Is Microsoft taking the mickey out of us? Are we being mocked?

[a5cent]

Actually, there ARE reasons for investing money in something you don't "care" about. There are contractual obligations and agreements, tax liability and benefit issues, public perception, etc. that would cause a company to produce a product that they didn't care about.

Ever heard of Kin? Or any of the dozens of software development technologies MS discontinued from one day to the next? Or WP7? Or WM6.5? Yup. It's not like MS has a track record of continuing product series they'd rather dump. Quite the opposite I'd say.

If you want to speculate that MS has incompeteltly maneuvered themselves into a position where they must build WP devices they have absolutely no interest in building, and that MS research is working on 3D touch despite having absolutely no interest in pushing WP devices, well, be my guest. Of course I can't prove you are wrong, but I think it's a far safer bet to speculate in the opposite direction.

 

[a5cent]

Its not too much to ask for a product that I pay for to work as advertised is it?

Skype being a POS just adds to it. If WO had the best Skype mobile, the best Xbox music etc, then yeah. But when MS appears to favor other platforms to the point of even being careless with updates to its own apps like the games app and the calendar app even Onedrive had a duplicate problem IIRC, I mean really. Facepalm*

I still want to see modern UI 2.0 before abandoning the ship.

Look guys. It's not like I don't understand you. I do. I've been frustrated before to. Particularly Skype really gets under my skin.

I'm just putting up resistance because I feel the level of whininess has gotten a bit out of control here lately. Particularly in comparison to the problems we actually have. Hop over to AC or iMore and you'll see it's not all roses and cookies over there either. Not everything works as advertised there either.

 

[rodan01]

Actually, there ARE reasons for investing money in something you don't "care" about. There are contractual obligations and agreements, tax liability and benefit issues, public perception, etc. that would cause a company to produce a product that they didn't care about.

Look at Microsoft's track record for a reasonable example of what the future holds. Historically speaking, Windows Phone 8/8.1 is on borrowed time. Microsoft is reaching the 4 year anniversary of this OS generation and with that, time to for them to re-re-reboot their mobile OS. (since 2000, they have rebooted their mobile OS nearly every 4 years)

I suspect that there is an internal shift of resources from the current WP 8/8.1 and onto the "next thing" that is based on the universal Windows app framework they revealed at this year's //build/ conference.

I think that could be the case. Rumors are they're merging Windows RT and Windows Phone. So, 8.1 could be a transition to the major release of Windows and Office in 2015.

That's the optimistic view, something big coming, soon..

 

[aximtreo]

One thing occurs to me as I read the knocking and the supporting of MS. It wasn't a great decision to release 8.1 when they did but it wasn't a disaster either. MS has collected a lot of data from a lot of sources during this Pre release period.

I believe that some of the problems with the basic 8.1 might be partially due to some hardware decisions made before the release.Not many manufacturers have put out software that updates all of the previous models of phones from Nokia. I don't think we will have that luxury for future hardware and software releases. Some of the hardware decisions has to do with display technology. I have the ICON. It's suppose to be a top of the line phone yet it doesn't offer Glance, one of the things I really miss. I'm upset but those are some of the things we put up with when we stay on the cutting edge.
Give MS all the screaming and criticizing you want. I hope they stay the course and I hope things smooth out. But, and I really mean this, but, no matter what they do; some of us will never be happy.

 

[wpn00b]

Re: Is Microsoft taking the mickey out of us?

I honestly think windows phone deserves to fail and Joe Belfiore should be fired.

Lol, it really isn't that serious. If you made a mistake I'd expect for you to be coached to but not fired.

Also, its actually reactively stable other than the developer preview. I'm more than happy to share my diagnostic reports to fix the bugs I find.

 

[k0de]

First Skype, then Xbox Music, then Calendar. When will we say enough is enough? Even BlackBerry is releasing relatively stable updates. Thinking of i logically, yes 8.0 to 8.1 was a big jump, but thy should'e done more. A lot more. They had 18 months to finish it and yet they are still not there.
They regularly botch updates, the OS is becoming laggy at times, I mean. WHY are we even loyal to WP is what I wonder sometimes? Even the beautiful startscreen is ruined by lag
/endrant


Edit:
Just to make it clear
"Taking the **** is a British term meaning to take liberties at the expense of others, or to be unreasonable. It is often used to mean (or confused with) taking the **** out of, which is an expression meaning to mock, tease, ridicule, or scoff.[1] It is also not to be confused with "taking a ****", which refers to the act of urinating. Taking the Mickey (Mickey Bliss, Cockney rhyming slang) or taking the Michael is another term for making fun of someone."

We Windows Phones users are spoiled. Or Were spoiled. Lol

Things changed.

I remember MSFT software way back when released to be 99.9% bug free. To release software like that takes months perhaps years.

But MSFT can't do that anymore.

It is evident that the new business model for MSFT is.

"Release the software as is and fix it later."

Untill when?

Untill Windows Phone users get used to the new MSFT business model. I guess.

It works for other platforms. And it should work for MSFT.

 

[Surmisation]

Calendar - Essential component - and they havnt bothered to press a few buttons to release the previous version.

Bit more complicated than that. What if the reversion restores the app but deletes all events?

