Is there any advantage to owning a Windows Phone anymore?

[dgr_874]

It might actually come down to personal preference. In my case, I have an intense dislike of iTunes, since the time I first tried it on a PC. I will never get a Mac, and iTunes on a PC was a painful experience. I only used it to get some free songs that Starbucks offered. Once I got the songs, I actually removed iTunes from my PC and deleted my iTunes account.

Given the fact that I despise iTunes so much, I could never use an iPhone.

Can I ask why you dispise iTunes so much? I find myself prefering it over Zune, but, I am allways open to changing my mind...

 

[Laura Knotek]

Can I ask why you dispise iTunes so much? I find myself prefering it over Zune, but, I am allways open to changing my mind...

It was laggy and bloated on a PC. I have friends who have Macs, and it is even getting bloated on Macs.

Bloated iTunes Doesn't Look like an Apple Product Anymore - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

Botox bloat: why iTunes isn't aging well | Enterprise | Real World Computing | PC Pro

 

[Heron_Kusanagi]

Honestly?

I don't care. I am here because of Nokia, and it just excites me how the whole ecosystem is coming together. That's the key. Yes, us WP7 users aren't getting it good, but MS have always thrown away stuff it deems not viable anymore. No point getting upset when you know it was gonna happen.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Honestly?



I don't care. I am here because of Nokia, and it just excites me how the whole ecosystem is coming together. That's the key. Yes, us WP7 users aren't getting it good, but MS have always thrown away stuff it deems not viable anymore. No point getting upset when you know it was gonna happen.

I was a Nokia user back in Symbian days. Then I switched to Blackberry for 3 years. When it was time to switch again, I chose a Nokia Windows Phone because of my previous experience with Nokia (build quality and maps were key factors).

I am happy with my current device and will not upgrade for awhile. However, I do plan to also consider Samsung.

 

[1jaxstate1]

I'm sure some like Word, but when I used an iPhone and an Android device, and the "office" apps they had available were sufficient. I did very minor editing and browsing Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. I didn't miss or want MS Office in particular. Offering it wouldn't have been a selling point for me.

That isn't always the case. A lot of people might need MS Office on their phones, especially business users and university students.

Yes, many of these same folks will also want Xbox games too.

 

[1jaxstate1]

iTunes, for me, was the final blow that made me move away from the iPhone. For some reason it kept getting slower and slowers. Some backups were taking forever. It wasn't just iTunes, it was a combination of things, but it was a huge factor.

Can I ask why you dispise iTunes so much? I find myself prefering it over Zune, but, I am allways open to changing my mind...

 

[cgk]

I'm sure some like Word, but when I used an iPhone and an Android device, and the "office" apps they had available were sufficient. I did very minor editing and browsing Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. I didn't miss or want MS Office in particular. Offering it wouldn't have been a selling point for me.

Similarly, all of our students are given google apps accounts so we steer them towards using google documents.

 

[shingi_70]

I forgot when liking the oS was an advantge.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Winterfang]

As bad as it is. Office is a freaking life saver, I love it.

 

[ncxcstud]

Can I ask why you dispise iTunes so much? I find myself prefering it over Zune, but, I am allways open to changing my mind...

Two friends of mine are huge Mac friends, they saw me using Zune one day in my home and were clearly enthralled by its colors (which iTunes doesn't really have or didn't, not sure about the newest one) and that when you played music it would randomly show album art and the artist currently being played. They loved that.

They had that same 'googly-eyed' experience watching Zune play that we all had when iTunes first debuted because lets face it, iTunes compared next to WinAMP (on a visual level even with many skins) is far superior. As clunky as iTunes can be (especially on PCs) it was vastly 'speedier' than many other options, especially when it debuted.

I prefer Zune/XBOX Music's interface to that of iTunes. Its faster, more streamlined, looks better, and on the PC run so much better than anything out there. The only advantage that iTunes has (which admittedly is a huge advantage) is there catalog of music.

