What Microsoft should learn from BlackBerry

[fabianloing]

Notifications too for me. I am both a long time Blackberry user and a huge fan and user of Windows Phone since the Lumia 800, 900, and now using the 920.

I think Lumia 920 is far superior to Blackberry. Only little things like notifications center, improved speaker performance, that needs a lot of work.

Other than that, I love my Lumia 920.

 

[ny_yankees]

ny_yankees, that's a great ad from Microsoft. I really enjoyed that. Lol, it brought back a lot of memories! Thanks for the video!

No problem, I know what you mean exactly. I love that commercial too, shared with everyone

 

[kniteshift]

Yeah, pretty much summed it all up right there.

 

[socialcarpet]

I think one main issue is that in order for windows phone 8 to gain more traction, windows 8 needs to first, and it is, but it had a bumpy launch...Sure it sold well, but people have a negative perception of it. (Even though its a fantastic OS). I understand people not liking it on a desktop or a laptop but on a touchscreen I feel that it is easily the most productive, fluid, and best layout of any touch-based OS. Its funny because as much complaints as you will hear with people with windows 8, I have yet to hear one when it comes to a touchscreen because it rocks on one...I have one...I should know.

So back to the point...Windows 8 needs to catch on and then Microsoft will get the magical mystical apple halo effect where people will be like "I use win8, and office, and I have an xbox, so why don't I buy a windows phone and have them all sync together...?" The smart thing about Microsoft is that even though they are growing slowly, they are trending upward, the same can't be said for RIM and probably soon to be iOS. It seems apple has peaked and they won't go any higher than they are now. Google is the main competitor Microsoft and Apple need to worry about most.

I agree with this to an extent. I think wider adoption of Windows 8 will help Windows Phone because the tile interface will be familiar to people. It's going to take a little while for people to embrace it though it seems, but I believe they will in the end.

For me it isn't a factor. My primary computer is a Mac OS X machine and I have a Thinkpad on Windows 7 that I am unlikely to update to Win 8 anytime soon (it hardly gets used these days) Doesn't matter to me. Unless Microsoft gives me some amazing synergistic flow between my phone and PC, I don't see myself putting the Mac down or even updating to Windows 8 in the near future.

 

[omniusovermind]

All I know is that BB had several things going for it that I never saw with the WP8 launch:

Trending 3-4 topics on the competition's own forums (scroll up)

Hitting the #1 spot on Facebook's top 10 most talked about companies. iPhone was at #5

Making Twitter's top 10 trending most of January

Nobody lined up all the way down the street to buy a Lumia or 8x:

this was in the UK today.

Looks pretty cut and dry where things stand to me.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

socialcarpet "Unless Microsoft gives me some amazing synergistic flow between my phone and PC, I don't see myself putting the Mac down or even updating to Windows 8 in the near future."

Actually that's the cool thing, they already do. The other day I was in class and was like, I need this list I made on onenote on my phone so I can buy my book. I just uploaded my list to skydrive and just pulled it down on my phone. What was also impressive was when I got my new replacement focus s, cause my other focus s mic died and I just logged in with my Microsoft account and bam, everything synced to it, all contacts, all my mail for various mailboxes, facebook, ridiculously simple and easy. Windows 8 was better, I had a windows 8 beta on my old laptop and I got a new tablet, logged in and BAM! all of my apps, facebook, contacts, calendars synced and mail I just had to set up in 5 minutes. it was impressive! It also syncs with my xbox via smartglass. I think MS is doing a better job of cross-platform integration than any other company, including apple, which is what their known for.

 

[dermotf]

All I know is that BB had several things going for it that I never saw with the WP8 launch:

Trending 3-4 topics on the competition's own forums (scroll up)

Hitting the #1 spot on Facebook's top 10 most talked about companies. iPhone was at #5

Making Twitter's top 10 trending most of January

Nobody lined up all the way down the street to buy a Lumia or 8x:
http://cdn.crackberry.com/sites/crackberry.com/files/u10880/bb10-phones4u.jpg
this was in the UK today.

Looks pretty cut and dry where things stand to me.

That was one store where there had a big celebrity and were giving away playbooks. Need to read the article you linked to.

 

[christenmartin]

I actually think Microsoft made some great strides with w8. Having the same operating system throughout, rather than having a disjointed mobile os and a desktop os. I just bought a nokia 920 and a lot of what is toted in z10 is available with w8. I have been impressed. I do agree that MS seems to have a "let's do this and see how it goes" attitude rather than selling out to the WP. Lack of marketing was a pet peeve of mine with BB, now with W8 I would say the marketing doesn't do it justice.

 

[Panwo1]

and the z10 looks a lot like a black iphone

 

[christenmartin]

That was one store where there had a big celebrity and were giving away playbooks. Need to read the article you linked to.

Haha You want to take a picture of a line just give something away free!

 

[snowmutt]

Okay.... BEFORE we start losing our ever-living mobile minds, shouldn't we:

1) See how BB10 sells and performs in real life?

2) See how Windows 8 and WP 8 improve in the coming months?

 

[tavisdunn]

Fair enough.

 

[smoledman]

It's already February and where is the promised 46/50 apps? Well Belfiore - where is Pandora?

