I've been with iPhone for 4 yrs but one thing is stopping me from Nokia 920...

[nekowhizz]

I moved from an Android Phone (Sony Xperia Arc) after it became so very slow, and I never really invested a lot of money in apps and games on Android, mainly because I never found anything worth the money... and well the quality of them was so often lacking, it was literally like sifting through, well you know, looking for good apps!

On Windows Phone however I have seen it grow from 30k to 100k apps in less than 10 months, and during that time I have bought lots of apps and games, and the quality of them has been very high. I also like how the tiles bring you little snippets of information, and as a result not only have I bought more apps, but I use them a lot more too.

I also feel the 'try' option for apps and games is a fantastic idea, as it gives you time to try out apps and games, often allowing you to use them free in an ad supported version.

However it does annoy me that I can't play some of the most popular mobile games with my friends, though this will change with Windows Phone 8 =) But I live with these things, knowing that I have apps my friends don't (yes they exist just on Windows Phone!) like a very cool TV Show app that ensures I never miss my favourite shows, or tells me when a new one I want to watch is going to be aired.

Windows Phone is very efficient, very fast, clean and extremely personalised and functional. I look forward to Windows Phone 8 and the sexy Lumia 920 =D

 

[snowmutt]

Apps will come with market share.

The good news is that with WinRT and Windows8 launching soon with similar code bases. So that market share may entice a lot of developers. And porting to Windows Phone will be a pretty painless and quick process.

Thank yo, buddy.

The lack of apps IS being addressed by the cross platform support using the same kernal will bring. It is a serious attempt to get developers excited and make it easy for them to develop. MS understands it needs apps. They are on it.

 

[scottcraft]

It wasn't that long ago that Android was in a similar situation. When I got my first android facebook didn't even have chat built into the app. Didn't Android just get instagram this year? I am confident Microsoft is working on ways to get the bigger apps to WP, but with such a small marketshare it's going to take a while. If there are certain apps you require that WP doesn't have and there are no workarounds, by all means try Android or an iPhone. You have to have something that works for you.

 

[tomatoes11]

I don't mind the ecosystem as long as they have the apps I use or an equivalent, which they do in most cases except my Rogers My Account app.

I am slightly concerned about how ghetto the Whatsapp app looks on my gf's Lumia 800 compared to the one on IOS and Android though.

 

[scdkad]

I'm leaving windows phone to go to iPhone because of the same issue. I need *official* apps for google voice, yahoo fantasy football, yahoo messenger and decent apps for waze and tapatalk (be is a joke).

What's the matter with Board Express? Works great for me.

 

[ilifecomputer]

Board express is a joke when you've used tapatalk. Also whatsapp wp port is pathetic. I also hope wp8 changes app development for the better. Pretty sure I'm going back in with a 920.

 

[scdkad]

Board express is a joke when you've used tapatalk. Also whatsapp wp port is pathetic. I also hope wp8 changes app development for the better. Pretty sure I'm going back in with a 920.

I guess since I've never had an iphone or android device I wouldn't know what tapatalk is thus I don't miss it. Only use BE for WPcentral anyway..

 

[superdudeo]

funny... 100k app within 1 1/2 year is too little now (how do you make that sarcastic face again? )

anyways, i think posting a list of apps needed is the most reasonable way to get questions answered like how 1jaxstate1 and mrozanski interacted on this very thread

like GhoulPhreak i got my lumia because of the core functionality wp provides, and thats things like zune/picture hub/people hub/threaded messages/office (!!!! very very useful to me)/skydrive

and upon getting the lumia we got nokia drive which is the most used app for me (well... im exaggerating a little... since games do open more and im forced into using whatsapp) there are definitely alot of useful apps u can download on wp, and i know there will be alot more coming now with native code support

im speculating a little, but i feel we'll see alot of big named apps released during Build (notice i said "released" not "shown") we already know drawsomething and wordswithfriend are coming, so is chase, and EA is very much on board, i would not discount wp right now and we're only looking at a month and a little more for alot of great things

i think the only issue for many people would be instagram and instagram's close minded approach at things, wp is easier to code than other platforms and even has translator that helps with creating a new app and yet they have done absolutely nth, not even a mention of looking into it, i know its a small company, but if it's making money off it's popularity i fail to see why they can't hire ONE person to do the coding (heck just buy off one of the thirdparty ones and build off of it)

*rant over*

If 100k apps is true then honestly, it's a bit embarrassing for Windows to be honest. I struggle to find 20 apps worth downloading from the Marketplace.

I'm not exaggerating, it's just the way it is. Hopefully with marketshare will come investment because the OS is superior. I have to say though that if you haven't direct experience with the wealth that the App Store offers, you don't know what you're missing.

 

[FinsUpDNC]

I do love my 900, but to ignore the fact that the apps are not up to par yet is just being intellectually dishonest. Right now Facebook and Twitter apps are created by Msoft and not the companies themselves which should tell us all something. I applaud Microsoft for doing this, but until there is demand for the businesses to create their own apps this will be a problem.

