The lack of support from pretty much everyone and the future of Windows Phone

[Darkgift]

Well I tell u what. I stuck with webOS from 2009 to Oct of 2011 (then got my Arrive)...even longer if u count my Touchpad and I bought a Pre3 a cpl months ago just to mess with from time to time. I stuck thru the buy out from HP (who we webOSers thought would bring it home because of their deep pockets) and even passed the hardware cancelation. **** I'm still an active member of webOSnation. I still hold slight hope for a comeback...lol...anyway. My point is this. The OS is young, I hate Apple, I hate the iPhone, and I really hate Android. I'll stick with this OS...I love it. I'm not gonna jump ship....definitely not so soon into its carnation.

 

[gravage]

For the record, this is basically what I'm talking about in this thread: Retirement of Birdsong Twitter client for Win Phone announced | Windows Phone Central

This seems to be a weekly occurrence at this point and makes me really sad. Financial viability of Windows Phone Marketplace was cited as half the reason.

 

[tekhna]

The killer feature for me in Windows Phone is Tellme over Bluetooth. You can have an entire text message conversation without ever picking up your phone or looking at it. This is great while driving, if you have a BT stereo or headset. It's one of the reasons I take my Lumia when I travel.

Nothing else even comes close. iPhone requires you to hold the home button to initialize Siri to read your messages and again to respond. The closest app on Android that duplicates this is Vlingo and, while it will automatically read the incoming messages, you still have to unlock the phone and tap the screen to respond.

Tellme over bluetooth is something Microsoft should make a much bigger deal about, in my opinion. Voice-to-text is definitely inferior to the other two platforms, but the automatic prompting that allows you to have an entire text message conversation using your voice is unbeatable.

Tellme is pretty sweet, no doubt about it. Google Now has just gotten insane though. It's scary how good their voice recognition has gotten.

 

[tekhna]

Well I tell u what. I stuck with webOS from 2009 to Oct of 2011 (then got my Arrive)...even longer if u count my Touchpad and I bought a Pre3 a cpl months ago just to mess with from time to time. I stuck thru the buy out from HP (who we webOSers thought would bring it home because of their deep pockets) and even passed the hardware cancelation. **** I'm still an active member of webOSnation. I still hold slight hope for a comeback...lol...anyway. My point is this. The OS is young, I hate Apple, I hate the iPhone, and I really hate Android. I'll stick with this OS...I love it. I'm not gonna jump ship....definitely not so soon into its carnation.

The OS is not young anymore, that's the problem. WP8 is new, but Windows Phone has been on the market for 25 months. Android at 25 months was seeing 1000% growth rates. BB10 is coming out soon too--I thought WP8 would be the nail in RIM's coffin, but if BB10 is as solid as it's looking, it could be real rough going forward.

 

[Nataku4ca]

double tap the home button on the ios5 lock screen to get to the camera (I do like the WP solution better though)

you can? is there a setting that I have to turn on? I tried it on my wife's iphone but it brings up the media player instead

The killer feature for me in Windows Phone is Tellme over Bluetooth. You can have an entire text message conversation without ever picking up your phone or looking at it.

oh ya, I forgot about that, I used it quiet a few times too lol

The OS is not young anymore, that's the problem. WP8 is new, but Windows Phone has been on the market for 25 months. Android at 25 months was seeing 1000% growth rates. BB10 is coming out soon too--I thought WP8 would be the nail in RIM's coffin, but if BB10 is as solid as it's looking, it could be real rough going forward.

I think it's not entirely fair to compare that way in that back then the market was really different with only one group (ios) that had a loyal users and there were no competitors to speak of, android was like the saviour to those that did not want Apple products or thought they were too expensive, at least that's what drew me to android back then, windows phone has to deal with two mature OS with cult like following from both sides and also have to deal with Google's hostility at the same time, I feel WP8 caught up with a good 60~70% of the features (plus several that the other guys don't have) which is why it's starting to get noticed by the general public, if the update at the end of this year is as big as Apollo, I think we can be up to 85~95% caught up especially in terms of enterprise features

BB10 is another story, im actually looking forward to see what they come out with (being a Canadian, I also don't want to see them go under) however, WP is the only one doing unique things right now that works and works well which is the biggest draw for me and I really really hope it succeeds so I will continue to try and prop it up any way I can (too bad im not that great of a developer)

 

[spaulagain]

The OS is not young anymore, that's the problem. WP8 is new, but Windows Phone has been on the market for 25 months. Android at 25 months was seeing 1000% growth rates. BB10 is coming out soon too--I thought WP8 would be the nail in RIM's coffin, but if BB10 is as solid as it's looking, it could be real rough going forward.

