What do you think Microsoft should do from this point onwards?

[Usama Jawad96]

Note:This is not a rant, just a general discussion topic to get to know the the Microsoft community's point of view.

Hi guys and girls!

I'll get straight to point.This question has been constantly raging in my head,

" What is Microsoft doing wrong and what should it do to succeed? "

I'm pretty sure this has going on in many people's heads specially after the Kantar reports which hold kinda mixed results for WP right now as reported by WPCentral
Kantar's latest smartphone market report is a mixed bag for Windows Phone | Windows Phone Central

I'm using this forum to express my views and opinions, to let off some steam and know your points-of-views so let's try not to act like MS fanboys, be completely calm, and try to understand what the other person is trying to say

• What do I think Microsoft has done wrong?

> A poor marketing strategy

Before I start this paragraph,it would be useful to some to know that I live in Pakistan.
I know Microsoft tried and I also know it didn't succeed all too well,recent reports from Kantar and IDC are some examples of that. From my personal experience, I bought my WP8(now WP8.1) Lumia 620 18 months ago approx and do you know how many people I have seen with WPs since then?There's me,3 of my classfellows, and one other guy I saw in the mosque. That's 5 people in total and 3 of them owned WP7s the last time I saw them and understandably,they were completely fed up with it.

Moving on to social forums,the last Lumia ad I saw on TV was of Lumia 630, haven't seen any 930 ads on TV yet,even though the Nokia Pakistan Official Facebook Page is slightly promoting it with a picture or two after every one week.And did I mention that most Nokia stores here still have the old(but gold) Lumia 1020's posters on their walls instead of the comparatively newer Lumia 930,1320,1520. Who's to blame?

>Not a clear strategy
Well,it'd be fare enough to say that prior to Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia, Nokia probably planned on making more X Platform handsets. Nokia concentrated more on promoting the X platform,even the social(and official) accounts. When Microsoft acquired Nokia's handset division, the WP strategy was still not clear with X2 launching soon after that. Then suddenly,fast forward a few months and MS announces that they are shifting completely to WP only and are ditching X platform.Most common people here who do not keep up-to-date on tech news don't even know this and Nokia(now Microsoft) seemingly don't intend to do so considering they are still busy promoting it. Not completely MS' fault but come on,hardly 10% people read tech news,you HAVE to let people know what's going on.

>Lack of devices and OEM interest
I know that recently WP got a lot more OEMs than before but how many of them are seriously interested in promoting it instead of just using it as an alternative? Huaweii gave up, Micromax aren't exactly that much popular,hardly anyone knows about Prestigio and the others. The last Lumia device we saw was Lumia 930 at BUILD and we do expect to see more devices on the 4th September event in Berlin.But come on,do 4 new Lumia phones(63x,73x,83x,93x) in 8 months cut the slack?Let's not forget,2 of them haven't even been launched yet which technically means 2 Lumia devices in the past 8 months.

>The app gap and lack of cross-platform functionality and uniformity
The app situation has considerably improved but admit it or not,we are still way behind.Sometimes,the developers are also to be faulted for this.We don't have many major games and apps.Our app updates mostly come late when compared to other platforms,they sometimes lack the functionality present in their Android/iOS counterparts.
Another reason most of you probably don't count as major,but it matters a whole lot in developed countries,Paid games on WP whereas free on Android/iOS. Example is the Angry Bird series,I know it's Xbox-enabled and has no ads but let's face it,people in developing countries don't really care about that.Most of my friends laughed at me when I said that Angry Birds is paid on WP Store.Payment options are difficult and restricted to some users eg:I,being a student can't convince my parents to lend me a debit/credit card for buying mobile games and there are a ton of other people who face the same problem.I support the devs when I can(I spent a $5 card which I 'accidentally' won),I stopped piracy because I felt guilty of robbing devs.I don't ask for all the games apps to be free obviously,just those which are free on Android/iOS.Give us some restrictions like ads but trust me,in most countries "Free with ads" sounds a lot better than "That'll be $1.99,sir" (It isn't much but the payment constrictions are what matter)

>Slow update rollout
Some of you got the update relatively quickly while the rest grew old waiting for it Definitely something MS and carriers should work on more.It's bad publicity when people start ranting about it.Then there was the bitlocker issue as well.

