Cerulean Windows Phone - What's Happening?

[anthonyng]

If it doesn't have specs that are at least equal or better than the Idols 4S then that'd be quite disappointing in my mind.

Can't all be high end devices. Not enough people to share the SD820 with! They'll just cannibalize each other. Totally under served in the lower end market

 

[RumoredNow]

So what fw might that be?

Wish I knew... My number one hope is that they tune the camera.

 

[DustinRyan]

Thanks for the find... We recently updated CeruleanMobile.com and moved the sign-up to the front page.

Dammit, Greg! Such a tease, coming in here and reading all of our guesses/speculation/desires and then picking and choosing just to answer something unrelated.

 

[to_be_announced]

Anyone seen any updates lately?

 

[PuckCowboy]

I just received an email from Cerulean:

[h=3]Thank you for contacting WhartonBrooks about our exciting new Cerulean Mobile offering[/h]We appreciate the fantastic response we have received since our launch announcement and we are busy addressing everyone's questions and inquiries. Over the next few days, we will be answering the most frequently asked questions via Twitter and on CeruleanMobile.com. We will be in touch with specs, pricing, and pre-order/delivery date as soon as our non-disclosure agreement (NDA) expires.

 

[nate0]

Did you just now register for pre-ordering?

 

[PuckCowboy]

Did you just now register for pre-ordering?

No, I registered several months ago.

 

[nate0]

No, I registered several months ago.

Must have been a delayed email or it got lost in email space until today...
That is the exact same wording on the email response I got back on August 26th. Well not exact, it used overwhelming not fantastic as the adjective... Was that the second response you got after pre-ordering?

 

[PuckCowboy]

I think it's the only response I received so far. You're right, it may have been a delayed delivery.

 

[aj173]

I didn't know anything about this rumored phone until today, so maybe I'm out of the loop. But if I'm reading their website correctly, it appears that they're getting ready to accept preorders on a low-end phone that they won't tell us anything about. Is this correct? Or are they providing additional information to the people on the mailing list?

I find it difficult to believe that a low-end phone with continuum is such top-secret technology that it's protected by several NDAs. Hopeless romanticism aside, we all know in our hearts that this phone is not going to happen.
Besides, aren't there already a handful of Chinese manufacturers making ****ty Windows phones? I thought I saw some on Amazon the last time I was phone shopping. It's sad commentary on the state of the community that this is the type of thing that we have to get excited about.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Well, I'm not excited about it until it's released, and I think that's the same for a lot of people.

Having said that though I think that there could be good explanations for why the situation is the way it is. MS has been pretty tight-lipped with new features and information on any of their products, until they decide that it's ok to release new info. So it could very well be that Cerulean is about to incorporate a feature that will be new to Windows 10 Mobile and that the feature is still a 'secret' and therefore under an NDA agreement with MS. That doesn't mean it's a super-exciting or mind blowing feature, just 'protected'.

We also don't absolutely know that this will be a low-end phone. It's entirely possible that the company switched direction at some point but can't really talk about it. To me it would make sense for them to produce one high-end phone, and one mid-range phone. The low-end market people keep talking about won't buy windows phones I think. They phones already exist and did exist and they didn't sell, so why bother. It's especially problematic for the actual manufacturer too since the low-end market would be potentially much larger but with much lower profit margins due in part to a much larger requirement for support.

 

[Awhispersecho]

I think Nadella pulled them over and whispered in their ear.."hey man look, I'm trying to kill this Windows on a phone thing off. You can't be releasing new phones and messing up my plans. Remember, I know where you work"

or something close to that. Seriously though. I have no idea what is going on here. If it's due to a new feature then they won't be able to announce or release it for a while yet. As far as low, mid or high range, low end phones actually sold very well at 1 point. That's how Windows Phone was doing so well in other countries for a while back in 2014-2015. But, as you said, there's no money there and a company like WB, doing this on their own, simply cannot afford to go that route.

