I'm not feeling the love Microsoft.

[theefman]

so what does that have to do with all the VALID points he's made? we are still users and still deserve not too have our teeth kicked in and ABANDONED... we still PAY for services from MFST with our hard earned money and deserve a little respect and recognition that we're still paying customers! I hate Apple and ADdroid but I still have to acknowledge that those companies are not dishonoring or disrespecting OR ABANDONING it's USERS! MSFT has been giving the shaft to all us USERS and I for one am getting fed up! and I'm sure many many many users are with me on that too! I have never in my life witnessed how badly a company has shafted and abandoned its users! its down right shocking! insulting! and disgusting!
I luv my Windows PC and Windows mobile 10 and hoped that MSFT would start respecting US more. anyway you spell it MSFT will crash and burn without us "lowly" users to keep buying into their products! shame shame shame on you MSFT! and btw its not your BOD (board of directors) that keep you in your money its us "users" AND enterprises that keep you in the money, the BOD are just profiting!! so stop bending to them!

and this picture shows exactly how we're starting to feel!

Simple. The OP's perspective is that of a consumer, in the sphere where Microsoft really focuses, ie enterprise, all these considerations are irrelevant. Windows is the best tool to get work done, same as Office, Skype for business is a totally different product, email is O365 or Outlook which are vastly more capable than the Windows clients. Point is, enterprise customers are very well catered to by Microsoft, all the stuff mentioned is consumer focused which is nowhere near as important to them.

And for anyone saying new people entering the workforce will eventually somehow ditch Microsoft, shows how much you don't know about how enterprise really works. Good luck getting rid of SCCM, SharePoint, SQL, Windows Server, Active Directory not to mention the multitude of custom applications that only run on Windows.

And don't misunderstand, i know what the OP is talking about as someone who has owned The Band, WP's from 2005 in various forms but that's the reality at this point

Sent from mTalk

 

[Freddie Johson]

Only one way to handle it, dont support them in anyway whenever possible. I have already started doing that. Whenever possible, a viable alternative exists, i will opt for the alternative. Only way for that disgraceful, pathetic, inept, incompetent, liar, Satya Nadella to get the message.

 

[txo]

View attachment 138565

Dear Microsoft! Please stop treating people on Windows 10, you know, THE OS YOU MAKE as 3rd class customers.

2017 was a kick in the teeth for a lot of Microsoft fans. Kinect, Groove, and Band being discontinued and Windows Phone being put into maintenance more were tough. But looking back on it now, we should’ve seen it coming. Because in late 2015 and early 2016, where did we see Microsoft put its apps? Here’s a clue: Not on Windows. Here’s all the apps available in the Google play store from Microsoft. Many of those apps are available on Windows 10 but the Adroid versions have newer features. The same goes for [URL="https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/microsoft-corporation/id298856275?at=10l3Vy]iOS[/URL]

View attachment 138566

I use a galaxy S7 edge and I use the Microsoft launcher and a quite a few other Microsoft apps. I’ve gotten my friends on iOS to use the PIX app. But while my friends and family, My Surface Pro is left out as is Lumia 950 XL which I still use on a regular basis. I get Microsofts game plan here. Google won over users with Chrome and Gmail. Apple did it with iTunes. But here’s the thing. THEY DIDN’T LEAVE THEIR CORE USERS OUT OF THE GAME. Apple didn’t make iTunes on the Mac suck out loud. They didn’t bring Garage Band and Final Cut to Windows at all and if they did, they wouldn’t have left OSX out. Same goes for Google. They don’t forsake their own customers. Sadly the same can’t really said about Microsoft.

