I want to love WP8, but going back to Android.

[spaulagain]

spaulagain- Could you explain why you think that?

Sure...

1) I picked up my roommate's Android phone and was lost instantly.

2) Android is open to customization by the carriers/OEMs. That means the interface can and IS changed between various devices and carriers. In some cases, the UI is completely different. If you do a Google image search for Android Homescreen, what do you get? A huge variety of screens, none of which look like they belong to the same OS.

3) The UI language seems to be inconsistent throughout the Android OS. Sometimes there are heavy gradients, sometimes its flat. The Icons are inconsistent.

4) It looks DATED. It seriously is a poor rip off of iOS. Although now they are pushing a flat more "Metro" theme like Windows Phone.

5) The user can customize it to pure UGLY. My girlfriend has some cheesy ass theme she applied to her Android phone and I can't figure out what half the icons mean, or where they go, let alone the rest of the UI. Windows Phone is customizable, but with a limitation that keeps the OS unified across all devices and still usable to anyone who picks up the phone.


Jelly Bean is the first version of Android I've seen that actually looks like someone put some thought into the UI, and that's still a work in progress. Android is open source and not controlled or unified by Google all that much, as a results it's a cluster**** OS that is really hard to even define as "One OS." As a UI designer, I'm picky, I don't like ugly and poorly thought out UIs. In fact, they make me ANGRY. Therefor, Android would never be an option for me even if it has all the apps in the world.

 

[Spicymikey]

The OP is obviously very young given the list of missing apps he listed as reasons for leaving. That's not a put-down, just an observation. As a business owner who is only "young at heart" these days, you could imagine I don't have much time to play games. It's not the reason I picked up a WP 2 months ago and am glad I did. It integrates better and more securely into my windows based business world than my iPhone did. Certainly, better than an android phone would.

Which leads to the point of adding this comment. The OP sounds better off leaving WP right now. It's the right choice for him, and probably a true statement for any 18 year old kid. Android and iPhone have that market satisfied and fulfilled. WP is not a thread to them yet, or are they an imminent thread to WP.

How so? Well, as the relatively new kid on the block, MS needs to NOT invest too much time banging against that tween-teen-college kid door right now. There are other easier doors into the smartphone market. The door they need to focus on is the 30-40-50+ business community door. Seems that is what they are doing. Smart move because its really their only hope of winning. They have virtually every business running Windows in the world. Every business owner is dependent on it to run their business (with the exception of most graphic arts companies). Seeing Bloomberg's app on WP yesterday is actually more important than seeing Angry Birds.

Don't get me wrong, they ultimately want to win both. Xbox is their entry into that world. But right now they need to focus on business and leverage their stengths. They already lost that other battle. Win the Business battle and get strong to fight the consumer battle another day. That's why I'm more worried about BB than Android. Android can never kill WP, just like Linux can never kill WIndows Server. BB however, with their business customer base, can drive a fatal blow if they get through that other critical door and lock it behind them.

 

[conanheath]

Don't let the fan boys beat you down OP. Wp8 sucks right now and people who think it doesn't A)have never used a smart phone, B)don't really need a smart phone or C)were BB users and WP8 is a definite improvement. I jest, but name one thing WP8 has over anybody else except fresh, new UI? WP8 is missing so much right now how could anybody think its "great"? I'm only a fan boy of what works. And there isn't one thing that WP8 does that a+a don't do and in most cases better. MS threw this OS out half assed and you people are praising them?! I have no doubt MS will get the issues fixed but we all paid top dollar for a load of crap. And its going to stay that way for a while because MS doesn't have the first clue about mobile. Their basic, straight forward OS just means unfinished and without options.

 

[palandri]

I think this thread has ran its course. Closed.