^so go back to iOS or wherever you are from. Stop complaining and leave. The rest of us who enjoy WP for what it is will continue to use it. Microsoft won't let this one go, its a key part of their ecosystem. ****, look how long Windows Mobile lasted, and the was a POS. I've had Windows Phone since it first launched over 2 years ago. I haven't looked back. The apps will come when they come. To me the OS is what I keep it for.

For some of us, the other options are not acceptable despite all the apps available. I for can not stand Android. It is the biggest cluster**** I have ever used. I've tried several of the million concoctions it has and its was the most confusing, poorly design OS I've seen in ten years. As for iPhone, the product is good but I'm not in their ecosystem and I hate their extensively proprietary practices. I've used OSX often and I still can't accept some of the workflows to buy a MacBook or iMac. I'm a designer who use Windows, imagine that!

 

[Darkgift]

The killer feature for me in Windows Phone is Tellme over Bluetooth. You can have an entire text message conversation without ever picking up your phone or looking at it. This is great while driving, if you have a BT stereo or headset. It's one of the reasons I take my Lumia when I travel.

Nothing else even comes close. iPhone requires you to hold the home button to initialize Siri to read your messages and again to respond. The closest app on Android that duplicates this is Vlingo and, while it will automatically read the incoming messages, you still have to unlock the phone and tap the screen to respond.

Tellme over bluetooth is something Microsoft should make a much bigger deal about, in my opinion. Voice-to-text is definitely inferior to the other two platforms, but the automatic prompting that allows you to have an entire text message conversation using your voice is unbeatable.

I totally agree. I rave about this feature to everyone, and even if they're iPhone or Android fanboys, the agree it's a sick feature. This should definitely be marketed alot more somehow.

 

[spaulagain]

I totally agree. I rave about this feature to everyone, and even if they're iPhone or Android fanboys, the agree it's a sick feature. This should definitely be marketed alot more somehow.

I didn't even know they didn't have such features. That sux for them!

 

[Alex_Hong]

I only got my first WP7.5 device a Lumia 800 about 5-6 months ago, and have been using it on and off with my other devices. I was really in love with its homescreen, but felt that it could do with more customisation. Flashing 7.8 on my lumia 800 gave me that amazing homescreen that I really love. But like OP mentioned, there are little things here and there that stopped me from using it full time.

- Notifications is one thing, like whatsapp for example, if you don't have it on your homescreen, or lower part of your live tiles which you have to scroll down too, its pretty easy to miss the toast notification and forget about it. Frankly, when i was watching the WP8 keynote live stream, I was hoping that at some point Joe Belfiore would say, "Guess what, now you can swipe to the right to access to your notifications centre!" but obviously that did not happen... The lack of notifications centre also meant that when you have lots of new notifications from various sources, like emails, sms, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc, you have to go into one app, check it, then out. Then in, then out again to another app. It takes up a lot of time. So I hope MS is listening and trying to include this in the new Apollo+ as fast as humanly possible.

- Some minor settings are still missing, but the gap has been closed up slightly since WP8, but still not as much as I would like.

- Apps. There are 2 apps that I use on a daily basis. Whatsapp and Board Express. Whatsapp take painfully long to open, even compared to an old BBOS 5 Curve 8520, even if you restore it from recently used apps, it still takes a while to resume. Board Express is just painful to use, buggy laggy. There have been a couple of threads saying that there might be new ones coming, like from the developer of "Communities" for WebOS i think, or the developer for Tapatalk on BBOS, but they never did come. Then of course every now and again, there's news about developers leaving the platform, or no longer updating their apps (their loss). Which i think is a huge pity seeing that with the risk of not having enough users to justify the developer in comparison to iOS or Android, there is also the chance of making a name for themselves is a platform that is not as crowded as the 2 giants.

But of course there are some pretty cool stuffs that I love in WP8, like the lockscreen, the ability to change the refresh tab to other buttons in IE, Kids corner, etc. Overall there are things that I love, and things that I hate, like in every platform out there, but sadly the things that I hate I can't live without, and the things that I love aren't enough to make me stick to it for long. But i strongly believe that eventually all these holes will be plugged.

