How MS Can improve WP7 Sales ?

[gibbyhome]

I was woundering what eveyone heres throughts are on how Microsoft can improve the sales of Windows Phones.

We all know that when nokia starts selling phones that will help but what else can they do?

1 I think they should have more MS people in Best Buy pushing Phones like they do with Xbox at Best Buy.

2 they should also be in carrier stores as well helping the reps make sales or in malls ..

3 I think the bigest thing that will help is when they pass Blackberry in the app store which should be soon since they are at what almost 18,000 app and BB has what 22,000 ?
They should start advertising about how they have more apps in the apps sore than BB does in only 6 months with much much more to come !! I think this is a big one sicne the biggest coment I get from friends about WP7 is yea its cool but they don't have any Apps..

What do you think they should do because really there nothing anyone can say about the phone it really is a great device .. its not crapware in any way.. its all about selling this product.
they need to push the wow factor like Apple is so famous at..

 

[jalb]

They need to send reps to the carrier stores, imho. When I went to buy my Focus, the store manager helped me, and didn't even show me the WP phones when I said I wanted to see the smart phones. When I asked him to show me the focus, he begrudgingly showed it to me and actively tried to talk me out of it.

 

[cdook]

Yea it seems like when you go into a store the first phone AT&T steers you toward is the iPhone. Verizon is usually pushing whatever the new Droid phone is. WP7 never gets any love.

 

[jimski]

Hey, I don't expect all these phone retailers to be instant WP converts, but if I go in asking for a Windows Phone, and the return rate is not 50%, then at least don't try to discourage me. And please make sure the demos are all working. Not asking for any special consideration. Just a level playing field. That's fair.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[anon(5327037)]

AT&T was cool about it. I think Microsoft just needs to advertise more aggressively and do what they did to win the game console market...go after exclusives with cash.

 

[jalb]

They also just need time. There's a lot of poor animus to overcome from old Winmo. If they do like they did with the Xbox, and simply commit to the market with cash and patience, they will overcome that inertia.

 

[mcetlinski]

The best thing they can do is come out with a good marketing campaign like we saw the android and specifically the Droid phones get. All it takes is for the many uninformed non technical folks to see something that looks exciting and they will buy it. They just need to keep at it. Microsoft has never been a great advertising powerhouse. Windows 7 has had an ok campaign. Hopefully they learned from that and will soon up the ante.

Also the education at the retailer level is important but I think its also not as critical because many people already know what they want before they go in. When they do get there if someone attempts to down play what they think they want then the buyer will just become frustrated and be more likely to buy the device they did come in for. The sales force today is plain sad as all they want to do is bash every other device and put only one type on a pedestal. Bad form and reduced sales. Microsoft has no control over that so they are best at focusing on the sales front in the media. If they create the excitment there then the sales force will only have to follow as more and more excited customers come in to retailers. Sales associates will then become pawns of the wp7.

 

[gibbyhome]

Hey, I don't expect all these phone retailers to be instant WP converts, but if I go in asking for a Windows Phone, and the return rate is not 50%, then at least don't try to discourage me. And please make sure the demos are all working. Not asking for any special consideration. Just a level playing field. That's fair.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

I sooo Agree with this comment !! very true.

 

[gibbyhome]

what about giant touch screen displays where the user walks in and sees and even touches ..

 

[hardrock1a]

Marketing Idea:
You know how at the movies today, they show commercials? Make a series of informative commercials for this outlet.

Scene opens and we see maybe a young couple out on a date and they are at the movie theater also. They want to find out what restaurants are nearby, and in conversational language, not ad language, they go through the windows phone deciding on a restaurant. They make the decision in a minute or maybe 2, showing off the different search capabilities and related. Maybe he searches and she doesn't like what he searched for so she takes the phone and does a voice search for whatever kind of food shes looking for. Make it playful, conversational, and informative to make people think that they should take a look at what this new system is.

Just make the commercials informative as to just how different and quick information can be accessed. The current commercials have established the get in get out and back to life. Now push that and show the masses HOW your going to accomplish that by using WP7.

End the spot, no voice over, just have the WP7 logo with the tagline, "available on all major carriers" and a website that shows off the OS even more, but this site is a mix of ad language and again conversational how easy and fast it is videos. Joe Belfiore does a great job of demoing the OS in the laid back, conversational style that I am talking about.