I am going to get the 920 or 8x, my next big life decision. That is because I own a business that lives in the Exchange world and this phone works better then any other within that ecosystem. I hope Microsoft pushes this as they can make a nice dent in the corporate phone market.

 

[Nataku4ca]

If 100k apps is true then honestly, it's a bit embarrassing for Windows to be honest. I struggle to find 20 apps worth downloading from the Marketplace.

I'm not exaggerating, it's just the way it is. Hopefully with marketshare will come investment because the OS is superior. I have to say though that if you haven't direct experience with the wealth that the App Store offers, you don't know what you're missing.

well, im not going to try and convince anyone our marketplace is the better or good enough, since this is relative to what they need, but i do feel it's being a bit over exaggerated at how the marketplace performs right now (in a bad way that is)

at least for me, (take whatsapp as example) i like how we swipe to get to different screens and find stuff, performance is complete crap no doubt and ours are definitely missing features here and there, but from switching between mine and my fiance's iphone i just keep getting the feeling that ours is easier to use... of course this is my personal opinion and i get this same feeling with alot of the other apps

i guess what im trying to say is 1 and 1/2 year is short, other platforms sure didn't get to where they are until 2~3 years later, heck android didn't get instagram until this year

--below comment not important, just a rant... --
though i still can't understand whats so good about that app... poked around my fiance's phone and other than the social networking aspect (well, sharing filtered photos) it feels the same as others, well im a bit biased on this comment though, since i like original unedit photos better than filtered ones...

 

[InfectedPhreak]

To those that use WhatsApp, why do you use WhatsApp? If it's for business, I can understand but for personal I'd use Kik Messenger. I've paid a lot of attention to the updates of WhatsApp, and everyone continues to tell about how terrible it is.

As for the quality of the apps, as I don't have a WP device I can't really say for sure an opinion on that. But a lot can be said in the fact that a lot of the apps on iOS are stupid, and not really meaningful (Fart apps, lighter apps, etc). I wouldn't be surprised that, a lot of the quality apps are waiting for a user base so they know their app will be used.

I just think that, in time as Windows Phone grows so will it's market place. A lot of the early adapters had it much worse, with only 100s to thousands of apps now there is 100,000+ apps. If you buy into WP now, or wait until WP8... You don't have it as bad as the early adapters. Just like the iPhone went through and just like Android went through.

If you're coming from another OS, and you want your specific apps then why even think about switching? If you've invested time and money on apps, and in the respective ecosystem why look for a new phone?

I didn't spend much time with apps over the last 2 years that I've had my Droid Incredible. So I'm not missing out on much when and if I do switch to WP. I've never bought and app, and I've never found an app that I couldn't "live" without.

If apps mean THAT much, don't switch.

 

[Nataku4ca]

To those that use WhatsApp, why do you use WhatsApp? If it's for business, I can understand but for personal I'd use Kik Messenger.

well... its kind of like facebook, all your friends use it, then u end up not having much choice especially when they created a group in it (my case... )

 

[InfectedPhreak]

well... its kind of like facebook, all your friends use it, then u end up not having much choice especially when they created a group in it (my case... )

I wish my friends used WhatsApp or Kik. A lot of my friends stick to iMessage, or just use Facebook Messenger. I've only come to know a few people that use cross platform messengers. But understandable that you and your friends have invested in WhatsApp.

 

[Luminatic]

I kind of understand the thread creator. When evaluating my new phone (I wanted to go away from android), I saw it as drawback that WP didn't have the audible app back then because I used it almost daily and there was not other simple way to listen to Audible audiobooks. I was lucky, though, that I soon heard that it's being developed, and this pushed me closer to my decision to give WP a chance.
I don't have many more "must have" - apps, though. I don't game much and don't get the point of fantasy sports apps. I don't mind not having an app for this and that homepage as I can use the browser to get there, and I wouldn't use banking apps on my phone even if somebody forced me to do so, and all this makes it easy for me to switch the OS.
I do have some apps on my WP, though, some of them are really neat, others are meh. That few "meh" apps (one of them being the app of a popular free newspaper, the ANdroid version has just a few more features in it) might annoy me sometimes, but simply not enough to drive me away from the OS, because: At the end of the day, it was the OS that gave me the big push towards WP and one single app which gave me a little last push.

And before anyone asks me why I didn't just get a dumbphone: Yes, I could do al lot of things that I do on WP on dumbphone as well (I read and wrote emails on my dumbhone, I listened to music on it, I surfed the internet on a dumbphone ), but I can do them much better on a smartphone. Especially on a WP because from the very beginning, that OS just worked so intuitively for me.


Oh, regarding the question "Why am I using Whatsapp"?

Because every smartphoneowner I know is using it, it's a common messaging platform. That's why I have it. Some people I know might (or might not) use platform-bound messaging services. But, to be honest, most friends use SMS/MMS as most of my friends don't even have a smartphone I 'm not interested in non-cross-platform messengers as they would lock me in into a certain OS too much, and I wouldn't like that feeling.