View attachment 138567

The Outlook app on Android makes the mail app look like it was coded by interns on a lunch break. What the Windows 10 mail app has in style, it bitterly lacks in functionality. I still can’t get some of my accounts to works Focused inbox. Then there are the connected app and add-ins. There are no Calendar apps like Facebook, Wunderlist or MeetUp. You can’t add “Interesting” calendars from bing. Add-ins from Evernote, Translator or Trello are non-existent. I’m using Microsoft Hardware and a Microsoft OS, but I’m not only not getting all the access to Microsofts’ software, I’m getting a non-optimal Microsoft experience. The same goes for the Skype app. About all I like about the Skype app for Windows is that when it’s the default messaging app on mu Lumia, it can forward messages to my PC and I can respond without having to touch my phone. I wish I could make the Skype app on Android the default messaging app on Android. Right now, that’s Facebook Messenger. So it’s fully possible.

View attachment 138568

No matter how you feel about the look of the Skype app for Android and iOS (I personally like it). You can’t deny that the features would be nice to have. Running Skype on Windows? You can’t add Cortana to chat. You can’t send money via PayPal in a chat. Bing search, images, gifs, movies, restaurants, msn weather. You better get them from a browser & cut a paste them in. Skype is a great messaging app and it’s been more reliable than WhatsApp. I want to like it but it’s not where I need it to be. Namely, ON WINDOWS. Even Microsoft garage apps are no where to be found on Windows. We used to have something like Next Lock Screen on windows phone 8. It vanished! It’s beginning to feel like we’re being punished for using Windows. Which stands in contradiction to what Satya Nadella said at one of his 1’st keynotes. That he want’s people to love Microsofts stuff. I guess he forgot to mention that he wants people on anything but Windows to love Microsofts stuff. But then again, he also said Windows 10 mobile is for fans and enthusiast.

View attachment 138569

This kind of behavior is DANGEROUS. If Microsoft can’t support their own platform, why should other developers? Why purchase Xamarin and have Keynotes touting Universal Windows Apps when you don’t have your own apps on your own platform? And if this is how you treat your fans and enthusiast on your own platform, why should I use Microsoft apps on Android and iOS. I’ll tell you right now, I’ve stopped recommending Microsoft apps to my friends and family that don’t use Windows based devices. I’ve even stopped recommending the Microsoft Surface. Why should I tell someone to get it when your best is EVERYWHERE but on Windows 10. I started this piece with Dear Microsoft! Please stop treating people on Windows 10, you know, THE OS YOU MAKE as 3rd class customers. 2017 was not the year that I loved Microsoft.

PLEASE bring your apps that you have on OSX, iOS and Android to Windows 10 (ALL Windows 10 devices. Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox one.). Make the Mail app and the Skype app have feature parody with their Android and iOS counterparts. Make 2018 the year that I and MANY other, now wavering fans and enthusiast of Microsoft love Microsoft again. Because right now, I’m seriously starting to do as much exploring into things non-Microsoft as much as Microsoft has done exploring platforms that are not Windows.

 

[toshdellapenna]

Satya Nadella makes something like $80 million usd per year to appease the share holders, yet they couldn't afford licensing fees for Groove, the music service they never even marketed. So I call bs. Also they didn't even choose a proper replacement for Groove. They should have expanded their partnership with Amazon and had a uwp for Amazon music made. That service is superior to Spotify in every way and would have been a great replacement. Oh well.

 

[AndyCalling]

https://open.spotify.com/album/2uwStVVagtbBvvFSVgcuCk

 

[Pushies]

I am a Windows Phone ****** and I don't think that is changing, that's the bad thing I don't think it's healthy for me to have hope for a company that cannot get a understanding from the consumers on what they want in their products. We listen to them but they do not listen to us, transparency is a perfect strategy for their mobile.

 

[naddy6969]

“Make the Mail app and the Skype app have feature parody with their Android and iOS counterparts. ”

Ironically, Skype IS a feature “parody” compared to iOS and Android. It is a joke.

How many of these diatribes do you folks have to go thru? How long are you going to continue banging your head against the wall? When do you realize that there is no upside to being “a loyal customer”?