>Lack of good specs in devices
512mb ram.No front camera.No SD Card expansion.No flash.These are some of the things people do NOT want to hear.I don't think it's even good for publicity.Look,we know WP runs smoothly even on 512mb ram but the Android owners looking for a new phone don't,do they?Suppose I'm an Android user(God Forbid ),would I buy a 1GB ram android or a 512mb ram WP(which will possibly be priced slightly higher)?Lumia 930 didn't have SD card,Lumia 525 didn't have flash or ffc,5xx,6xx,720 are 512mb ram,820 is discontinued,920 has no SD card slot,1020 has no SD card slot.The only phones left with possibly all the features are 1320 and 1520 but too bad they're both phablets and do not appeal to all.
Ok,I'm not asking for all the latest specs but at least remove the 512mb ram and give us an SD card slot for every phone for God's sake!

>Other possible reasons
Lack of Xbox supported titles and stingent Microsoft certification process.The marketing managers. etc etc.

• What can/should Microsoft do to fix it?

I don't really feel like writing long paragraphs now so I'll keep this to bullet points.

>Market more,advertise more.
>Fire the current marketing managers.
>Let people know what you're upto.At least tease something,give a hint,no one likes to be kept in the dark.
>Get us more OEMs,famous ones this time.Try to bring Samsung back in the game,persuade HTC to make more blockbuster WPs,an array of options is always useful.
>Attract more devs,pay them if you must(you have the money),eradicate the app gap forever.
>Updates MUST be rolled out quickly for all phones.Work harder with carriers.
>Get more Xbox Live titles,Xbox was a selling point before and could be so right now.People still love Xbox and while Gameloft have given up Xbox support,I haven't.I hope more companies follow Ubisoft's suit.
>Lower the difficulty of this certification process.You are scaring away devs.
>Get more platform exclusive games.Even bigger ones.I loved the faces of my friends when I told them Halo was on WP.
>Enable operator billing in more countries,you want more people to pay devs,right?
>Launch more devices,fill in the high-end gap as well.
>Launch low-mid end devices with respectable specs at least,it'll even attract Android/iOS users!

Well, that's more or less my entire opinion about the matter and I'm feeling extremely tired after writing this long post.I know most of you won't/haven't bothered to read it,but just skim through the sub-headings and let me know how much you agree or disagree at least.

 

[ronaldme]

Be commited with the platform at 100%, if you can't, give more freedom to OEM to add features. The second is not good, but at least people will be attracted more.

 

[vlad0]

Take Windows Phone out of beta.. otherwise the declining market share trend might continue.

 

[colinkiama]

Take Windows Phone out of beta.. otherwise the declining market share trend might continue.

Yep. Thats how everyone feels man. Its like we are all microsoft beta testers. Windows phone 8.1 finally caught up with android but when android L and ios 8 drops, its gonna have to do catching up again. Actionable notifications, smart dialliing, scrubbing through all music and videos, many missing languages. I know its been four years but come on, they need to work faster. At this point android was at version 4.1. They need way more people to be working on wp if they want to survive in my opinion.

 

[Kellzea]

They need to stay the course with updates.

Double commission for phone sales reps

Make a super badass future phone spec leader

Either pay google lots of money for a youtube app or just release the old one and fight the court battle in Europe.

Start selling windows phones to schools and universities for cheap to be given or leased to students

Give a million or so handsets out for free to poor African villages/communities with a solar power charger and phone mast so they can trade, call for help, be better connected with the world etc.

 

[DoctorSaline]

The truth has been spoken.

Seriously, it couldn't have been explained better. And suggestions are all bulls eye. Let's hope some Microsoft employ has read it and learned something from it.

 

[Squachy]

They might want to fix the WP version of their own apps instead of letting it wither and die while updating the IOS and Android versions at a faster pace......(Skype....OneDrive....Office...OneNote....) They tout all this crap as the MS advantage but the fact is the majority of their own software is worse on the WP platform than the other two. If they want them to be advantages of their platform they need to provide basic functionality across all platforms but ADD some ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIVE features that would only be found on WP.

Speaking of pace...update their damn software faster. They've already had to catch up from the start and all they ever did was stick with their slow pathetic update schedule. The schedule would have been FINE had they been on par or close enough to the other platforms from the get go but they were so far behind in everything it feels like they don't care about their own OS.

 

[colinkiama]

Basically, focus on their own platform first before the others. Google's apps always have the most functionality than other platforms. Even when the market share for android was low. Learn from Google Microsoft. Play rough. Stop trying to be innocent. Your reputation was already ruined with windows 8.0.

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Take Windows Phone out of beta.. otherwise the declining market share trend might continue.

