Official 8.1/Denim for the Icon?

[anywhereanytime]

I wonder when MS will realize that their whole "exclusivity" strategy is backfiring at this point. With more inexpensive carriers around, it would behoove them to sell multi-band unlocked phones of all models directly from their website

AMEN ... EXACTLY what "Apple has done with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus! I had to "buy one" for a customer project and "even the mighty Apple" was "boxed in by the almighty carriers". I had to "wait" until a local Apple store "had stock available" until I could walk in to the Apple store and say "DEVICE ONLY"! The Apple salesperson said ... WINK, WINK, you "could have bought ANY" device as our products have all of the radios installed and you can walk into Verizon and get a Verizon SIM card!

I "hope" that Apple is the FIRST to revolt and either form their own carrier or create an Apple "network" - Verizon when they purchased the 700 MHz spectrum a few years back had to agree to terms.

IF Apple "ever did something" ... Microsoft would immediately follow as would Google = make the carriers "just dumb" administrators and not "predators" who charge way too much for what they provide!!!

 

[AlastorX50]

AMEN ... EXACTLY what "Apple has done with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus! I had to "buy one" for a customer project and "even the mighty Apple" was "boxed in by the almighty carriers". I had to "wait" until a local Apple store "had stock available" until I could walk in to the Apple store and say "DEVICE ONLY"! The Apple salesperson said ... WINK, WINK, you "could have bought ANY" device as our products have all of the radios installed and you can walk into Verizon and get a Verizon SIM card!

I "hope" that Apple is the FIRST to revolt and either form their own carrier or create an Apple "network" - Verizon when they purchased the 700 MHz spectrum a few years back had to agree to terms.

IF Apple "ever did something" ... Microsoft would immediately follow as would Google = make the carriers "just dumb" administrators and not "predators" who charge way too much for what they provide!!!

Think its funny when you said Microsoft would follow apple, when its always the other way around.

In this order:
1.Microsoft - Modern UI
2.Google - Material UI
3.Apple - Modern UI + Holo= IOS7

make the carriers "just dumb" administrators and not "predators" who charge way too much for what they provide!!!

Apple has never invented anything, just taken already exsiting products put them in a shiny box at twice the price.

 

[AR2186]

Think its funny when you said Microsoft would follow apple, when its always the other way around.

In this order:
1.Microsoft
2.Google
3.Apple



Apple has never invented anything, just taken already exsiting products put them in a shiny box at twice the price.

They may not be a groundbreaking technology research company, but they have taken disparate technologies and made them work much better (really, much simpler, but limits customization). They have made technology relatable to the average person in a way that works very well in almost all use cases. Do you think the average person would know how to use Unix? Not a chance, but it doesn't matter because Apple has made a version of Unix that works for them.

I really like Microsoft, but they could use ssome Apple's focus and attention to detail.

 

[djarchow]

I think it is important in terms of the Icon to look at the total number of Windows phones Verizon sells. Using last years numbers as a guess, Verizon sold about 1.3 million Windows phones from February to October when the Icon was available for sale, if only 300k Icons were sold, then this is only 25% of their WP sales and the other 75% went to other Windows phones. So while Verizon may do a lousy job of selling Windows phone in general, the Icon was still outsold by old phones like the 928.

 

[anywhereanytime]

I think it is important in terms of the Icon to look at the total number of Windows phones Verizon sells. Using last years numbers as a guess, Verizon sold about 1.3 million Windows phones from February to October when the Icon was available for sale, if only 300k Icons were sold, then this is only 25% of their WP sales and the other 75% went to other Windows phones. So while Verizon may do a lousy job of selling Windows phone in general, the Icon was still outsold by old phones like the 928.

Great logic ... "why" would someone buy a 928 over an Icon? I had a 928 and moved UP to an Icon = a LOT more functionality and wasn't the price "close"?

I have to buy "full price" to keep my "unlimited plan" - as I recall, I paid "about the same" for both? (of course, the 928 I bought at launch for $549 as I recall and the Icon only this past September for $499.

 

[djarchow]

Great logic ... "why" would someone buy a 928 over an Icon? I had a 928 and moved UP to an Icon = a LOT more functionality and wasn't the price "close"?

I have to buy "full price" to keep my "unlimited plan" - as I recall, I paid "about the same" for both? (of course, the 928 I bought at launch for $549 as I recall and the Icon only this past September for $499.

The 928 today is $399 at full price. My guess is that people went with the 928 because you could get them for 99 cents as your upgrade. The last few times I was in Verizon back in September and October, the only two things I heard the customers asking the reps for were the Iphone 6 and the phones that were free. Of course for the free ones they pointed them to the older android phones.

 

[DavidinCT]

AMEN ... EXACTLY what "Apple has done with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus!

Keep in mind the iPhone was a AT&T exclusive for years....for the fist few iPhones, the iPhone didn't come to Verizon (and other carriers) till the iPhone 4....

Love or hate exclusives in the US, they are NOT going anywhere. It's not like overseas, where you pick a phone, then you pick your carrier. In the US, each carrier has different networks and different devices, so one phone will not work on another's network (depending on carrier but, Verizon and Sprint are exclusive to this due to CDMA, others work but, big problems like no LTE, etc).

Never mind the carriers want something to get people in THEIR store on THEIR network, and keeping exclusives is the only way they can do it...(Price does it for lower cost carriers).

No question, I dislike it too but I was glad we finally got a cool exclusive the ICON but, it's a fail because of the lack of updates...If I had the global version I would of been happy.

Really cant win can we ?

 

[anon6002755]

Really cant win can we ?

Not until everyone is on volte then we can only hope global phones or at least universal compatibility amongst US carriers.