Do love the drama or something? This is not a life-altering decision. Just use whatever works for you. I had Windows Phones. Mainly because I didn’t know any better. At some point a year ago, I got fed up with Microsoft in general and Windows Phones in particular.

Everyone here thinks that Apple is just horrible, that you must join a cult or something. It’s just a phone, folks. Do you have to join a cult when buying a new refrigerator? A new car? What’s the big deal? Afraid you might like it? Afraid you might have to admit to being wrong for 10 years?

I now have an iPhone and a few iPads. They work. Just fine. You don’t see non stop whining like this topic, on Apple sites. Users are generally happy. I’m typing this on an iPad Pro.

I tried Android first but ended up not liking it. Had Android Phones and tablets. The hardware is OK but the OS feels about as polished as Windows 98. Sold all of them and went iOS. The same apps on iOS are better and with way less ads.

I was never so dumb as to recommend Windows anything to friends/family/whoever. In fact, they looked at me like I was crazy when I pulled out a windows phone.

My remaining windows phone is now used - when it is used at all - as an MP3 player. No crying, no drama. Just move on already.

 

[Great deal]

As a consumer, I see the future technologies as AI, Driverless cars, PC's, Phones. I'm tired of hearing the words 'paradigm shift'it's more like 'paradigm bull****'. MS has moved away from the consumer, Xbox is the only thing that's left, Surface products are a tiny % of global PC sales as they are an exercise to showcase Windows 10 and to drag (successfully) other manufacturers up a few notches.

As an enterprise customer of Microsofts, I actually fear that the retrenchment from consumer will harm enterprise in ways they cant see. The boundaries between home and work are going to blend, MS has everything to lose in this, they are not doing themselves any favours. They can release the best device ever made, doesn't matter anymore, who will buy it in sufficient quantities to make them believe in it? Mobile war is over, MS came, saw, and left without a real fight and their decisions left a LOT of innocent casualties. Trust has gone.period.

If there was a viable alternative to Office in the industry im in, id leave them on the enterprise side too.

 

[macgyverated]

If Microsoft is an enterprise company, explain Xbox and the games section in the Windows Store. And the last time I checked, windows is used in enterprise as is many of the apps they have on other platforms.

Valid point. And beyond that, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people that go to work each day and use a computer are using a Windows computer. What makes little sense is that because of this, MS effectively has a captive audience of hundreds of millions of people for 40 or more hours a week, and could be doing things that would make people really enjoy Windows and want to use it and associated products and apps at home on their own devices.

Despite Microsoft actually making some strides in getting their various divisions to work together more cohesively, there still seems to be (at least to me) this attitude that enterprise and consumer are entirely different animals. Yes, there are differences, but whether I'm at work or at home, I still use Excel, Word, Outlook, Cortana, Facebook, etc. I don't suddenly become completely different person as soon as I step away form the office. And with many peoples' work and personal lives no intermingling with flex hours/odd hours, the "gig: economy, etc. there's an even greater need for a single ecosystem that is, as much as possible, something that allows easy transition between work and personal.

What I want is to be able to use the same platform, and by doing so leverage some economies and native compatibility and syncing, whether it is for work or personal purposes. In addition, I'm not a fam of the iOS walled garden of Fisher-Price devices, nor do I care to have Google owning all of my personal information and every thing I do, post, etc. And while I buy about $10K a year for work and $2500 a year for personal items through Amazon, I have no desire to have to screw with Alexa, when I could have what I'm already using (Cortana) doing some tasks for me.

 

[wpcautobot]

Man what a rant. I agree with the poster though. Except it's not fair to compare the Outlook Android app with the Mail Desktop app. I prefer W10M Outlook app over the Android one. In fact I think the Android one isn't good. But yeah I get it and agree. For me it was when Groove was canceled when it real hit me.

 

[nilesh pandey]

Microsoft should really have worked hard for making windows phone much better instead of just leaving it and also should have focused on Cortana. Microsoft abandoning their fans really messed it up.

