Is Joe Belfore using an iPhone okay?

[sunnybyday]

Joe Belfiore incharge of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, posted a photo from his holiday in Japan. His cool hairdo apart, it created a lot of feedback on twitter because he tweeted it using an iPhone!


Obviously Windows Phone fans are not amused. Many of us have treated it as a thumbs down on our beloved WP from the boss himself. Joe has clarified in a detailed FB post that its more of a learning experience from rival dominant phone OS - to improve WP in the long run, but has still not convinced many. What do you guys think?

 

[CJ Thunder]

The people at Cadillac wanted to take on BMW, so they bought BMWs to drive,take apart, study. This is fine...
Though haven't heard much from Joe lately.

 

[FearL0rd]

repost from http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-news-rumors/408804-joe-belfiore-uses-iphone.html

no excuses:

1 - His response is a complete bull
2 - He is using iPhone because it does have all official apps that he needs for traveling. (Social, etc...)
3 - Microsoft needs to do something with him. He is a "icon" for windows
devices and doing this will hurt the platform even more.

 

[Tanno76]

Publicly no he shouldn't as he should be seen using a windows phone. But does it affect me? No I will buy or use what I like, not what top bosses are using

 

[Squachy]

It's fine. However with the lack of any meaningful signs of support for windows this obviously doesn't sit well with the fan base. Might have eased the pain little if he had carried a w10m device of some sort and had it in the pic as well in some capacity.

 

[Kavu2]

Not impressed. Hey Joe, when you get back stateside...how 'bout trying to rok a windows phone on Verizon for your market research.....you know the carrier occupying ONE THIRD of your potential US mobile market? Now THAT would be steppin' off some.

Not so easy is it?

 

[fdalbor]

He should just STAY on his leave of absence.

 

[MikeX74]

I've heard stories(and I stress, they're just stories) of the Apple engineers who worked on the OG iPhone using BlackBerrys and Nokias to see what they thought was good and bad about them, which makes me give more credence to his explanation. Also reminds me of the 132-page document Samsung made about the iPhone and where the Galaxy S stood in comparison. Fascinating read.

 

[HeyCori]

He should just STAY on his leave of absence.

And he probably will. Even before the sabbatical, Belfiore started to fade from the spotlight. I won't pretend that he suddenly matters now.

 

[mrpuny]

Well, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I see the need for higher ups to use their competitors' products to evaluate against their own. On the other hand, doing so very publicly seems questionable at best. Then again, MS vs Apple in particular is a strange situation. In many ways they really aren't in competition. First, just from a marketshare perspective in mobile at this point: using a perhaps poor analogy - is Royal Crown (RC) Cola really in competition with Coke or Pepsi? (And I say this as a Windows Phone/Mobile user and lover - but let's be realistic.) Second, MS actively makes apps for iOS so it's more like they're engaged in (ugh, it pains me to write this term) "coopetition".

And this is purely personal preference, and I don't mean to offend anybody, but I'd be more upset about a twitter post from Joe on Android :grin:

EDIT: fixed obvious grammar mistake....

 

[Jules W]

To be fair, Belifior is on a sabbatical with his family. It is not his job to please the Windows Phone 'fan base' . He is living in the real world, where Apps are important to him. So he dumped Windows Phone. Blame Satya the CEO for signalling the end of WP, by stating it was only going to be supported for the diminishing fan base, business and low end, and that he was no longer chasing consumer market share. Developers understood that to mean Microsoft has no interest in promoting Windows Phone, hence they not coming ask to the WP or UWP platform.

BTW Windows Phone sales are increasing here in the UK, whilst continuing to decline in the rest of Europe and the US. So some of us are doing our bit.

 

[jmshub]

We don't need a second thread on this topic. See the post here to continue to discussion.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-news-rumors/408804-joe-belfiore-uses-iphone.html