Thoughts on Wordament, Instagram, Office on IOS, WP8/Win8 sales

[eshy]

As far as Instagram goes, I really don't care about it. It's just one more way for people I'd rather forget about from high school or whatever to find me online, lol. I prefer to store my photos on Google Plus, and really just wish that all those filters and options and stuff would be built into every phone to begin with.

I don't care about Instagram either but I understand what the problem with it is. It's not just the potential buyers who can't live without it, it's also the perception that top apps like Instagram, which most smartphone users at least heard about, isn't available. If a big app like that doesn't feel it's necessary to support WP, then many small ones won't either. at least that's the perception it creates in people's minds.

The thing is, it's very easy to solve. Microsoft paid the costs to build apps for WP7 when it was starting out. just take a million out of that 1.5 billion marketing campaign for Win8/WP8 and get that app made. it will generate more PR that the ad buy the million will be used for and will remove a road block too

 

[eric12341]

Honestly I think thus is ok as wordament and alphajax are only casual scrabble type games. There's really no point in keeping these types of games exclusive to WP considering our smaller marketshare. We just recently took 3rd place but if it was exclusive there wouldn't be much of anyone to play with and MS wouldn't be able to collect much ad revenue from it. The more money MS makes the more they can promote WP. This being said I don't think any other type of Xbox game will be released with achievements to others.

 

[joeynox]

Its not just instagram . Facebook and twitter are not officially on WP either. Microsoft had to make the apps because twitter and Facebook didn't want to. As it stands wp8 is not desired among devs for many reasons.

 

[iamtim]

Facebook and twitter are not officially on WP either.

The Twitter app is an official app by Twitter. It's not by Microsoft.

 

[Andrew Z]

I just don't understand why Steve B said in an interview like a year ago about how the platform isn't as successful as he had hoped, but doesn't care and allows the creation of office, Xbox live, and smartglass (and more) all for ios/android. What is the consumer benefit with going with WP8? I personally love WP7/8, but for apple fans/koolaid-ers, why would they want to switch to an OS when they can get the exact same features on ios? Sure they have to pay more, but do you really think apple fanboys really care? This is the thought process, and I have seen this by MANY customers. "why would I get that phone, with less apps, when I can get office and SkyDrive on my iPhone? My iPhone can do everything that phone can do and [dare I say] more?"

 

[jalb]

$1700 and $1100 are very high buy-in-points for a lot of people when Best Buy is littered with $600 Windows 8 laptops. I hope it takes off, but I have a hard time believing that the Surface Pro will be the best selling (or even close) Windows 8 machine out there.

 

[GreenScrew]

They have no plans on ever running Windows 8 or supporting the Surface the way they do the iPad. Many other large companies are in the same boat.

That's good because they should plan to support them like a standard laptop. A W8 Pro tablet CAN be an effective laptop replacement unlike an iPad. And most enterprises, if they aren't, SHOULD be planning how to make that happen. Just have a look at the $699 HP ElitePad 900. That's a great price for an enterprise tablet that can be domain joined, run your corp security/management tools, and run all your Windows 7 programs to boot! All this on an iPad sized tablet with 10 hours of battery life that can be serviced onsite by self maintainers. That's not to mention the expansion sleeves and full docking capability. Any decent IT department should be at least assessing if not already planning how to put this device in their users hands!!

 

[joeynox]

The Twitter app is an official app by Twitter. It's not by Microsoft.

you are correct , Facebook and another popular app were made by me and not the original dev. I just can't remember which dev. Thought it was twitter.

 

[based_graham]

$1700 and $1100 are very high buy-in-points for a lot of people when Best Buy is littered with $600 Windows 8 laptops. I hope it takes off, but I have a hard time believing that the Surface Pro will be the best selling (or even close) Windows 8 machine out there.

600$ Windows 8 laptops are for casual consumers they are better off with an RT device like the Surface RT. No viruses, 10 hours of battery life and very portable

 

[based_graham]

I just don't understand why Steve B said in an interview like a year ago about how the platform isn't as successful as he had hoped, but doesn't care and allows the creation of office, Xbox live, and smartglass (and more) all for ios/android. What is the consumer benefit with going with WP8? I personally love WP7/8, but for apple fans/koolaid-ers, why would they want to switch to an OS when they can get the exact same features on ios? Sure they have to pay more, but do you really think apple fanboys really care? This is the thought process, and I have seen this by MANY customers. "why would I get that phone, with less apps, when I can get office and SkyDrive on my iPhone? My iPhone can do everything that phone can do and [dare I say] more?"