 

[InfectedPhreak]

And before anyone asks me why I didn't just get a dumbphone: Yes, I could do al lot of things that I do on WP on dumbphone as well (I read and wrote emails on my dumbhone, I listened to music on it, I surfed the internet on a dumbphone ), but I can do them much better on a smartphone. Especially on a WP because from the very beginning, that OS just worked so intuitively for me.

This is exactly what draws me to WP. I find that yes Android is easy to use, but WP has a life of it's own that just makes it that much easier. The core features of WP, should be a major player in WP in buying a WP not apps.

Oh, regarding the question "Why am I using Whatsapp"?
Because every smartphoneowner I know is using it, it's a common messaging platform. That's why I have it. Some people I know might (or might not) use platform-bound messaging services. But, to be honest, most friends use SMS/MMS as most of my friends don't even have a smartphone I 'm not interested in non-cross-platform messengers as they would lock me in into a certain OS too much, and I wouldn't like that feeling.

The few people that I know that use cross platform messengers stick with Kik Messenger. Most of my friends also use SMS/MMS more then not, and some use iMessage. Everyone around here except for a few have iPhone's so not many people see the point in bothering with a cross platform app.

 

[Aykazu]

This is exactly what draws me to WP. I find that yes Android is easy to use, but WP has a life of it's own that just makes it that much easier. The core features of WP, should be a major player in WP in buying a WP not apps.

The few people that I know that use cross platform messengers stick with Kik Messenger. Most of my friends also use SMS/MMS more then not, and some use iMessage. Everyone around here except for a few have iPhone's so not many people see the point in bothering with a cross platform app.

Umm, I dont understand, I have tried to read about instagram which seems to be a very popular Android and iOS app, but isnt it kinda like built in to WP7.5?

For the thread poster, I would like to help you find similar apps that you have used with iOS. There are many apps that are just named differently but does the exact same thing and usually has the beatiful Met.. Windows 8 style

But please I would like a real answer about the Instagram, is it another social media app like facebook or is it just to post pictures into different social medias?

EDIT: There seems to be an unofficial Instagram app called Instacam and Instacam+ so might want to check them out also

 

[Big Supes]

I'm glad that I don't use apps. I think WP in it's raw form, does a lot more then any other device to date. The core features sell phones, it's sad that it's become a market place just for apps.

I want a WP for what it can do out of the box, not what I have to fill it with as a consumer. I'm not into the trendy apps (Instragram, Draw Something), and I'm not missing out on any sports related apps, or banking apps. I especially wouldn't game on a phone either. I love the simplicity, and the integration and how WP just works.

So, I'd have to say... that, I'm definitely glad I don't use apps so I can enjoy a device that I would want to own and use.

This. ^^

I'm not the biggest app user. My primary concern is the phone UI. Things like threads, live tiles, app linking, camera shortcut, hubs, social network integration, and aesthetics are what make a smartphone. Anyone can make a crappy looking app and release it on any given platform.

For those who need a gazillion apps, maybe keep an eye on Wp8, but for now, stick with what you've got.

 

[InfectedPhreak]

Umm, I dont understand, I have tried to read about instagram which seems to be a very popular Android and iOS app, but isnt it kinda like built in to WP7.5?

For the thread poster, I would like to help you find similar apps that you have used with iOS. There are many apps that are just named differently but does the exact same thing and usually has the beatiful Met.. Windows 8 style

But please I would like a real answer about the Instagram, is it another social media app like facebook or is it just to post pictures into different social medias?

EDIT: There seems to be an unofficial Instagram app called Instacam and Instacam+ so might want to check them out also

Instagram is an app that you use to take pictures with, and then add filters to "customize" your picture. Then from there, it allows you to upload the edited pictures to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and I believe one more thing. It also is it's own social network, you can rate and comment on pictures and follow / be followed like Twitter.

I'm not the biggest app user. My primary concern is the phone UI. Things like threads, live tiles, app linking, camera shortcut, hubs, social network integration, and aesthetics are what make a smartphone. Anyone can make a crappy looking app and release it on any given platform.

For those who need a gazillion apps, maybe keep an eye on Wp8, but for now, stick with what you've got.

Glad to know I'm not the only one!

 

[mdameron]

How long did it take us to get Skype? Is it still beta?
Netflix
Pandora
Yahoo Fantasy Football
March Madness streaming
LogMeIn
streaming Amazon Cloud music
Can we officially stream SkyDrive music?

WP7 core functionality does none of these perfectly reasonable things. Even things like Overdrive Library app doesn't support WMA audiobooks.

I'm used to no app support, coming from WebOS. Saying you don't miss the apps because you've never had them is ridiculous. I wish we had every one of those I listed. Don't need a gazillion apps, just need the good ones that everyone else has. I could totally see someone balking at WP7 due to apps.

 

[Big Supes]

I wish we had every one of those I listed.

Do a search for Netflix. You never know...