 

[wpinfected]

windows has something to learn from #BB
1. when windows phone8 was released it was just a incremental innovation on the part of MS(re-size live tiles, xbox music, more app support ) but if we see BB there **** lot of improvements in BB10 to be specific the new way of typing, BB hub and these are radical innovations.
2. what made windows phone a W.O.W. OS is the superb Hardware support, Nokia has made a lot of breakthroughs in mobile OS like Wcharging, OIstabilization so windows has to learn new way of doing things from Nokia.

 

[kmrpatel4]

Microsoft should only concentrate on PC , Forget about Mobile and Tablets.. They were never successful and they will never be successful. period

 

[DavidinCT]

I have been watching the black berry launch. What Microsoft need to learn is apps and games.... Why ?

BB made a dev tool that can take an android app and in most cases with out a single line of code change can convert it over to a BB10 app. Yes, you can download a Android app (from your fav warez site) and run it through this converter and sideload it into your blackberry 10 device with NO CHANGES in code and it will run fine in most cases. Some cases where it needs changes just where the keyboard pops up and any other hardware access but, most of you know, anything that just uses just the touch screen (games and most apps) would just convert with No changes in code.

Microsoft needs to create a tool that will take a iOS or Android app in it's finished form and convert it over to WP7/8 with almost no changes and maybe we can keep up. Also BB app cert is costs are very low, a lot lower than Microsoft, so BB does not make that much money right now and that leads Devs to say, What the **** ? Low cost, possable sales and no conversion time or costs ?

The biggest problem reviewers complaned a lot about is the selections of Apps on Windows Phone and it's still hit with that. If there was a lower level of converstion and lower cost to get started (or Microsoft's cut on sales) BB has a big hands up here and could be a case for worry for most Windows Phone users.

That app that is on Android that you have been watiing for...will be aviable for BB but, not Windows phone...because of this.

BB is starting with 70,000 apps and over 40% of them are conversions from Android apps....Dont you think that is sort of cheating ?

 

[Alexandre Donnert]

Microsoft needs to make some strong changes on WP8, add some basics functions that all the other platforms had, including the dead Symbiam, improve the best functions on WP8 and make something new, to make the costumers want his phone... Because the new Windows phone 8 is becoming old, against all the other TOP 3 OSs ... Microsoft, C'mon ... Let us happy, not worried with your product, our OS.

 

[ttsoldier]

It's a shame really.

BB10 is launching In my country next week Wednesday... We're a third world country. A speck on the map in the Caribbean. Lumia 920 is no where to be seen. (except mine of course)
But BlackBerry is the most popular brand here. I Guess carrier is doing what they can to make the fastest money.

 

[martinmc78]

Microsoft should only concentrate on PC , Forget about Mobile and Tablets.. They were never successful and they will never be successful. period

People said the same when Microsoft launched the Xbox - were last to the party - console had its issues and faults - microsoft should stay making software.

Look at them now. Top of the food chain with the xbox 360. If microsoft needs to learn anything from blackberry its dont lose your user base from a massive network outage and dont put all your eggs in one basket as a company just making phones.

 

[sejgiul]

How does Microsoft not back their products?

- Paid Nokia $250 million to adopt Windows Phone
- Continues to pay manufacturers to adopt the OS and pays per device sold
- First-gen devices received the 7.8 update (my LG Optimus 7 even got it)
- Multiple celebrities hired to promote Microsoft products

I think it's safe to say that Microsoft is the company here that has put the most effort into their product.

2+ years in 3rd/4th place and now gaining proper traction, as iOS and Android users start getting bored of the same interface over and over again, they are going to move to Windows Phone and not Blackberry. Heck, even Nokia is reporting profits.

If you watched the BB10 launch event you can tell that BlackBerry - regardless of what divisions, groups, teams, etc - are fully behind BlackBerry 10. Heck, they even had a roving app hit-squad in each of their key markets to find out that region's top apps, and they made a commitment in securing those apps for BB10. Also, BlackBerry seems to have a clear idea or belief as to where the smartphone market is heading, and are willing to push towards that route through their own products and services. Heck, their messaging around "mobile computing" was easily something Microsoft could have pushed with WP8, but it didn't.

The point I want to draw on is how it's clear that BlackBerry backs BB10, yet it makes it even clearer that Microsoft doesn't back WP8 to that extent. In relative terms, MS is putting in less into WP8 that BlackBerry is into BB10, and the reality reflects it. Look at how BlackBerry managed to secure (at least for Canada) most if not all of the top media/news apps, or key banking apps (e.g. RBC), or partnerships with carriers and banks to proliferate NFC payments, etc. This is the commitment one needs to show in order to fight in the smartphone market.

Now look at WP8. At its heart it is a superb OS with the social network integration, lenses integration, augmented reality apps, NFC and Wallet, etc. Then why, why in the name of all that is rational and sensible is MS not pushing each of these elements to the end-user in meaningful ways? Or rather, simply put, why isn't MS putting in the money and commitment behind such an effort? Why is it that we have to put up with a certain business division 'evaluating' Xbox's value on Windows Phone? Someone at the top needs to put Windows Phone front and center as a key pillar of Microsoft's future in an increasingly 'mobile computing' world, but clearly that isn't happening.