What WP needs to succeed

Luuthian

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Sorry but none of that stuff matters, the only thing that matters is winning mind share.

This actually sounds like the real problem facing WP. There are a ton of other problems with WP, namely the gargantuan app gap, but the real problem is people simply DO. NOT. CARE.

It feels like Microsoft is willing to blow money on all kinds of endeavors but the one they are completely incapable of delivering on is advertising. They can't sell their house made products to save their life. The general public is simply not enamored by WP at all and, worse, by now the likelihood is that things they've heard are so negative (except from a very small share of users) that it'll take even more work to earn back that trust.

Just look at the PS4. It had, for months, ZERO games worth buying. Half of what's available on the system is just graphical updates of games from the previous gen. And yet it has the other systems on the market outsold 2-1 because people bought into the hype. And while those first few months of owning the system may be painful, the inevitable is that the system will enjoy many lengthy years of great support because the user base already exists.

WP needs to accomplish the same thing as the PS4 at this point or it's going nowhere. Developers will continue to abandon the platform until users show up. Even MS can't throw money at a battle forever... They really need this years flagship to make some waves.
 

hotphil

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And yet it has the other systems on the market outsold 2-1 because people bought into the hype
A lot of them bought into having a Blu-Ray Disc player.

​MS needs a similar "something" to make Windows Phone attractive. It won't be in software (because they put all their app innovations onto other platforms preferentially), it won't be hardware (ditching McLaren and no new high-end devices available) so it might be services. But what service can MS offer their mobile OS users can't get anywhere else? Nothing from what I can see.
 

akthelonelyman

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Re: I'm ready to switch from WP to iPhone and I'm not happy about it

maybe just maybe listen to their customers...maybe just remember that u own a platform called windows phone and the people who bought into it are still stuck on more than a year old version of ur own apps...while competing platforms have the latest version of services u offer..

maybe not just dangle the carrot of everything will be ok with the next version and actually do something about it.
then maybe the developing community will care and people will care..
 

MarkXsama

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?Things that Windows 8.1 did wrong and Windows 10 should not repeat?

We, the users, need:

1-Customisable vibration in capacitive buttons ? e.g.25% 50%, 75% 100% vibration strength
2-Customisable colors of capacitive buttons (at least red, blue, green)
3-Split screen ? e.g. top half - music and bottom half - web browser
4-Option to preview background wallpaper before we enable it + customisation of its color
4.1-Option to change background wallpaper from not only the settings, but also from albums/SD card
5- Customisable notification centre colors different from the rest of the colors in phone e.g. you have a black background in phone, but a white one in NC
6-Better pinning of tiles to start - when we pin a tile to start, we are prompted to start, which is annoying if you juyt downloaded more apps and with each pinning you have to slide back to app list. PS-You made the ?recently downloaded? highlight in app list ? good...
7-More appealing people, phone and messaging app - color and text distinction
8-Bass adjustenment of music app + a better music ap ? possibilities down below
9-Better sound options - Sound customisation for several apps, not for all e.g. the same volume for all apps is reduction of possibility
10-Smarter Cortana - we do not want to touch the phone each time - I think you did this by now with W10
11-More personal Cortana, at least by 2020 - Make it a real AI and not a plastic bottle with a voice, able to receive Web info via WIFI...
12-Capacitive button light level - bright/medium/low light and not just ON/OFF ? separate from brightness option of screen
13-A more appealing Music app
14-Synchronisation within at least 2 phones (two people?s phones communicating whenever in reach)
15-Region free use, updates, downloads without limitations or restrictions based on location
16-3D like tiles (like in iOS8) ? make them float (I think, the new W10 background is something like that, but not quite)
17-HARDWARE - scanner + projector of video files on wall, table etc with at least half-decent colors
17.1 Projected keyboard on table/floor...any surface