If Windows Phone is going to continue to exist, someone needs to take the place of Nokia, become the new Nokia. What I would like to see is for MS to embrace a company like WB, a company that has a passion for Windows Phone. Assist them with funding, marketing, and anything else they need while freeing MS of design and R&D. Make WB the premier Windows Phone company running Windows Phone as we always knew it. Then have MS release the Surface Phone which would be what we've been expecting, high end, a form of full Windows on it, etc.

I think there should be the normal Windows Phone for mid to low end devices and the new version of Windows on ARM for the high end. There has to be an upgrade path for the budget minded user and a high end devices for fans and enterprise.

 

[aj173]

The website says something to the effect that it's not going to be a super spec'ed out phone, but rather one that offers decent performance at an affordable price point. Which is an industry euphemism for a low-end phone. I'm not saying that there's anything necessarily wrong with low-end phones. However, I'm tired of being perpetually disappointed with underwhelming Windows phone hardware. Just once, I would like to see somebody build an unapologetically badass Windows phone instead of selling me a box of compromises. Nokia came close to doing it with the 1520, and HP seemed like they almost wanted to do it with the Elite x3, but that makes a grand total of two attempts since Microsoft reintroduced themselves to the mobile world with WP7.

I've said it before, but I'm not sure that Windows-on-ARM is going to be the solution to the Windows Mobile problem. Honestly, it seems kind of pointless and the opposite of what people want or need on a phone. It reminds me of the emails I get from Windows Central where somebody writes an article about installing Windows '95 on a toaster. Cool party trick, and you can put me down for a preorder, but the rest of the world besides us die-hard fanboys doesn't care.

 

[Awhispersecho]

"Yup" to everything you said. Wxcept maybe the 1520. I think it realy was the badass phone. AT&T crippled a few things about it but on it's own, awesome phone.

 

[aj173]

I agree. The only reason I didn't consider the 1520 a truly badass phone is because of poor quality control in the manufacturing process. I've been a Windows Mobile ****** since the '90s, and I saw more defects on the Lumia 1520 than every other Windows Mobile device in the last 20 years combined. Faulty logic boards, phantom touches, and bad speakers were way more common than they should have been.

But if you got a good one, it was truly great. It's still the best overall Windows phone in my opinion. In fact, I sold my 950XL and went back to it. The screen size and battery life were enough to make me sacrifice the 950XL's more powerful processor.

 

[Awhispersecho]

I just got a 950XL to replace my 1520 because the battery was shot. I can't deal with it. the screen is way too small. After the on screen buttons and the menu down the bottom, it's a 5" phone. If I wanted that I would have used my 640. And because of how awful Edge is on phones, If I browse using Edge for 30 minutes it runs my battery down completely. If I wanted that, I would have continued using my 1520 that has a dead battery built in. Phone is nice, camera is great but it's just too small and the battery sucks. I need to find another 1520. I think I had the 937 version of it. Tough to find now.

 

[Sedp23]

Seems like nothing is ever going to happen with this

Sent from Idol 4s

 

[aj173]

Seems like nothing is ever going to happen with this

Sent from Idol 4s

Yeah, we're getting to the point with these rumor threads that the device that never happened would already be superceded by its successor if it had ever existed in the first place. Stick a fork in this one; it's done.

Excuse me while I go bump the Lumia 1030 thread.

 

[anthonyng]

now I'm not so interested unless it's in the 150-200$ range

 

[nate0]

With a user base so small, makes me wonder who would buy a newly released W10 phone unless it was targeted in regions that have not seen a release yet. Or had some incentives/features the others don't... T-Mobiles idol 4s is 288 or so...the Lumias are pretty dirt cheap if you can find them brand new, or online, and the x3 keeps dropping in price. I bet when WB comes with something it will not be released in the same way other device makers have. Not sure yet, but from knowledge in the past they would not be the typical OEM we see currently.

I mean enthusiast like maybe you or me will check it out, but how do newer folks coming up in the world get their eye caught on the WM platform, I bet that is the question...