Hey, I can dream.

 

[SteveNoza]

Preview for Developers is pretty painless and you can turn it off at any point, once Cyan/Denim come out, to revert back to retail. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction (battery drain or something else), you can download "Lumia Software Updater" from Microsoft Mobile and revert back to 8.0/Black. Only caveat is that you would effectively hard reset your phone on the downgrade.

My Smartphone is first and foremost a work device, and all the work stuff works fine on 8.0, and I don't really want to affect the good basic functionality it has now with things like battery drain or WiFi issues. I keep telling my geeky side that I'll get it soon enough (of course, I thought that since July when I got the phone).

 

[V Starstruck]

So now that Lumia Denim has been released for the Icon....why the silence?

 

[anon6002755]

So now that Lumia Denim has been released for the Icon....why the silence?

When?

 

[Indistinguishable]

When?

He's posting from an alternate universe where Verizon doesn't abuse it's customers.

 

[AR2186]

My Smartphone is first and foremost a work device, and all the work stuff works fine on 8.0, and I don't really want to affect the good basic functionality it has now with things like battery drain or WiFi issues. I keep telling my geeky side that I'll get it soon enough (of course, I thought that since July when I got the phone).

Completely understand, I told myself the same thing in late February when I got mine. Worst part is that they have rolled out minor firmware updates since then (think it was mid-summer to enable the arrows on data connection, etc) but nothing major. Its frustrating, but I think everyone wants a phone that works properly more than they want 8.1, so the wait continues

 

[grafixguy#AC]

Or from the universe where people don't know there's a bug in the extras and info screen.

 

[Indistinguishable]

Or from the universe where people don't know there's a bug in the extras and info screen.

It often seems that that's OUR universe.

 

[MikeSo]

This column by Ed Bott hits home for most of us in this thread, I'd imagine...

Why have I given up on Windows Phone? Blame Verizon | ZDNet

Back in October, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore tried to mollify Verizon customers with this tweet.

MS/Verizon are working on some bug fixes-- VZW taking the quality seriously. We aren't sure how long it will take, but work is underway.

-- joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) October 30, 2014

Asked for comment six weeks later, Belfiore says only: "Still working on it... no new info to provide."

I'd love to leave Verizon behind completely and switch to another carrier, but I don't have that luxury: Where I live and work, Verizon is the only carrier with a reliable signal.

After waiting in vain for months, I've finally given up. I used the Nokia Software Recovery Tool to restore the factory software to my Lumia Icon and put it on the shelf until Microsoft and Verizon figure things out. In the meantime, I've switched to an iPhone 6 Plus.

I'm probably not the only one.

And as long as U.S.-based carriers, including the biggest of them all, Verizon, are able to drag their feet and ignore Windows as a mobile platform, it's unlikely that anything Microsoft can do will be able to make a dent in its market share in the United States.

Verizon has done more to kill WP than any competing cell phone manufacturer could have done. Or maybe they helped, who knows.

 

[anywhereanytime]

This column by Ed Bott hits home for most of us in this thread, I'd imagine...

Why have I given up on Windows Phone? Blame Verizon | ZDNet

Interesting comments to the excellent ZDNet blog post by Ed Bott ... perhaps with Windows Phone10 on the horizon and a little pressure on the FCC about Verizon "abusing their 700 MHz AUCTION" OPEN Network agreements ???

KPOM1

@reidar76 It's getting better in the US now that it's clear DT can't sell T-Mobile to another carrier and they have started actually competing, setting off a price war. Both Verizon and AT&T have issued profit warnings this quarter. And in 2016 Verizon effectively becomes a GSM carrier as they plan to issue LTE-only phones in anticipation of shutting off their EVDO network by 2020. By virtue of a unique agreement with the FCC for their LTE Band 13 spectrum, all their LTE phones are unlocked and they cannot block any phone supporting Band 13 from their network. That's why you can technically use an AT&T iPhone 6 on their network.

 

[theefman]

This column by Ed Bott hits home for most of us in this thread, I'd imagine...

Why have I given up on Windows Phone? Blame Verizon | ZDNet



Verizon has done more to kill WP than any competing cell phone manufacturer could have done. Or maybe they helped, who knows.

Yet we don't see Microsoft putting up a fight for their OS, instead they've turned their focus to ios and android.

 

[Tjarren]

I've been giving this some thought lately, as to why this is bothering me so much (beyond the obvious).

I think the problem with this entire process is the lack of transparency. We don't know WHY Verizon is the last US carrier to release WP 8.1 (first revealed in April 2014 ...) to it's customers. That lack of transparency is 98% on the part of Verizon and 2% on the part of Microsoft. The comments from Joe Belfiore on this situation (most recently on 12/9) come off as someone wanting to say more but not being able.

Why is that? Is it due to Verizon or MS? Are these legitimate problems with all of the devices or just certain ones and Verizon doesn't want to stagger the release? Is this a corporate decree to push sales of the One M8 for those wanting the 8.1 experience? We don't know. We likely will NEVER know.

Hopefully we can all find other things to occupy our hearts and minds for the time being, because dwelling on this right now is downright masochistic ...

 

[beerme1]

Yet we don't see Microsoft putting up a fight for their OS, instead they've turned their focus to ios and android.

I'm surprised nobody has called you out on this. Are you serious? There may be a lull in the action right now and in large part due to VZW but c'mon.
Windows 10 across platforms? I don't think they're laying down I think they're trying to bide time and VZW isn't helping that. But when 10 releases I believe they are going all in and they're will be a dizzying amount of phones running Win 10 and products coming at a blistering pace.
Apps included!