Few reasons
1. Its cheaper
2. Different variety of hardware if you like photography you have the Lumia if you like portability and music you have the 8x
3. Office built in. I mentioned this above to have Office on your iPhone/iPad its 100$ a year that's a lot of money
4. So much built right into the box Office, Navigation (Garmin GPS's devices are still 200$ the same price as a L620), Photography, Games and Music
5. Reliable and consistent

Apple guys are harder to switch over because they have such a powerful ecosystem already. The only Apple guys that will switch are Apple guys that have numerous MS products already like a Windows 8 PC or Xbox 360. Also some Apple users just like the WP8 interface more the ability to pin sub tiles and get a good glance and go look that's another reason to switch over as well.

It's better off to go against the Android guys they have like 50% of the market how much of that %'s is catered to low-mid range market. If MS can steal some of that thunder then you can expect WP to at least hit 10%.

 

[iamtim]

Facebook and another popular app were made by me

...I assume you mean "MS"?

 

[Andrew Z]

Few reasons
1. Its cheaper
2. Different variety of hardware if you like photography you have the Lumia if you like portability and music you have the 8x
3. Office built in. I mentioned this above to have Office on your iPhone/iPad its 100$ a year that's a lot of money
4. So much built right into the box Office, Navigation (Garmin GPS's devices are still 200$ the same price as a L620), Photography, Games and Music
5. Reliable and consistent

Apple guys are harder to switch over because they have such a powerful ecosystem already. The only Apple guys that will switch are Apple guys that have numerous MS products already like a Windows 8 PC or Xbox 360. Also some Apple users just like the WP8 interface more the ability to pin sub tiles and get a good glance and go look that's another reason to switch over as well.

It's better off to go against the Android guys they have like 50% of the market how much of that %'s is catered to low-mid range market. If MS can steal some of that thunder then you can expect WP to at least hit 10%.

you're right about those. But those aren't deciding factors for a consumer who wants apps apps and more apps. And it would be quite difficult to get android people to switch, because they have such an open source free market. I mean from a retailer's point of view, I see what customers care about and what they don't. I can go on and on about it unfortunately. It's going to be a tough road for wp8, lets hope we make it

 

[Ferrarifan123]

http://www.change.org/petitions/goo...pular-apps-google-talk-drive-on-windows-phone

Sign this! For google apps on WP8.

 

[Villain]

Wordament going to IOS isn't huge BUT xbox achievements is very very big.

 

[brmiller1976]

I'm totally okay with the Wordament thing. It's a bummer seeing people get all doom and gloom about it

Here's what I find weird... many of the people dooming-and-glooming about a frackin' video game on iOS were telling me that the lack of timely updates to Portico across carriers was "no big deal" and to "be patient." And that actually has a real impact on user experience!

 

[mpelti]

Widgets are as different from live tiles as live tiles are from icons. Widgets are more like... IE 4.0 Active Desktop elements from way back in the day than anything else. You *might* get away with saying that live tiles are a cross between widgets and icons, but that's a stretch.

Please. Live tiles are just widgets with strict design rules. If anything, live tiles are more limited than widgets. On my android phone, there were widgets that could let me toggle settings without opening the app. The ESPN scoreboard widget actually showed me live info, not a score from the fourth quarter of thursday night football 10 days ago, and a "last play" from even earlier in the game. Every music app had a widget that could pause or skip tracks (and yes, I llke having this on the lock screen, but it's silly to have to lock and unlock to get to it.) or go directly to the now playing screen.

Quite frankly, all of the ads that talk about it being live info, your stuff right away are BS. I haven't seen a third party widget that actually updates live, most of them of them are only every 30 minutes or hour. Most of the MS live tiles are nothing but a counter, no better than that red number that shows up in iOS. Some of them might show the most recent update, or facebook might show a "john and jane commented on your photo", but really, it's just a poor substitute for a notification center. It has a lot of potential, but it has a long way to go.

 

[iamtim]

Live tiles are just widgets with strict design rules.

No, they're not widgets at all.

If anything, live tiles are more limited than widgets.

That's correct. I don't believe I said anything to the contrary.

I'm not sure why you're arguing with me. Generally speaking, an icon is a shortcut to an app; a Live Tile is a resizable shortcut which can display information from the app; and a Widget is an applet. Again, generally speaking Widgets > Live Tiles > Icons, in terms of the information they can present to, and interact with, a user.

 

[eric12341]

So what's the selling point of live tiles then? Why are they a big deal if they can't do most of the things Android widget can? Why can so few 3rd party devs actually make their tiles "live", as opposed to 30 minutes ago?

They look better, they don't bog down the system or drain the battery. To name a few.

 

[mpelti]

That's correct. I don't believe I said anything to the contrary.

Generally speaking, an icon is a shortcut to an app; a Live Tile is a resizable shortcut which can display information from the app; and a Widget is an applet. Again, generally speaking Widgets > Live Tiles > Icons, in terms of the information they can present to, and interact with, a user.

So what's the selling point of live tiles then? Why are they a big deal if they can't do most of the things Android widget can? Why can so few 3rd party devs actually make their tiles "live", as opposed to 30 minutes ago?