Cerulean Windows Phone - What's Happening?

[nate0]

Do you know if that means it'll come with different frequencies?

I'd love it if that phone was compatible with my carriers here in NZ. It's a pretty dope phone.

We won't know for sure until it is posted by Alcatel.

The model itself (TCL-950 here) is capable of at least the below though:
CNC 7 die 23 frequency, dual SIM dual standby
Support carrier aggregation (4G+)
"TDD LTE B38/B39/B40/B41(100M)
FDD LTE B1/B3/B4/B7/B8/B12/B17/B26
WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8
TDSCDMA B34/B39
EVDO BC0
CDMA BC0
GSM 850/900/1800/1900"

How the OEM puts it out is another story though...

 

[RumoredNow]

I was kinda annoyed to see how many people picked the $500 option.

That's what they are going to see. A large majority will state "no more than $500" and they'll be dissuaded from even trying it after the resounding silence on the Moment project.

It's why Moly PCphone never debuted. Coship tried the same "how much would you pay" tactic before scraping the release.

He was asking realistically.

Realistically we are still suffering in the US under the delusion that a current gen iPhone or Galaxy S class is "free" due to carrier shenanigans and even those who do realize what phones cost expect the same parts discount from a 5,000 unit OEM as we see from a 10,000,000 unit OEM.

 

[Drael646464]

That's what they are going to see. A large majority will state "no more than $500" and they'll be dissuaded from even trying it after the resounding silence on the Moment project.

It's why Moly PCphone never debuted. Coship tried the same "how much would you pay" tactic before scraping the release.




Realistically we are still suffering in the US under the delusion that a current gen iPhone or Galaxy S class is "free" due to carrier shenanigans and even those who do realize what phones cost expect the same parts discount from a 5,000 unit OEM as we see from a 10,000,000 unit OEM.

God if the S8 and iPhone 8 are parts discounted, I'd hate to see what they look like full price

 

[RumoredNow]

Look at almost any wholesale operation and you will see bulk order discounts. It's a well known economic principle. The largest orders sit higher on the supply chain and get the newest parts faster as well...

 

[Drael646464]

Look at almost any wholesale operation and you will see bulk order discounts. It's a well known economic principle. The largest orders sit higher on the supply chain and get the newest parts faster as well...

Oh I know, I was just having a giggle because of those manufacturers marketing costs, and wild mark-up. If people are perfectly happy to pay 1000 USD plus for an iPhone 8, and don't call the 800 USD s8 overpriced, they really should not have much issue with what are likely to be cheaper than that like wiley fox, moly's dual boot, and the potential cerulean without the largely useless spec bumps in invisible battery wasting pixels, fragile distorted screen bending and excessive ram that has neglible actual effect on performance.

I think people just get this whole "spec war" thing that's been marketed into them, so they start comparing all these numbers, and saying "oh this one has that and this", and actual user experience - that sadly get lost in a haze of numerical abstraction.

It's not so much that they don't get scale pricing, its more that their heads are lodged in their nether regions.

 

[nate0]

We as people always want something for nothing. Of course the majority pick 500. Wonder why he chose those specs, if realistically W10M is only 32 bit still. Though talks of 64bit have been around for a while, Microsoft won't release it that way unless it is fit for the user and user experience. Wonder how far away we are from 64 bit mobile on Windows?

 

[nate0]

Look at almost any wholesale operation and you will see bulk order discounts. It's a well known economic principle. The largest orders sit higher on the supply chain and get the newest parts faster as well...

Ya it is wrenching to think what the maker could charge (if they wanted) for their 800 dollar phone. https://www.techwalls.com/production-costs-of-smartphones/

 

[RumoredNow]

Wonder why he chose those specs...

SD835 & 6GB RAM screams W10ARM, otherwise everyone knows only the first 3.5GB RAM is read. I don't believe 64 bit W10M will appear at this late date.

 

[nate0]

SD835 & 6GB RAM screams W10ARM, otherwise everyone knows only the first 3.5GB RAM is read. I don't believe 64 bit W10M will appear at this late date.

You did not notice I worded it 64bit mobile on Windows...hence W10oA. W10M may see 64bit but would be much longer I think, but I could be wrong. If they drop the SoCs that do not support it (550, 650, 640, etc) then Microsoft could be in line to update. Or, better yet, one aspect of dropping the Nokia line is to prepare for 64bit support on supported models. Just a thought.

 

[Drael646464]

SD835 & 6GB RAM screams W10ARM, otherwise everyone knows only the first 3.5GB RAM is read. I don't believe 64 bit W10M will appear at this late date.

Well if it is, he's jumping the gun. Its not ready in any form yet for release. He'd have no way of testing any hardware, and we've no idea how long cshell will take to release.

 

[nate0]

Well if it is, he's jumping the gun. Its not ready in any form yet for release. He'd have no way of testing any hardware, and we've no idea how long cshell will take to release.

How do you know this?

 

[Drael646464]

How do you know this?