18-We want to be able to use a ringtone/sms sound from SD card and not just from the inbuilt phone storage!!! Hell...
19-Wake up the phone with voice + voice recognition (not hardware button or double tap)
20-In notification centre - e.g. WIFI - when we tap it, it truns on, when we tap it again, it brings us to the wifi menu. This is useless. The second tap should turn wifi off. To go to wifi menu, a 0.5s press should be enough - this goes for all notifications and action shortcuts
21-The back/previous button is also a bit annoying - Pressing it for 1s makes it open the current/recent openned apps, web and interface. Maybe imply some most used apps like music and IE (web) to notification centre while they are open. Make a swipe top, too, not just down to throw away open windows
22-Music app with a software option to adjust the volume?
23-A 360 degree rotation of screen - would be probably useless if not adjusted for body-to-text position - for those who lie on a bed on sides ? the view feels limiting
24-Another annyoning thing is also when you listen to music with headphones. When you unplug the jack from phone, the music stops, ok, this is good. However, when you put the jack back, the music is off. We would appreciate if it would continue from the exact point it was interrupted. Android has this possibility, too. MUSIC APP is really bad: the adding of songs to the already playing ones
25-The exclusion of song while playing is really unpractical. Make an option alowing us to just tap a song to add it to the played and a swipe-to-exclude option like the swipe-away ability of background apps/interface/pages - best to right or left as in the VLC app for android, because to first select the songs and then exclude them is odd. Also, another bad thing about it is that the playlist has no option or possibility to reorder the songs. We cannot put e.g. second song in front of the first or after the third etc - this is...odd again.
26- There is no notification when the battery reaches 100% in charging
27-No way to check when the battery was last charged
28-To be able to name the tiles, if not, at least the tile folder
29-To be able to pin more than one app at a time to the start screen
30-When we update the phone, we dont really see what kind of an update we are getting - this needs to be clear to us
31-The stock WP8.1 alarm needs a re-do, too. The alarm that is set should be highlighted at the top and not somewhere at the bottom, where it was made. Imagine you got 25 different alarms and you need the one down below...odd, again
32-Transparent games and video app ? minor change
33-Is it just me (Slovakia, Lumia 620 100% working, WP8.1 Denim Update, for Cortana to work I set the location to USA) or is everyone else getting a false time and date after restarting/soft reseting the phone?
34-In-built alarm needs a customisable volume
35-A third background design? We got the tiles, the app list and maybe a third one would be great or more e.g. a background, where all factory apps are Another one where downloads are or something similar.
36-An in-built speech to text app that Works and is fast, rerally fast to -write- sms, mail faster. Forget the swype keyboard, although i tis great for now. But speech to text is the future of many phones and available even at this point.
37-If not cortana, as the WIFI dependent assistant, make an interactive voice FRIEND, that would work online but learn from it and act on its own even offline e.g. Say to you ?good morning? after you dismiss your alarm (and good day, good night etc) or say ?HI -name-? when recognizing a friend of the user (also and WP user) is near ? this is an addition to point 14. Reach recognition of paired devices (also tablets or PCs/Tablets)
38-Forget fingerprint recognition-this is as irrelevant as some of my points like 1,2,3, but still. Some minor changes are appreciated, others are ripoffs and basically, nobody will use it.
39-?How can a phone know that the user got a mail when not on WIFI and still tur nit on independently and notify the user??
40-A battery saver, that explains what it actually does and to what and how, not just states.
41-Similar to the point 35 ? Imagine you have a tile on your background, that is actually a background itself. A tile, as any other, when clicked opens up another background, that, as the usuall, contains tiles. In android or iOS case, this is done by swiping to the sides. In WP case, too. However, this brings us to the app list, not background. In WP, you can make an infinite background, swiping down/up. But, if you would like to go to the apps you want this could be a nuisance.
42-LISTEN TO YOUR SUPPORTERS AND END USERS.
 

agd87

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Google have announced that you can run android apps in their Chrome Web browser on a PC. This would be good for those who use a full Windows 8.1 tablet. Do you think they will release the Chrome browser for windows phone that will have the same capability?

This may be able to close the app gap even further. The apps won't be native but it would be a good start.
 

Tsang Fai

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Re: I'm ready to switch from WP to iPhone and I'm not happy about it

It depends on how you define success. To be honest, it is kind of mission impossible for msft to catch up Android & iOS, unless some disasters happen in Google/Apple.

What I concern is whether Windows Phone, can be sustainable, of course I mean financially sustainable. I believe there is a certain percentage of people (may be only 5%) in this world who do not care the number of apps so much. What they care is whether WP has apps to help them get things done. As far as "get things done" is concerned, I am quite satisfied with WP right now.

Don't think that 5% (yes currently WP is less than 5%, but 5% is achievable I believe) is a small group of people. You should be proud of yourself if you can produce something with 5% of people in the world using it, right?

I think Msft should focus on this group of users (focus on getting things done more than entertainment). I believe this group of users is not so rare and I believe there are still many potential users (they are now using iPhone/android phones). These users are mostly business people and professionals. They are so busy that they won't spend so much energy on having fun with their phones. How can msft attract these potential users? That's the main point. I belong to that kind of users. Had been using iPhones for 5 years and have recently switched to Lumia 930. Yes, some apps I have been using in iOS are not available in WP but they are no big deal to me.

I would define success of WP as surviving in the mobile market with profits, while having a steady growth of the apps store.
 

maclancer

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Re: I'm ready to switch from WP to iPhone and I'm not happy about it

It depends on how you define success. To be honest, it is kind of mission impossible for msft to catch up Android & iOS, unless some disasters happen in Google/Apple.

What I concern is whether Windows Phone, can be sustainable, of course I mean financially sustainable. I believe there is a certain percentage of people (may be only 5%) in this world who do not care the number of apps so much. What they care is whether WP has apps to help them get things done. As far as "get things done" is concerned, I am quite satisfied with WP right now.