Exactly,this is one point I forgot to mention in my suggestions list,Music app,Video app,Games app,the update itself had some noteworthy bugs and lags.I mean come on,Microsoft!We are not here to beta test your apps,we want quality apps or at least apps which are actually functional.My games app still crashes after every 5 mins -_- Make Windows Phone the fastest and smoothest OS it was meant to be.You have the money,you have the developers,you are a software giant, you have a development and testing team,what's holding you back?

Yep. Thats how everyone feels man. Its like we are all microsoft beta testers. Windows phone 8.1 finally caught up with android but when android L and ios 8 drops, its gonna have to do catching up again. Actionable notifications, smart dialliing, scrubbing through all music and videos, many missing languages. I know its been four years but come on, they need to work faster. At this point android was at version 4.1. They need way more people to be working on wp if they want to survive in my opinion.

Exactly,many of us optimistic WP users including WPC members as well were of the impression that WP8.1 was going to change the world at soon as it's launched.I know it was an optimistic approach but we still aren't even at a comparison level,are we?WP share in many countries has actually dropped,who's to blame,Microsoft?

They need to stay the course with updates.

Double commission for phone sales reps

Make a super badass future phone spec leader

Either pay google lots of money for a youtube app or just release the old one and fight the court battle in Europe.

Start selling windows phones to schools and universities for cheap to be given or leased to students

Give a million or so handsets out for free to poor African villages/communities with a solar power charger and phone mast so they can trade, call for help, be better connected with the world etc.

>Yup,updates are crucial and shouldn't be late or buggy.
>If it actually makes them promote WP better,then so be it,Microsoft has the money.
>Yeah,the current Lumia flagship,Lumia 930 as a flagship phone is way behind it's time.Very few people nowadays buy phones without SD card slots.
>I could do without Google apps.Instead,like I mentioned in my suggestions list,make awesome WP apps so Google customers are inspired by you instead of you being inspired by Google apps.
>Yeah,but that'd be a pretty expensive venture.

They might want to fix the WP version of their own apps instead of letting it wither and die while updating the IOS and Android versions at a faster pace......(Skype....OneDrive....Office...OneNote....) They tout all this crap as the MS advantage but the fact is the majority of their own software is worse on the WP platform than the other two. If they want them to be advantages of their platform they need to provide basic functionality across all platforms but ADD some ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIVE features that would only be found on WP.

Speaking of pace...update their damn software faster. They've already had to catch up from the start and all they ever did was stick with their slow pathetic update schedule. The schedule would have been FINE had they been on par or close enough to the other platforms from the get go but they were so far behind in everything it feels like they don't care about their own OS.

Basically, focus on their own platform first before the others. Google's apps always have the most functionality than other platforms. Even when the market share for android was low. Learn from Google Microsoft. Play rough. Stop trying to be innocent. Your reputation was already ruined with windows 8.0.

Exactly,I recently read on WMPowerUser that OneDrive app for Android is already ahead of WP.I read WMPU because they do good reporting of niche news WPC sometimes miss out.Then there was the other app MS released on Android before WP.I don't remember the name but it was launched on WP slightly later(maybe 18 hours) after the Android counterpart.I know 18 hours don't matter much but then it again forces us to question Microsoft,who are your real and loyal customers?Us or them?(Android/iOS users).Who deserves your apps released faster,more functional,and exclusive if possible?I mean,if Google doesn't seem too eager to help out WP users,why should Microsoft try to satisfy Google's customers?If you really want to give them apps for God knows what reasons,at least keep them behind in updates,to win you need to play a rough games,as the saying goes:Good guys always finish last.

 

[wiggum15]

Or in just one sentence:

The story of WP = too little too late

 

[D M C]

I often wonder what WP have which other OS don't..

First of all MS need to improve it's services.

Second MS need to think big means focus on whole world not just USA.


Introduce something that is useful and other competing OS don't offer that.(like the true Artificial intelligence assistance ......lol!)

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Or in just one sentence:

The story of WP = too little too late

Wow,that's amazingly accurate.

I often wonder what WP have which other OS don't..

First of all MS need to improve it's services.

Second MS need to think big means focus on whole world not just USA.


Introduce something that is useful and other competing OS don't offer that.(like the true Artificial intelligence assistance ......lol!)