 

[PeterFnet]

Feel the same way, they're taking the easy route.

 

[Martin_Rob]

Yes Microsoft are a business looking to make money for their shareholders and short-term profitability and turnover are what they are about. There lies the problem.

MS are more and more competing in a market that is running away from them. As a software provider, they are faced with the 'new' kids on the block Google who are treading on the toes of MS's previous monopoly. It's hard to sell OS and Office platforms when your competitors are now providing their Open Source versions for free.


I too have Microsoft Launcher, also on a S7 Edge and I agree the MS apps on the third party platform are really good. If the same care and foresight had gone into Windows Mobile it may have been a contender in the phone market. Windows 8 killed that.

Yet at the same time I see why there is a reluctance for MS to provide the same cutting edge functionality and user experience on Windows 10. The Mail and Calendar apps on Windows 10 are dire. No doubt about it. With Windows 10 the cheapest OS upgrade I have ever done, and I'm an original Windows 2 owner, their entire business model seems to have migrated into providing Office and the Cloud as a Service. Why then would MS put all of the functionality into these free apps when they are charging hefty licence fees for Office Outlook on Windows?

I too bought Xbox, 360 and XB One as an early adopter. I revelled in the idea of a one stop Games and Media Centre with a shared and polished voice and gesture control UI. Kinect had so much potential and when Cortana was launched as an integrated interface I thought 'Wow'. With the interface dependant on external developers and software houses, the financial return and therefore the drive for the development and promotion of the XB One platform never appeared.

So now, in later revisions, the Kinect is no more and the consolation of being able to attach a webcam is all that is supporting Skype, and to an extent, Cortana on the platform. The UI has also been drastically redesigned over the lifecycle upon 'user feedback' and the focus is now very much on gaming with a side note to legacy media apps already developed. Clearly, for MS, hosting media functionality as an income generator was entirely dependant on MS benefitting from a high uptake on it's pay Film and TV and Groove-Music offerings but this was visibly unlikely from the get-go. Netflix was miles cheaper with a much larger and more up to date library. Groove had, beyond a small 'teaser' trial an immediate pay-wall while Spotify had a much more popular and expansive, free service both with apps available on the same platform. I have now joined the ever growing army who see a high end 'gaming' PC solution as the route to take as a more, customisable, expandable, futureproof and more efficient use of funds, and with the One X retailing at such a high launch price, MS really need to look at their positioning. Are they actually trying to kill off their own console market?

So in the current environment with Google practically giving away Chromebooks with Google Office, Amazon selling high end IoT integrated Digital Assitants, there revenue stream seems to be limited. Any wonder than we have heard in the last few days of a new initiative to sell low cost laptops into schools. Yes education the great under exploited cash-cow. As someone heavily involved in a local school I was horrified to hear the licencing arrangements for our school. We could source notebook PCs over a year ago from a local supplier for extremely low prices. On looking to have the local authority source the OS and the bare minimum of appropriate software for a junior school, we were quoted more than the cost of the notebook to licence each unit! With prices like these is it any wonder so many are going Open Source.

 

[Stan77]

I just wish the software I use weren't Windows-only.
If it were on other platforms, I would leave Micro$oft far behind my back and live happily ever after.

 

[mwright53]

If nothing else, I wished they would be more honest. They drag their feet and only after everyone finally figures out that a product is being abandoned do they sometimes make a weak half hearted effort to explain themselves. It's a lot of lies of omission

 

[Jf.Vigor]

“Make the Mail app and the Skype app have feature parody with their Android and iOS counterparts. ”

Ironically, Skype IS a feature “parody” compared to iOS and Android. It is a joke.

How many of these diatribes do you folks have to go thru? How long are you going to continue banging your head against the wall? When do you realize that there is no upside to being “a loyal customer”?

