People have to be empowered to know what to want.

[Jazmac]

If you've ever walked into class and the instructor announces, "remove everything from your desks except for a #2 pencil". You look around and everyone has a look that its no big deal except you? Not the best analogy for this time of the morning but its a re-occurring thought in my mind when I consider the scant marketing Microsoft has done to promote Windows Phone.

It is a great phone. Coming off android, wobbly knees and all I've discovered I don't miss android, not one bit of it. I call my Windows Phone something I never referred to my android device, my road dog. aka "Sidekick" for the colloquially challenged.

Part is the lack of marketing and I would go so far as to say 70 percent of the apathy for Windows Phone is the absence of education on the part of Microsoft to advertise the product. The only way I knew this platform is as bad arse as it is was to be pro-active and do the research. But unlike the Molly Woods of the industry, I'm a true techy. I have a clue about research. What about the majority, including Molly Woods who are not so technical?

As far as android goes, the only reason anyone knows anything about android is because of advertising, fakery and flat out ignorance. Most have been sold the ad agency platform because it looks so much like the Apple iphone.

Windows Phone 7 is clean, fast, smooth and amazing. We know it is. Those I have introduced to it believe it as well by simply being able to answer their questions. (So it is on the community to know how things work.)

People need to be shown over and over again how this experience fits into their lives from navigation, to texting and email, to reading books and the news to playing stupid games like Angry Birds on a very smooth and compelling platform. Not to mention how intuitive it is using Bing services via Bing Vision.

People have to be empowered to know what to want. The way to get there is through advertising. Get in and get back to life is good. Its how I roll. But many are more intimate with their phones so a spot like get in and get back to life won't move them. How can those who live inside the wireless world have the time of their lives via Windows Phone? They can you know. Between Facebook, twitter and Alpha Jax, some days its like that. Its like that with a lot of people so where are those area's being addressed? It could be Microsoft isn't quite reason to pull the trigger for reasons I don't know but its time.

 

[HeyCori]

One thing that really helps the competition is the insane amount of free advertising Apple/Google gets. Android OEMs advertise their phones. Apple advertises their phone. Carriers advertise their Android/iPhones. Local/national news advertise everything Apple does. Websites advertise every move Apple/Google makes. And Microsoft... Microsoft gets very little advertising help from anyone. Carriers/OEMs need to make a bigger push to sell their WP7 phones.

 

[mmbond]

a differentiating form factor would be a huge boost also.

I always read about people on this forum saying people ask them about their phones; but I've only had a few close friends ask and only because they always ask my opinion about all things tech.

I get a bit bummed more people don't ask, but i can only assume it's because the phone looks like every other Android phone on the market (or windows mobile), until you see the tiles/OS.

 

[Reflexx]

It's not like Android came out of the gate running. Hardly anyone knew what Android was for a year.

Do you know what I believe changed it? The Motorola Droid.

Verizon marketed it a ton. And so did Motorola. And... it was called the DROID. A lot of regular consumers really didn't make a differentiation between the Droid phone and an Android phone. To them, they were one and the same. And as the popularity of the Droid grew, it kind of brought Android along with it. And vice-versa. As people started getting more familiar with Android, people still bought the Droid because the name gave the implication that it was somehow the real Android phone.

That's partly why I'd like to see Nokia call their phones the WIN series of phones. So it would seem like the "official" Windows Phones.

*it has nothing to do with my twitter name being WinningGuy. Or my website being WinningGuy.com. Absolutely nothing.

**okay... maybe a little bit.