Its a great platform, but sadly not suitable for my needs, but i really hope MS will pull through. I really hope that WP8 will catch on with consumers. Honestly, i don't want a duopoly of iOS and Android on the market.

 

[thyttel]

Tellme is only a killer feature for English speaking people. For the rest of the world it's a useless gimmick no one can use!

The killer feature for me in Windows Phone is Tellme over Bluetooth. You can have an entire text message conversation without ever picking up your phone or looking at it. This is great while driving, if you have a BT stereo or headset. It's one of the reasons I take my Lumia when I travel.

Nothing else even comes close. iPhone requires you to hold the home button to initialize Siri to read your messages and again to respond. The closest app on Android that duplicates this is Vlingo and, while it will automatically read the incoming messages, you still have to unlock the phone and tap the screen to respond.

Tellme over bluetooth is something Microsoft should make a much bigger deal about, in my opinion. Voice-to-text is definitely inferior to the other two platforms, but the automatic prompting that allows you to have an entire text message conversation using your voice is unbeatable.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

 

[Alex_Hong]

Again, I don't care about apps. You know how I use my Lumia 920 97% of the time? As a smart PHONE.

I use it for calling, texting, calendar/tasks, email (work), internet, and social networking. All of which WP8 does very well.

It amazes me how many peoples have become "dependent" on these little off shoot apps.

Need dropbox? Why not use SkyDrive? Also, they made an app for Windows 8, so maybe WP8 will come soon.

I don't know how people think apps are so important that they'll suffer the nightmare that is Android just to have them. Craziness IMO.

I agree with the fact that WP8 does the things you mentioned really well, but like it or not, some people are dependent on these apps. Like the example you gave about DropBox, some people have been using dropbox for years, with a large collection of items on it, and shifting it over to SkyDrive doesn't make sense. If they're already paying for DropBox, why would they pay again for he storage amount they need on SkyDrive and spend the time migrating everything they need over? Though SkyDrive can be a good replacement for DropBox, no doubt, but it will be easier for consumers if there is a dropbox app. Eventually if they wish to, they can slowly migrate over time. Same goes for banking apps, people nowadays are on the go often, and don't have a laptop with them. Having a local banking app will make things a lot easier. Like in my country, we still don't have any local banking app for WP, and their websites doesn't even allow WP to log in. Being able to bank on the go makes lives a lot easier than having to find a computer with internet connection, or having find an ATM or bank.

I also find it foolish of those developers to drop support right when WP is starting to take off really well. And with Microsoft's ecosystem really coming together for the first time ever, they now have even more platforms to leverage on. Did you see Windows 8 sales? Bam!!! 60 million users in 2 months!!

IMO, ****'em!!!

Agree, its really unwise of the developers. Since they already have apps on the platform, why drop it. WP marketplace is still not as crowded compared to iOS or Android, so having your app here will increase the awareness from users. WP8 seems to be growing pretty rapidly as well. Take Carbon for example which the developer cited as a lack of users, which i doubt would make much of a difference on Android since Twitter clients are a dime in a dozen on Android. Being on WP8 and having the praises of early adopters will go a long way for them when WP8 starts to have a good chunk of the market. When someone buys a new WP8 device and asks his friend what is a good twitter client, I'm sure some would recommend Carbon, and word of mouth is a great way of advertising. He could have just port it over to Android and continued support for WP8.

If you're planning on keeping the 920 for the 2 year contract, then I'm sure you'll see all those apps come in that period.

 

[wjlim3]

Errr....how do I use the tellme feature?

 

[churchwa]

The API's have not been out long enough. We were always going to have this gap in apps actually being delivered. Wait until the summer and I am sure you will see a lot more apps coming.

 

[Tafsern]

I was afraid there would be a huge lack of apps, but for me it isn't. I have no problem finding the majority of apps I use daily. The only app right now that I am waiting for is Spotify, but we'll see that soon since it's being developed as we speak.

 

[paulxxwall]

It's not about specific advantages. The point is that 100 million people use Dropbox, and a pretty decent chunk of them have no interest in changing services. I use my GS3 much more than my 820 because I've been told:
If I use Gmail, switch to Outlook.
If I use Spotify, switch to Zune Music.
If I use Dropbox, switch to SkyDrive.
If I use Instagram, well, sorry, you're SOL.