Do love the drama or something? This is not a life-altering decision. Just use whatever works for you. I had Windows Phones. Mainly because I didn’t know any better. At some point a year ago, I got fed up with Microsoft in general and Windows Phones in particular.

Everyone here thinks that Apple is just horrible, that you must join a cult or something. It’s just a phone, folks. Do you have to join a cult when buying a new refrigerator? A new car? What’s the big deal? Afraid you might like it? Afraid you might have to admit to being wrong for 10 years?

I now have an iPhone and a few iPads. They work. Just fine. You don’t see non stop whining like this topic, on Apple sites. Users are generally happy. I’m typing this on an iPad Pro.

I tried Android first but ended up not liking it. Had Android Phones and tablets. The hardware is OK but the OS feels about as polished as Windows 98. Sold all of them and went iOS. The same apps on iOS are better and with way less ads.

I was never so dumb as to recommend Windows anything to friends/family/whoever. In fact, they looked at me like I was crazy when I pulled out a windows phone.

My remaining windows phone is now used - when it is used at all - as an MP3 player. No crying, no drama. Just move on already.

This is quite simply, the most important post here.
And it's something I realized on my own in 2017. Having loyalty to a brand is foolish. It's as if I had to mature to learn this lesson. I'm now 31, but having loyalty to Microsoft is something I'll remember as an aspect of me in my 20s. I look back and laugh at myself. But hey I grew up, learned, realized that "it's just a phone" and there are more important things to invest my energy in.

 

[vEEP pEEP]

You're viewing this through a cracked window (no pun intended). Their "products" aren't limited to phones and tablets. They own the productivity software market which is their bread and butter. Not to mention Azure and other enterprise solutions. They could possibly survive very profitably on Office365 subscriptions alone and their customers are quite happy with that product.

They 'own' the productivity market? Are you kidding me? Have you heard of a company called Google. They have this whole productivity suite as well....plus a very well known mobile platform that is supported....

Azure is great for telling Amazon they have some competition...but Amazon owns the cloud. And there will be competitors our of Asia.

When Win95 came out - it was targeted at end users. MS came out with tons of end users devices and placed it self in the consumer market. To bow out without some consideration for end users is going to **** those people off. Maybe some are business owners, who might not purchase MS products out of spite, but also out of concern they might be left in the dark...

 

[vEEP pEEP]

This is quite simply, the most important post here.
And it's something I realized on my own in 2017. Having loyalty to a brand is foolish. It's as if I had to mature to learn this lesson. I'm now 31, but having loyalty to Microsoft is something I'll remember as an aspect of me in my 20s. I look back and laugh at myself. But hey I grew up, learned, realized that "it's just a phone" and there are more important things to invest my energy in.

Apple runs on loyalty. The also make a good product that keeps this loyalty. Sort of a circle. Loyalty has it's place, even in the corporate world. Branding...

 

[fatclue_98]

They 'own' the productivity market? Are you kidding me? Have you heard of a company called Google. They have this whole productivity suite as well....plus a very well known mobile platform that is supported....

Azure is great for telling Amazon they have some competition...but Amazon owns the cloud. And there will be competitors our of Asia.

When Win95 came out - it was targeted at end users. MS came out with tons of end users devices and placed it self in the consumer market. To bow out without some consideration for end users is going to **** those people off. Maybe some are business owners, who might not purchase MS products out of spite, but also out of concern they might be left in the dark...

It's ok to hate Microsoft, I get it. But Google is no match for Office. I hate the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. But there going to their 10th Super Bowl and Tom Brady, his eighth.

Sent from my Idol 4S on mTalk

 

[Jf.Vigor]

Apple runs on loyalty. The also make a good product that keeps this loyalty. Sort of a circle. Loyalty has it's place, even in the corporate world. Branding...

I'm advising consumers, not to practice loyalty for a company.
I am in no way suggesting that companies should cease to reward its loyal customers.