That's just one idea for a series of commercials, you could target different demographics: the busy mom, the oldsters, the Xbox crowd, the business man.

The skydiving camera commercial is ok, but that's the only one and while that is a neat feature, it's not what you buy a smartphone for.

 

[HeyCori]

WP7 has substance but it lacks style.

As much as people complain about WP7 being sooooo far behind in functionality, it takes more than just app selection to sell phones in large numbers like Apple and Google.

They need phones that wow people. WP7 on AT&T only had 3 phones at launch, and only one of those was a true eye grapper (the Focus). The Quantum and Surround are nice but don't draw you in like the Focus' bright, super amoled screen does. However, most people think the Focus feels cheap because it's mostly plastic. If the best thing you can say about your hardware selection is that one of them has a nice screen, then you're gonna have some problems selling phones.

Quite frankly HTC as a whole has disappointed me with their offerings. The HD7s is probably going to be their best WP7 phone, but look how long it took them to get it out (and I'm guessing the camera still sucks). The Trophy looks boring. The Arrive looks awesome but is only 3.6 inches in an ever growing 4+ inch world. And the Venue Pro... too many problems to list. Phone selection gets even worse for carriers/consumers outside the U.S.

WP7 OS is awesome. WP7 hardware is getting blown away by these Android super phones and the iPhone.

 

[jimski]

.
As much as people complain about WP7 being sooooo far behind in functionality, it takes more than just app selection to sell phones in large numbers like Apple and Google.

They need phones that wow people.

Guess I am different (probably how I wound up wih a Surround) but I don't go out looking for the pretty phone. I look for the the OS I prefer, followed by build quality and function. If the Surround only had 8GB internal, I might have settled for a Focus. Truthfully though, I don't think most users (not including us) go out looking for 4G, big screen and dual core phones. If they did, iPhone wouldn't be selling anything. The current batch of Windows Phones do appeal to the masses. And informed consumers will seek them out. Everyone else is at the mercy of your neighborhood phone tin salesman.


Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[perrin75]

Personally I think there are two major strategies that MS could take.

1. As the new hardware roles out with mango, take the existing hardware and make it available on Prepaid services like Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile. There are a lot of customers on prepaid, with more moving in that direction every day. Outisde of the Optimus line there are no smart phone options for prepaid, and this would be an opportunity to put WP7 in the hands of a lot of customers. Especially if the pricing on them was agressive. Imagine being able to pick up an Arrive to use on Boost for $100. It would sell like crazy.

2. Create some sort of interactive software that can be used by customers in the store. This would allow the customer to actually explore the features of the phone. These software could be tied into some sort of rewards system so that the sales rep has to work with the customer, but as the customer spends more time exploring the phone and using the software the rep earns some kind of Microsoft bucks that can be used to purchase merchandise and content from the Microsoft store, Zune and Xbox Live. Extra points are awarded for a phone sale. They could even extend this program so that a customer can earn content and money for test driving the phone with some sort of bonus giveaway if they purchase it.

 

[Kahuna Cowboy]

Well, there is a lot of things if I was an advisor to Microsoft I would recommend.

First off, the name of the OS. "Windows Phone 7". Microsoft needs to understand that the name "Windows" is viewed as a necessary evil to most people when it comes to computers and programs. However, in the world of mobile phones they are not a necessary evil, but rather an evil that is easily bypassed for iPhone or Google Android. They should have named it something else, something with some pizazz, something that says "new, bold, and fresh and this is not the Windows OS you hated years ago".

Second, the phones. While the OS is superb, most of the phones still feel of cheap plastic. When you pick up an iPhone you feel the build quality, it feels substantial in the hand, if you pick up a Samsung Focus it feels like every other cheap phone. While MS mandating minimum specs was a good idea, they should have taken it farther with build specs as well. If you want to be a premium phone, it has to feel like a premium phone and not like every other cheap junk Android phone.

Third, MS needs to get Mango released last year, not this fall. W7P should have never launched handicapped in features commonly found on every other smart phone. Especially since they were so late to the game to begin with.