But, to answer the OP question - the advantage for me in choosing WP is that I like it more than iOS or Android. The fact that WP (and Android) have physical back buttons makes me working with our family's iPod Touch a nightmare at times. One button to do everything isn't always the best option. Its one of those things that always infuriated me about using Macs after using PC mice with two buttons.

I prefer WP because it is very quick. For example, using the ESPN app on my Focus I can't ever read the little 'factoid' at the start of the screen because it doesn't take much to get into it. However, I can read it (sometimes) at least -5 or 6 times on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 when I open that respective ESPN app.

I love the look of WP to the grid of icons in iOS or the customizable grid of icons that is Android.

I think WP does a lot of things better than iOS and Android. I also love that I can delete anything on the phone and quickly. Android doesn't seem to want you to delete anything. Especially with 4.0 and 4.1. Having to go through multiple page clicks to delete an app is tiresome when in WP and iOS you just 'press and hold - select delete/uninstall/hit the X.'

For me its always the little things. WP, imo, looks and runs better. I get envious at times of my friends' vast selection of premier apps, but I can get by.

 

[aubreyq]

...Why even buy a windows phone? I like the windows phone interface and I really think it has alot of potential but what is the killer thing that makes me want to choose the Microsoft ecosystem over the Apple one?

The killer thing IS the interface; the actual experience using Windows Phone. No other OS is so rich, dynamic and full of info on the Start screen, which you get to customize to your liking. Combine that with Nokia Drive coming for all WP8 handsets, beautiful, diverse hardware, and an ecosystem that seamlessly traverses PCs, tablets, game consoles and phones, what's NOT to like?

 

[dgr_874]

Thank you everyone for the great views. It's allways great to get a feel for how everyone thinks.

 

[Dr. Impossible]

Everything I love about WP exists in other platforms. They just do it worse. E-mail client, fluidity, interface, convenience, office integration, etc. If you value those things and the way WP does it, then yes there is a definite advantage.

This says it best but i'll add/bolster:
I read somewhere or saw somewhere in the early days of owning my Arrive that " Windows Phone was designed to work around the user, not the other way around. The device works the way you want to use it."
They really seemed to want to make it easy and fun for people to interact with the device. To me, that sounds like creating an experience, not just a phone. 'The Experience' is something I talk about a lot in the various lines of work I am in and others as well, so this resonated with me quite a bit. I was hooked right there. Apple always seemed like "here's the product, and a manual, now learn how to use it the way we want you too" and Android always seemed like a non-Apple version of the iPhone to me. Same, unappealing app grid.

When I saw WP7, I thought "wow, the Zune hd was very much a test bed for this phone"; so fluid, so well designed and well thought out. As a Zune HD enthusiast, making the leap to WP7 was a no-Brainer, that and the above statement. It's different, interesting, very easy to use. I'll never look back or go to another phone. I'd rather go back to a basic flip phone if I can't have a Windows Phone. Yeah, maybe that sounds a little strong and possibly overdramatic(coming from an actor, never!), but that's how I feel.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

-Doc

 

[jmshub]

I have hated iTunes for years. It is just a terrible, bloated, overweight, poorly written program. It gets bigger and more klugey with each update, as far as I can tell.

 

[power5]

Itunes and how you have to sync with one computer only in the beginning was the start of my hate for apple. itunes is very bad. I have not used it in over a year since I got rid of my iphone. Even then I had not used it for the last 6-8 months of ownership. Plugging in my phone and waiting for it to show up and show apps and switch between tabs was ridiculously slow for a 3.4ghz PC. I just hoped I would not need to sync. My 3g was not going to get any more iOS updates so did not really need it. It took FOREVER to open on my PC and its not like it was atom based. Also, my movie collection is not all mp4, actually very little is except for those I bought on itunes. So that means I can not air play them, or put them on an idevice. Zune supports way more codecs.

