

How many apps does MS need?

Just 1. The one app that the person wants to use. Without that 1 app the person already doesn't want the entire platform. "Can I get this?"
"No."

Buys an Android or iPhone.