I agree whole-heartedly,lol about that last point though

 

[Great deal]

I think sometimes its all too easy to attack MS for decisions that go wrong. That's just business, you look at data, make a projection based on incomplete information, do a risk assessment, if viable then invest. Most of the time that investment is written off as the reality is different form the projection. Apple had no idea of the success of the iPhone/iPads before launce and quickly capitalised and made those TWO products the core of the company thanks to Steve Jobs. MS has tens of thousands of very intelligent people (much more than me and you) doing all sorts on all sorts of projects. They have business analysts doing what they do which is gap analysis between 'as is' and 'to be' on all projects alongside the Project Managers tasked with delivering on time and within budget (vary hard to do in tech world) Essentially the job is to find a product and spin the wheel and squeeze everything you can out of it trough trial and error. MS have enterprise, the Windows platform and with devices they are committed to making it happen...for the time being...as everything has a monetary limit along with time. They have mapped out the investment and timelines v expected market share a long time ago and its something we can only guess at best.

Time will tell, look at the SP3, amazing product on the face of it, took ages to correct the issue with wrist tapping windows button effectively making it useless for right handed artists, issues with overheating etc. If they want to compete with Apple in their playground they got to bring something that works and works perfectly right out of the box and that's a big task/ask.

So what do MS do? Answer is continue to reshape and steam line, continue to change the poisonous culture of old, bring in great strategists and industry leaders to help shape the decisions. Engage better marketing agencies, I say hire the team that made the Honda advert..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrQoof1F2cQ

In 2 minutes you see and feel the pedigree and history of the company, something like this would make people sit up and go "you know what...MS have done some AMAZING things, they are a force to be reckoned with"

 

[colinkiama]

I think sometimes its all too easy to attack MS for decisions that go wrong. That's just business, you look at data, make a projection based on incomplete information, do a risk assessment, if viable then invest. Most of the time that investment is written off as the reality is different form the projection. Apple had no idea of the success of the iPhone/iPads before launce and quickly capitalised and made those TWO products the core of the company thanks to Steve Jobs. MS has tens of thousands of very intelligent people (much more than me and you) doing all sorts on all sorts of projects. They have business analysts doing what they do which is gap analysis between 'as is' and 'to be' on all projects alongside the Project Managers tasked with delivering on time and within budget (vary hard to do in tech world) Essentially the job is to find a product and spin the wheel and squeeze everything you can out of it trough trial and error. MS have enterprise, the Windows platform and with devices they are committed to making it happen...for the time being...as everything has a monetary limit along with time. They have mapped out the investment and timelines v expected market share a long time ago and its something we can only guess at best.

Time will tell, look at the SP3, amazing product on the face of it, took ages to correct the issue with wrist tapping windows button effectively making it useless for right handed artists, issues with overheating etc. If they want to compete with Apple in their playground they got to bring something that works and works perfectly right out of the box and that's a big task/ask.

So what do MS do? Answer is continue to reshape and steam line, continue to change the poisonous culture of old, bring in great strategists and industry leaders to help shape the decisions. Engage better marketing agencies, I say hire the team that made the Honda advert..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrQoof1F2cQ

In 2 minutes you see and feel the pedigree and history of the company, something like this would make people sit up and go "you know what...MS have done some AMAZING things, they are a force to be reckoned with"

Marketing should be number 1 priority for Microsoft. Even if the product isn't that good, marketing it well makes people intrested in it. I remember telling people I have a windows phone and they were like, what's that? That says alot.

They are doing it right with xbox but why can't they do it right for windows?

 

[Ed Boland]

Y'know, that Honda commercial is pretty good. I really saw Microsoft in it all along, as an analogy, while moving through time, as he constantly got more and more upgrades, like Windows Phone, he started out with WP7... and along the way he got WP8, a Lumia 920.. then as the speedboat went off the cliff, the speedboat (Lumia 1020) turned into a Lumia 1520 and took flight. Then at the end, while technology had evolved all around him, he returned home on his Lumia 530?

 

[EMINENT 1]

They are biding their time until Threshold. This whole ecosystem is about to get supercharged in the coming months when Broadwell and W9 becomes available and they release (hopefully) a high-end phone using WP9.

We're just unfortunately kinda in a lull until these things are announced. Thankfully, we have a LOT to look forward to very, very soon!

 

[DoctorSaline]

They are biding their time until Threshold. This whole ecosystem is about to get supercharged in the coming months when Broadwell and W9 becomes available and they release (hopefully) a high-end phone using WP9.

We're just unfortunately kinda in a lull until these things are announced. Thankfully, we have a LOT to look forward to very, very soon!