That and apple likes to tell you how they want you to use your media.

 

[lippidp]

Here is a list of things I prefer on WP than iPhone (ios 5):

1. I have a keyboard
2. Outlook is better. I can send emails with high priority; not possible with iPhone. i can delete multiple emails easily. On iPhone i have to open them one by one, tap a trash icon, tap delete, and then wait for an animation to complete.
3. IE is way better than Safari.
4. Navigation of the OS is great in WP and aggravating in iPhone.
5. IPhone is too fragile and requires a tank-like case for protection.
6. Soccer moms use iPhones. I don't want any part of that ****.

 

[mckhendry]

These are all great questions, valid concerns, and excellent responses.

A large part of this will come down to you and your preferences. Which phone are you more productive with? Which phone fits your personality? Which phone works for you? And don't forget, which phone pisses you off the least (they all piss us off at some point)?

Seriously, the answers to those questions signify whether there is any advantage to owning a Windows Phone vs an iPhone vs an Android vs whatever comes out in the future.

You should at least wait until you have the chance to touch a Windows Phone 8 device. Wait and see what features are announced in two weeks. Trust me, there's a lot under the hood that hasn't been leaked. You will be surprised, excited, and perhaps even amazed.

And please, don't think you're making a decision that's locking you in for life. You don't even have to be locked in for two years if you don't want to be. People can change their minds and it's ok to flip-flop over what phone you prefer. It's more important to be honest to your own preferences vs loyal to a platform.

If you let it, Windows Phone 8 will integrate with your other devices and your personal (and professional) life better than any other phone out there. That's part of the story that Microsoft is waiting to tell, but hasn't started to tell yet because technically both the Surface and Windows Phone 8 aren't officially released yet. Just wait a few more weeks. If you're open to it, it will be well worth the wait.

 

[blehblehbleh]

With WP8 taking on the NT kernel that means the door has opened to an unlimited amount of software developers through cross coding. Almost every program written for windows 8 should be able to be recompiled to WP8/RT with only a few hours of coding. Not that I will need half the programs for windows to be available on my phone, but the potential exsists. I forsee WP8/RT to have a software boom within a 6 month timeframe of the launch of WP8. I also forsee alot of exlusive applications due to these developers being windows only developers. It's all a part of that unified echosystem of windows 8. There will be many Doom ports in our future .

I think this is a good point, and kind of the crux with everything. It's why they switched up the framework and made WP8 switch kernels.

OK, I'm with ya on most of this. But, what is this "deeper integration" that you talk about? I can control my XBOX with the XBOX companion app on my iphone.

...

I'm not trying to be obtuse, these are real questions my friends who all ask about my windows phone ask me. They love the interface when I show it to them but, after that, I really cant explain how its better than their iphones. Does all this stuff really come down to a personal preference?

I think the best example that counters this question is the example shown by Joe Belfiore at the WP8 developers summit where he demonstrated NFC interoperability between WP8 and Windows 8. True Apple has its own version of interoperability protocols between products, but I doubt MS is going to or even care to enable their apps to make use of them. I could be wrong though.

In any case, that's the kind of deeper integration along with third party apps I imagine that will stem from MS's ecosystem, ideally. Alternatively I wouldn't be surprised if you started seeing MS's version of Apple's inter-device communication protocols for some of their products.

 

[anon(5348535)]

I hear they releasing Halo and Gears of War for the Playstation. Since they are a platform. Get outta here with that.

Also, these consumers are not buying phones for MS office.

Actually, business users might. Specially if it includes better integration with Exchange, SharePoint... just to mention few.

Re Office for iOS/Android... so far, only rumours. It might end up to be Office 365 "optimized" for those OSs, and I don't think it will ever compete with native app.

 

[brmiller1976]

Similarly, all of our students are given google apps accounts so we steer them towards using google documents.

They're going to curse you when they get out in the real world and can't use Office...