Don't think that 5% (yes currently WP is less than 5%, but 5% is achievable I believe) is a small group of people. You should be proud of yourself if you can produce something with 5% of people in the world using it, right?

I think Msft should focus on this group of users (focus on getting things done more than entertainment). I believe this group of users is not so rare and I believe there are still many potential users (they are now using iPhone/android phones). These users are mostly business people and professionals. They are so busy that they won't spend so much energy on having fun with their phones. How can msft attract these potential users? That's the main point. I belong to that kind of users. Had been using iPhones for 5 years and have recently switched to Lumia 930. Yes, some apps I have been using in iOS are not available in WP but they are no big deal to me.

I would define success of WP as surviving in the mobile market with profits, while having a steady growth of the apps store.

5% of the world's market is pretty big... We are talking about over 100 million users.
 

Bai

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Not sure if this covered before, but if MS can make WP dockable to W7/W8/W10 I bet lot more people will use WP because of the "one" experience.
What I mean is I plug in my WP, I can use my kb/ms to control the phone, reply msg...etc.
 

Donna Gorman1

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Kindle Fire
Android
iPhone
iPad
Mobile Web

These are the typical apps provided for the Washington Post, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Very few sites offer an app for the Windows platform. The most important move Microsoft should consider surrounding the release of Windows 10 is a massive promotional push to get major companies to support a mobile app for Windows.

Kindle Fire? But not Windows? Mobile Web (whatever the hell that is!)? But not Windows?

I sincerely feel that pushing large visible high traffic websites to have a windows mobile app might convince long lost consumers that windows isn't dead, but is a thriving contender in the mobile world.
 

eds817

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First, please I have not read all of the posts here so if I duplicate comments forgive me.

We have read over the past week or so that Windows phone has lost over million subscribers here in the US. I believe this is because unless you come here or read the blogs you don't know what plans Microsoft has for the future. We've heard the release of Windows 10 mobile can be anytime between July 29 and next year. There have been several low cost phones release for other markets and rumors of high end phones sometime toward the end of the year.

Microsoft needs to get these high end phones out now! Make them easy to go from 8.1 to 10. I would even like to do a clean install on 10. If we can't get them now at least start talking about it. If we won't see them until the fall then at least get some TV commercials going wetting the appetite. If Windows 10 on all devices is going to be very similar then why not get the app developers on board now and let the public know what's coming.

I've been an Android user since Feb 2013 and earlier this year picked up a Lumia 635 for almost nothing and played with it on the weekends. I wound up dropping my Samsung Note 2 twice and the screen splintered so I went to using my 635 full time. I'm really liking the phone and software but would prefer a larger device with more memory. Most of the apps I used everyday on my Note 2 are available on Windows but there are still some that are missing. I'm hoping that once Windows 10 is released we will see an influx of new and improved apps. I will give the platform until the end of the year to see a turn around.

Microsoft cannot just sit around and expect everyone to flock to them because they are Microsoft.
 

colinkiama

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what do you mean by succeed?
marketshare? i couldn't care less what phone/os other people use
so the answer is nothing
It's not even about dominating in market share anymore. It's about being relevant enough to almost iOS standards where we get the quality apps and support instead of being looked down upon.
 

colinkiama

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but how can you be relevant that even ms doesn't care?
what message does it give?
Well they care now. Satya Nadella said so himself. They guaranteed us flagships. Whether OEMs come or not Microsoft has a plan for both. If they didn't care, they would have killed the platform by now but they didn't.
 

lparsons21

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I was out looking a bit for a Windows Phone to add for me. What I discovered was something I knew but hadn't thought about. And that is phone fragmentation and how horrible that is in the WP product line.

Went to ATT, and wow! That 640XL is one sweet phone for a very attractive price, BUT it is strictly ATT and they don't sell any other Lumia. But I'm on Verizon and really don't want to change.

So on to Verizon. They have 3 WP on their website, but only the Lumia 735 and LG Lancet in the store. Both priced very well, both looked to be very nice phones, but both are small screen phones. At $120 for the LG and $179(?) for the 735 I came close but I want a bigger phone. And of course as usual, the VZW reps all snidely pooh-pooh WP!

So now with all the providers either having stopped doing contract phones or in the process of doing that, why not take this opportune time to introduce a few models to fill the various prices/sizes? Hell, they could do it now. Att has the 640XL, give Verizon a 642XL or some such to sell.

I can deal with the lack of some apps and I can deal with snide sale droids, what I can't deal with is having no way to buy a new phone in a screen size I want on the carrier I want. And yeah, I know I can find used ones on Ebay and other places but the descriptions are just vague enough that I might get one that really looks rough. And used sales don't do anything to get the market going.

OK, rant off. But I am really ticked.! :(
 

kunal tipre

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1 There should be a rich store with less fake apps
2 improvements in universal apps to make great unified user experience
3 compatibility with other platforms like ios and Android
4 last one GOOGLE SERVICE (Gmail and YouTube,hangout)
 

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