What I've seen with MS is that, you shouldn't get your hopes too high with them. WP9 will not be as BIG a thing as people make it be. What it will do is that make it easy for developers to bring their apps to all MS platforms(PC, Tablets, Phones, XBox) with a little adjustment to coding. Thus, developers will have the market share of all four of those platforms to be tempted to make apps for windows ecosystem. Hopefully, that will mark the start for a better ecosystem. But, it'll be slow and take time. Also, it might not improve all the things which are wrong with the OS currently. Cue XBox music, video and games hub. It might not fulfill all the feature gaps currently present in windows phone. It might not bring the type of power and control that developers expect from MS. It might not improve MS's services on its own platform. All these things will take time that is if MS is fully committed to the platform. I would like to think so but only time will tell.

 

[Bobvfr]

Although a great advert, Honda have actually gone well off the boil, if I go in a bike showroom now Honda have become boring, I hear their cars are also suffering, I have a Honda VFR, one of the best bikes ever made, my latest work bike is also a Honda, and I have to say it's built to a price and crap (But it's free and so is the petrol so I am not moaning too much).

Yes MS need to improve it's marketing strategy, and I am surprised that the Xbox One (And all the other products) are not released worldwide, it's very hard to sell something if they aren't in the shops.

I have just come back from a week on Dartmoor (No phone signal) me and the wife took pictures on our phones, we got in, had a cup of tea and put the Xbox on, went to OneDrive and looked at those pictures, this is just so impressive. Why not show this in an advert.

Whilst we were away several really good updates turned up (Media App) and by the time we had looked at the pictures and drank the tea they were all installed, no more having to take a science degree to do anything, it just works (Again tell people).

Above all I reckon MS should NOT PANIC, they have a wonderful product here with the Xbox One, Window 8.1 and WP, but they do need to tell people and also win hearts and minds, it takes momentum to win, I mean Android is winning in the phone wars even when it isn't the best product, but MS can do this as long as they don't go for knee jerk reactions and put people off by leaving people behind (Like the WP 7.8 cut off).

Although they probably do need to have the option to have menu's in 9 to appease the tile haters, but they should not ditch Metro, it is becoming a design classic, so many people have or are copying it.

From a personal point of view one thing stands out, on my Xbox I can choose the tile colour, on my phone I can do the same (Both using Xbox Green at the moment) but on my Surface and laptop I am stuck with a mess of colours, please fix this MS, I know it's a small thing but it does put some people off.

Again from a personal perspective please can I have "Reading list" on my phone so that it integrates with my entire system, nice tool but again too many people don't know about it.

The biggest single complaint I see on these forums is about Xbox Music, I think it's fantastic, the main problem I see is people not understanding it and pressing the "Automatically sync" option without considering what it could do to their local collection, this option should come with a warning. We were in our tent in the rain, no signal, yet I could play my Xbox music pass music on my phone, no need to sync, yet you get people complaining this doesn't work, again most of it comes down to people not understanding how it works.

I find it odd that you can get a family 365 subscription, Xbox gold can be shared with family, yet Xbox Music can't be shared with my wife, we live in the same house, have the same Xbox One, have joint bank accounts but I can download music, she can't. Come on MS, sort this one out.

But having said that, the main thing MS need to do is DON'T PANIC, sell, sell, sell and not just one individual item, sell the system, OneDrive, OneNote, Xbox One and maybe even OneExplore (I am sure they can come up with a better new name for Internet Explorer and Bing). Maybe time for some creative thinking on the marketing strategy.


Bob

PS Please bring out an Xbox Music player.

 

[rodan01]

What I've seen with MS is that, you shouldn't get your hopes too high with them. WP9 will not be as BIG a thing as people make it be. What it will do is that make it easy for developers to bring their apps to all MS platforms(PC, Tablets, Phones, XBox) with a little adjustment to coding. Thus, developers will have the market share of all four of those platforms to be tempted to make apps for windows ecosystem. Hopefully, that will mark the start for a better ecosystem. But, it'll be slow and take time. Also, it might not improve all the things which are wrong with the OS currently. Cue XBox music, video and games hub. It might not fulfill all the feature gaps currently present in windows phone. It might not bring the type of power and control that developers expect from MS. It might not improve MS's services on its own platform. All these things will take time that is if MS is fully committed to the platform. I would like to think so but only time will tell.

Xbox music, etc. aren't part of the OS anymore, just apps with their own life cycle.

What feature gap? The OS is excellent, the problems aren't in the OS.

Developers will never have full control, that would create an awful system. What limitation is causing you problems?

 

[prasath1234]

Release low cost wp with 1 gb ram flash nd ffc.people may be interested at least in India.Give a wp for every surface or x box one nd absorb the cost of the device.MS can only compete in pricing.