Trying to win over customers by expecting them to switch their entire digital lives over to competing providers because your OS can't and doesn't provide the services they are used to, and have used for years, is a dead end. Period. End of story.
No one cares about your 10-step plan to switch over to Outlook because you think Google is evil. People care about using the same email address they've used for a decade.

 

[paulxxwall]

So true and no we don't want the same experience with the apps but a better experience we don't want Fandora we want Pandora. official apps that's how IOS n android user will start buying windows phones no other way
Windows sales men can't be mentioning lack of there usual apps theve had for years in order to switch former IOS n android users to wp8 .they would find it hard to sell

 

[falconrap]

As a webOS user since 2010, and about to move to WP8, I have to wonder about some o the thought processes put forward on this thread. Developers (ones without an anti-MS agenda and ones who are familiar with their bottom lines) will look at a platform and determine whether not to develop their app for it based on cost and ROI. What goes into cost? Ease of development. I think for most apps, ease of development will be there for a lot of them on WP8...MS has seen to that with a myriad set of tools. Also, any app that requires data hosting services be provided will need to factor that in.

Then they look at ROI. For any platform, market share % really means nothing other than prioritization. If an app developer is starting out, then market share is a huge priority for them, but we seem to be talking about apps already on other platforms, so this point is moot. The next major component is up-take. If you have a niche product you need numbers like there is no tomorrow. This is why the niche apps went iOS first, back in the day. Now they could go iOS or Android first (choice). High up-take apps, however, just need a sufficient base of users to make up the cost and generate a profit. Since webOS, whose heyday was 2-3 million users, was able to pull some of the high up-take apps in (Angry Bird for example), I think it is clear that with WP hitting over 20 million users, and WP8 likely to hit somewhere between 5.5-8 million this past quarter, I think it's clear that they have already hit the high up-take app threshold. At the pace they are going (6-8 million new users per quarter going forward) you are likely to see 30-40 million WP8 users by the end of the year, likely a lot more as new markets are brought on and Verizon and T-Mobile get high end Lumias later this year. I can't see any developer ignoring those numbers unless they just refuse to develop for MS or the API's prevent their app from working on the platform.

I have started hearing people talk about this platform, and I've started to see them around Tampa, something that was very rare for webOS. This platform is taking off quite quickly and a lot of people are showing interest in WP8. It seems that WP8 is where Android was about a month after Verizon introduced the Moto Droid (I still blame this phone for putting the nail in the Pre+ coffin and limiting webOS' growth when it was most critical). Within 6 months Android went from nothing, to the next great platform to jump on, despite the fact that it took several more months before it had more of the popular games and apps than lowly webOS. Give WP8 about 6 months and watch the apps explode. A late SDK release did NOT help this situation at all.

 

[Davidkoh]

I can't say I really miss any app on my phone, would be a Eurocard app although the mobile site works just fine or maybe an app for the ciname where I can buy tickets for a movie. My bank has got a WP app out for months now, the same goes for all cab companies where I can see exact fares and book a cab at that predefined flat price for the ride. There is also Netflix, Wimp music, Linkedin, IM+, Podcatcher, Facebook, IMDB, and an app for the public transport over here. That's just some of the many apps I use on a regular basis, can't really see what else I really need.

 

[jsk0703]

I am happy with WP8 the way it is. For the most part it is pretty well documented at this point. We know the bugs, we know the issues, we know what apps are and are not available. Yet people still come here to the forums day after day complaining because they don't have [insert app or feature here or support] that they had on iOS or Android. I'm sorry, I just have no sympathy for that group of owners. If it really meant that much to you then you shouldn't have made the switch and you have noone to blame but yourself.

 

[cardinalryan]

I am happy with WP8 the way it is. For the most part it is pretty well documented at this point. We know the bugs, we know the issues, we know what apps are and are not available. Yet people still come here to the forums day after day complaining because they don't have [insert app or feature here or support] that they had on iOS or Android. I'm sorry, I just have no sympathy for that group of owners. If it really meant that much to you then you shouldn't have made the switch and you have noone to blame but yourself.

I totally agree with this statement.

I don't begrudge anyone for loving a phone that suits their needs. On the flip side, however, there's no sense in knocking someone down because they point out obvious flaws in the OS and the L920 hardware. WP8 is an OS you have to accept with limitations...if you are not willing to deal with those limitations, then this is not the OS for you.