Could be a bluff I suppose, but running 7zip etc on test hardware doesn't give the impression its ready. Plus both QUALCOMM and MS has said the first machines wont come till late this year (and MS has said "phone are not a priority). Also the UWP platform needs growing before WoA phones on the market would be a great proposition.

I could be wrong, but looking at what we do know, planning a WoA phone seems premature unless cerulean know a lot of things we don't.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Could be a bluff I suppose, but running 7zip etc on test hardware doesn't give the impression its ready.

Microsoft did a presentation in I believe December, when they showed Photoshop running on a Snapdragon 820 (modded no doubt). I think the point with 7zip wasn't to give the impression that it was ready, merely to show that the device can install and then run regular Windows software.

Also the UWP platform needs growing before WoA phones on the market would be a great proposition.

Isn't it partially the opposite though? Properly written UWP apps are supposedly super-easy to adapt to run on mobile, so really the promise of WoA is flirting with the idea of not having to even convert to UWP. Unless I'm missing something here.

 

[Drael646464]

Isn't it partially the opposite though? Properly written UWP apps are supposedly super-easy to adapt to run on mobile, so really the promise of WoA is flirting with the idea of not having to even convert to UWP. Unless I'm missing something here.

Centennial apps and win32 don't easily adapt. There's a whole porting process that Kodi, is for example going through. First they centennial bridge, then they port to UWP proper.

Check out the article on the mainpage on Kodi, to see a little of the process.

It's made simpler by MS, but its not just a matter of clicking a few buttons, you need to convert your APIs, device and port calls etc.

The promise of WoA, as far as I can tell is the chipset. By putting arm chips into tablets, notebooks, and hybrids, windows devices gain all their hardware benefits - slimmer forms, longer battery life, cheaper price points, built in LTE/telephony and GPS.

In this way, it serves as windows s does to the centennial bridge, to the islandwood bridge (ios ports). Developers can port their mobility focused ios software via the islandwood bridge, and then code for all three platforms via xamarin 2. Cheap tablets, hybrids and laptops all with always connected LTE, calling/SMS and GPS is a motive for ios developers to create full UWP apps, the same way windows s is a motive for win32 developers to at least come halfway via islandwood.

UWP is the future. It's just a while to get there. WoA serves as another bridge for legacy software, whilst encouraging non-win32 developers on ios to get their arses over to the windows platform.

MSFT doesn't want everyone to stay on win32. It's just a big thing to adapt to, so they are creating all these bridges, software and hardware.

WoA tablets in themselves are a 'bridge' to smaller devices. You'll note windows proper is slowly scaling smaller. First surface. Next will be surface mini or similar.

All going well the windows store should look much healthier next year, especially late next year, including for existing windows 10 mobile users.

 

[RumoredNow]

...planning a WoA phone seems premature unless cerulean know a lot of things we don't.

Considering that they (Wharton Brooks/Cerulean) are a Microsoft Partner and are working with a Microsoft Partner ODM (Coship), they quite likely do know more than I do about the state and readiness of W10Arm. I'd also believe that whatever comes of the "survey" an actual device would be 6-8 months away at best.

 

[Drael646464]

Considering that they (Wharton Brooks/Cerulean) are a Microsoft Partner and are working with a Microsoft Partner ODM (Coship), they quite likely do know more than I do about the state and readiness of W10Arm. I'd also believe that whatever comes of the "survey" an actual device would be 6-8 months away at best.

Well if its after the release of windows on arm, and it has a useable UI on the small form factor why not. Guess we'll see. However if MS releases WoA in a form that can go on smartphones, we probably won't have to worry too much about OEM's. Still think myself, tablets and notebooks should come first, but we'll see.

 

[Indistinguishable]

@RumoredNow
Looks like Greg is taking a vote. I do not use twitter I know you do not either, so I cannot chime in, but those here on the forums still listening go chime in over on their twitter page and see what's up.

Here is the question:
What is a reasonable price for Windows Phone with SD835, 6/128GB, 16MPx2, FP Reader, NFC, Universal SIM. SERIOUSLY, what would you pay.

At the most $500
$600
$$700
$800

Does anyone know their plans after the crowd funding ends? Why the vote posted now?

Here's the tweet if anyone is interested:

I voted around $800. I was kinda annoyed to see how many people picked the $500 option. He was asking realistically. And compared with the GS8 honestly I think $800 makes sense. 128GB storage and 6GB RAM? You don't even see that in most flagship phones already over $800. People just vote what they WANT to pay. He wasn't asking about that. People are silly.

Agreed. People are silly. This is why companies don't use twitter polls to determine their pricing.

 

[anthonyng]

came across the cerulean twitter poll by chance, voted 800$ and was disappointed at all the $500 votes. sigh...

 

[xandros9]

Honestly, I feel the poll is putting the cart before the horse since W10M doesn't even support the 835 nor is it 64-bit so it can't deal with more than 4 GB of RAM. And I feel a phone I can't put a price on those specs since a phone is more than the sum of its parts.

 

[nate0]

I agree, and why I asked if we know what their plans are going forward.

Maybe we should expect a new article from @Jason Ward later this week.