I'm excited, but..

[syspry]

I remember back when Blackberry 10 was supposed to be a big revolution in mobile operating systems and a new CEO after years of the old guard (sound familiar yet?) man were we all pumped! And then we've all seen how that panned out.

But yes, I'm still excited to see how this goes, sucker for punishment that I am (and good lord we really do finally need something new and equally competitive to choose from alongside Apple and Android).

But I'm older and wiser and have my reservations:

1. Will new power bring new lag? Let's be realistic, this isn't going to be iOS or WP8 simplicity anymore. It's easy to be fast performance when there's not as many capabilities to worry about.

2. Will they come? MS can make it moronically easy to port apps from iOS all they want but that does NOT solve the chicken before the egg issue: MS needs to close the app gap but devs are notorious for avoiding an OS with a low user base no matter how easy you make it for them. At best historically, a developer will fire and forget. They'll port an app for a quick buck and then never maintain it.

tl;dr version: needs apps to get a higher user base, but can't get apps without a high user base. Its the never ending conundrum for every OS trying to break the Apple-Android duopoly.

3. File system. Will MS finally stop resisting allowing file system access?

4. Carriers 1: As it stands right now WP is at the same carrier mercy for OS updates as Android and Blackberry.

5. Carriers 2: Getting more of them to sell WP flagships. Mine never once had a Nokia Lumia.

MS already has a pretty robust services ecosystem. Email, maps, cloud, search, Cortana are all good alternatives to the Google equivalents, (with the exception of YouTube) but the points above will need to be addressed.

I'm probably forgetting a few more things I might remember and add later but those are my big ones right now. My prediction if I were taking bets is that if new Lumias hit the stores this year, we're probably not going to see it fleshed out as matured and ready to seriously compete until late 2016.

 

[aximtreo]

Well stated and I agree with various points such as the success of porting apps from IOS and Android. I just came back from Note 4 to my beloved ICON and I noticed that the Android apps I was using were no better written or implemented than what we have for WP. More apps, absolutely, but not better in most cases.

 

[syspry]

As someone who's well acquainted with the downsides of being an early adopter I think I'm going to let this new vision of MS percolate on the market and mature for about a year. I'm due for an upgrade this Fall so I'm probably going to grab an S6 or whatever iPhone hits the shelf this year and keep my eyes on how this pans out for my next upgrade after that. If I'm extremely impressed by the time late 2016 comes around I'll even do a 1 year upgrade again. I'll let you early adopters take one for the team and see how things work out for you before deciding.

 

[Guytronic]

Well written!
I feel what you are saying and am starting to see the reasons for disdain of late.
We can continue to remain upbeat and hope for an incline with this latest convolution.

Best of luck and hoping for better decisions from within the Microsoft Mobile group.

 

[Laura Knotek]

6. Music. This has been a pretty big weak spot when you compare it against iTunes and Play Music

I have a couple of Android devices, but I've never tried Play Music. I have an Xbox Music Pass, so I'm using Xbox Music on the Androids, as well as on all my Windows devices.

What do you like better about Play Music?

I know a lot of people have disliked Xbox Music, but I find it to be worthwhile. It has a good variety, and I like many different genres of music, as well as indie artists. I've not had issues finding stuff I like on Xbox Music, and it's worked well for me, not matter what device I pick up.

The last time I tried iTunes was back in 2005. I haven't used it since and don't have it installed on any PCs I own. I found it to be bloated and it ran horribly on Windows XP. I've since updated my PCs and Windows, but I never had any desire to try iTunes again.

 

[ttsoldier]

Build it and they shall come!

 

[syspry]

I have a couple of Android devices, but I've never tried Play Music. I have an Xbox Music Pass, so I'm using Xbox Music on the Androids, as well as on all my Windows devices.

What do you like better about Play Music?

I know a lot of people have disliked Xbox Music, but I find it to be worthwhile. It has a good variety, and I like many different genres of music, as well as indie artists. I've not had issues finding stuff I like on Xbox Music, and it's worked well for me, not matter what device I pick up.

The last time I tried iTunes was back in 2005. I haven't used it since and don't have it installed on any PCs I own. I found it to be bloated and it ran horribly on Windows XP. I've since updated my PCs and Windows, but I never had any desire to try iTunes again.

Actually upon further discovery I realized my info on music app availability for WP is pretty outdated, I'm going to edit my OP and take that one off the list ☺

 

[syspry]

Build it and they shall come!

I really hope so! I'm so tired of duopolies. We've suffered under the Windows+Mac duopoly for decades on computers and now the same thing has happened on mobile with Android + iOS.

Who knows, maybe the market just refuses to make room for a 3rd OS but if WP can eat up just enough share to stay well within the double digits even that will attract a lot more developers and that's still a big improvement

 

[grubbyashes]

I think it's tricky. Microsoft are clearly pushing to get a share of the mobile market, and have had limited success so far. I mean, they're getting there, just really, really slowly... As it stands for WP, it's too little, too late. I guess we'll have to see what they have for W10 in the coming months.

 

[MDK22]

For the OP ...
curious, what's your current primary device / OS ?

 

[TechAbstract]

Hopefully MS will start marketing Lumia properly to make the brand a trend settler like iPhones and Galaxy. Does MS make the OEMs happy with Windows 10 and give them what they want to start pushing out more Windows mobile devices?

 

[boltz82]

Very well articulated.