**** needs to be tested although how the last update skipped through the cracks will likely cost a subcontracted testing firm it's contract. If video game credits are indicative of anything, the testing is delegated to a third party. And if it's not, then let us march the guillotine.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

I'm just gonna say this. I don't care about 3rd party app numbers, but MS apps should be built into the OS again so that can be fast. Compare people hub vs music hub. Messaging vs Skype.

 

[T Moore]

The events are unrelated.
You have never made a mistake?

All you had to do is go to live.com and make your calendar entry, on your phone.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The events are unrelated.
You have never made a mistake?

All you had to do is go to live.com and make your calendar entry, on your phone.

The calendar fix is already available. Fix for the botched Calendar app on Windows Phone 8.1 is now live in the Store | Windows Phone Central

 

[Ebuka Allison]

The events are unrelated.
You have never made a mistake?

All you had to do is go to live.com and make your calendar entry, on your phone.

The calendar botch is a symptom of a larger problem. Lack of being thorough. 8.1 is finished and not a dev preview, yet the music app is still a Beta. The second music app we have doesn't work with Xbox music drm.
Skype doesn't work properly, I don't mind that, but it really should be faster and smoother, maybe even native.
I like 8.1, but Microsoft is beginning to feel like the smart kid at school who does a lot of work at the start but gets bored and phones in the rest. in 8.0 there was the massive other storage problems, in 8.1 its the music app, in 7.X it was features. Must there always be one game-breaking bug? It wouldn't be out of character for them to release an update that breaks the dialer soon. I like WP, I like where its going, but Microsoft needs to haul **** in gear and be aggressive with updates and the like. With the dev preview they can release as many updates as they want,users who want the latest and greatest can have an option.

 

[smoledman]

Re: Is Microsoft taking the mickey out of us?

I honestly think windows phone deserves to fail and Joe Belfiore should be fired.

​Wow, wow, wow.

 

[smoledman]

The calendar botch is a symptom of a larger problem. Lack of being thorough. 8.1 is finished and not a dev preview, yet the music app is still a Beta. The second music app we have doesn't work with Xbox music drm.
Skype doesn't work properly, I don't mind that, but it really should be faster and smoother, maybe even native.
I like 8.1, but Microsoft is beginning to feel like the smart kid at school who does a lot of work at the start but gets bored and phones in the rest. in 8.0 there was the massive other storage problems, in 8.1 its the music app, in 7.X it was features. Must there always be one game-breaking bug? It wouldn't be out of character for them to release an update that breaks the dialer soon. I like WP, I like where its going, but Microsoft needs to haul **** in gear and be aggressive with updates and the like. With the dev preview they can release as many updates as they want,users who want the latest and greatest can have an option.

Maybe this rapid-release thing is worse than releasing once every 6-12 months.

 

[Chregu]

That is nonsense.

If they didn't care, there wouldn't be any more devices in the pipeline. You don't invest money in something you don't care about. It's also very unlikely that a CEO who just recently proclaimed 'cloud and mobile first', would turn around two months later and decide to abandon their only mobile efforts that are having any success at all.

There are no officially announced devices in the pipeline, and when we look at the current set-up it does really look bad.

The 930 features hardware that was high-end over half a year ago and it isn't released yet. And when it's released it will be heavily overpriced. The Lumia 630 is a low-cost phone with heavily cut features, while Microsoft at the same time releases an Android phone with more features for a lower price.

All of these devices are practically Nokia and not yet Microsoft.

At this point it's more a question of making past investments not too bad by releasing what was already produced anyway. As long as there is no real high-end device announced I really don't believe that Microsoft cares much about Windows Phone. Rumors on the main page that consist of "somebody said something will be great" don't really change that.

 

[akthelonelyman]

They will still make wp but that wont be their primary focus I think...

 

[irvin792]

The sky is falling!!! Microsoft hates windows phone, I need a curb to jump off of...../sarcasm

Talk about drama queens , some of you guys need to worry about more important things in life, this coming from someone who is obsessed with technology, but lets not get all emo people

 

[colinkiama]

Re: Is Microsoft taking the mickey out of us?

I honestly think windows phone deserves to fail and Joe Belfiore should be fired.

Actually, Joe Belfiore should be replaced for someone who is truly dedicated to the platform and wants it to be the best.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Yeah I think so. WP is good enough though. But they are being complacent and the music apps failure is amplifying any little bug lol

 

[Great deal]

Look guys. It's not like I don't understand you. I do. I've been frustrated before to. Particularly Skype really gets under my skin.

I'm just putting up resistance because I feel the level of whininess has gotten a bit out of control here lately. Particularly in comparison to the problems we actually have. Hop over to AC or iMore and you'll see it's not all roses and cookies over there either. Not everything works as advertised there either.

Your right. For my part I've been waving the MS bashing stick around too easily and its destructive not constructive. Id like to help them by adding my voice to their own forums when an issue as large as this arises. Perhaps a link to the official MS site/forum imbedded in the news posts may be useful so we can let MS know in numbers and at the same time discuss here on WPC?

 

[Ebuka Allison]

I think the issue is that they don't say anything. Joe Belfiore tweeted about a massive Skype update and instead we get whatever was released last week. Lack of communication kills