Finally, MS veered away from what makes them successful, mass flooding of the market of product. They went to AT&T and pretty much stopped there. There should be Windows phones on EVERY US carrier, including the pre-paid's like Virgin Mobile, Cricket, and Boost. Did MS just expect everyone was going to jump to AT&T for a Windows Phone? Or current AT&T subscribers were going to ditch their beloved iPhones straight away for a Windows Phone? If they did Ballmer and crew are atrociously arrogant coming into a flooded market 4 years late. It was one thing when Apple pulled that trick of getting people over to AT&T, but they did it by practically inventing the touch screen smart phone market, not by releasing a "me too" product years later.

MS has a great OS here, I want it to succeed. Competition is much more preferable than one brand dominance. But they have to realize while they are the king of the computer OS, they are the new kid on the block when it comes to phone OS and are only now with Mango catching up to the integration features Apple and Google have long offered.

 

[EJNelly]

Finally, MS veered away from what makes them successful, mass flooding of the market of product. They went to AT&T and pretty much stopped there. There should be Windows phones on EVERY US carrier, including the pre-paid's like Virgin Mobile, Cricket, and Boost.

Carriers have the say on what phone are available on their network, at least when it comes slapping their on their logo and subsidizing. I don't know if it works that way with the pre-paids or not.

I would also assume the reason AT&T wound up with the most WP7 handsets is because ever since they found out they weren't going to be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone they've been diversifying their handset portfolio like mad.

 

[Ivan006]

Have more bundle sales, like giving you a new Xbox with the purchase of a phone. Bell never did this bundle, but Telus did and that's smart. More carriers are starting to do this now in Canada. Rogers is giving away a PS3 with the purchase of one of the Sony Android phones. MS should really be doing this with every carrier, not just a selected few.

A lot of these consoles are becoming more entertainment devices, not just gaming devices. So if people realize they can get a phone that syncs with their entertainment device (or vice versa), they'll be more inclined to buy it.

 

[mmbond]

2 things i believe would be huge:

1. name change - crazy as it sounds, it would help. moving away from the past (in this case), is a good thing. also, after thinking about it a bit, the name is too long. every other phone has a one word name - android, iphone, blackberry etc. windows phone 7????

2. more important than that (cause i doubt it will happen), would be to switch up the marketing plan. why not emphasize the fact that all carriers have a 30 day trial program? They could do something like "30 days to fall in love" or something to that effect. I firmly believe that most people will/do fall in love with wp7 after experiencing it. with a trial, at the end of the day, they have nothing to lose, and wp7 to gain...

 

[starblade876]

I definitely think MS and friends are waiting for Mango before making their big marketing push. I have to disagree with a lot from Kahuna Cowboy.

They don't actually need to change the name. They're not giving up on Windows OS, so they need to continue rebuilding a good reputation for the Windows brand. Windows 7 helped some and, once Mango comes out, WP7 should help, too. Pretty much everyone agrees that the WinPhone OS has such a unique and beautiful UI that the phone should speak for itself when people see it in action. When Mango comes, MS should do what other people suggested and get reps out to show people a more finished and still beautiful piece of work.

Next, giving OEMs the freedom to design gives us more freedom for choice and provides some more affordable prices to people. If everything was all premium, less consumers might consider it when there's a cheaper Android phone that would suffice their needs. While I doubt we'll see super-premium devices, I'm sure we'll see more and better designs when the more marketable Mango comes out and WinPhone is the success many of us think it should be.

Lastly (since the part about carriers was covered), Mango is not late to the game. The only time it would be late to the game is if MS decided it didn't want to continue in the mobile market. iPhone and Android were "late to the game" by the same standards. WM out-featured them like crazy. What happened? It's not so much about having features as much as it is about doing features right. WinPhone does and seems to be continuing to implement its features right. No one's ever too late when they come up with their own different and viable way of bringing something, they only simply come in after.

Anyway, as for more marketing suggestions, I'd suggest they use the ads Brandon Foy made in movie theaters, they should be responsible and show phones vibrating at the end to remind people to turn off their ringers, too, of course. In a dark theater, with a good sound system, it could make a big impact on people.

 

[mmbond]

Great points. But MS sucks at naming, waffling moreso. Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7.1 or is it 7.5, or Mango? A strong brand/name identifier is key. Kinnect and Bing work. I liked Zune as well. Perhaps the phone should have been called Zune...