Save me from going iPhone? Future of Windows phone, etc.

[minus365]

funny thing is, even I know MS needs to do things better in certain areas, need more apps, need better and this and better that, I've never thought about switching to iOS or Android.
I'm happy with what I have. Simple and smoothly working mobile OS. It works perfectly for all I need. Actually I don't care if we need to use some alternative apps due to lack of offical apps. See Rudy Huyn as an example that alternatives may be even better than officials.
With Lumia, we have top notch cameras and rock steady services from MS.

Those who want to leave, will do it sooner or later. You won't be first or last. ;-)

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

I'll be straight up with you. You have invested yourself very heavily into the MS ecosystem. I'd say just ride it out, and see what happens next. 5 years is a very long time in the tech world. Get yourself a nice Windows 10 Mobile flagship device, and be happy with it. Who knows, maybe I'll find myself back in the arms of a Windows smartphone again. Go for what gives you the most mileage.

Try to avoid deep future worries as they will only cause sleepless nights, and health troubles. Live in the now, and just be happy. The 940 looks promising, and should deliver. Or not, and you can move on to greener pastures. Both iOS and Android offer a sizable portfolio of MS apps that will make any change relatively painless once you set the device up. Personally I'd look into Android over iOS. It'll feel more natural. I could never get over the one button setup of the iphone.

 

[b0blight]

I think many people here has pointed out one thing. iOS, Android or Windows Phone/Mobile, at the end of the day, it is still JUST A PHONE. There's no point worrying about which Platform to go to, because it is just a device. Yes, I know about Brand Loyalty, but who says that you can't enjoy multiple devices/platforms ? It's not like MS is gonna kill you just because you abandon WP for Android, heck, they don't even case, as long as you use their service. I mean, life is so much more about which phone platform you are using. If you feel like sticking with WP, go ahead, no one's gonna laugh at you just because you want to be different. If you feel like switching to Android/iOS, go ahead also, because Win10 is all about inclusiveness, no matter which platform you are using. But at the end of the day, you have to know this. All this are just gadgets/technologies that help us to accomplish tasks. Our lives do not (well, maybe some do) revolve around our phones/system we use. Do what makes you happy, because life is too short to worry about which system you want to use, as there are tons of things in the world to do, people to meet, and places to visit. Let the device be part of your life, making you happy, not YOUR life.

 

[Florin_Anghel]

I am planning to switch not because Microsoft is not committed to extend the Windows Mobile life but more because they simply do not care if you have hardware issues with your phone. They only focus on software tweaks but firmware wise it's a mess.
A lot of Lumia's got plagued from launch with issues, either ghost touch, screen ghosting, screen colour reproduction (purple tint / green tint), sound issues (2nd mic not working), camera issues (purple colour in the dark / low light videos), heat issues (low right corner of L930 for ex), signal issues (waves interference on Edge showing up on screen) and I really don't know if I must go forward. I am afraid if I try think more I will remember more. All these issues got fixed to some extent but it took so long. Some issues are still there.
I own 3 Windows Phone, HTC 8X (was the most solid of all), Lumia 520 (sufficient for day to day use), Lumia 930 (a flagship mess).
Knowing the history of Microsoft I have little confidence that they offer a premium flagship and premium support to it.

 

[mj0]

What my brain can't comprehend is why, every time on this site I see 'thinking of leaving WP' topics, it's 99% 'thinking of going to iOS'. Why not android? It's as if people have developed some form of fear that android will be bloated and horrible. I took the plunge, got an LG G4, and I cannot understand why anyone, in their right mind, would buy an iPhone 6 over it. They'd be paying more than me, but getting a more basic device without any swap SD/battery support and a far more confined ecosystem.

What my brain can't comprehend is why people always think that their opinion is the one and only right one and everybody else must therefore be either dead wrong or braindead (or just plain stupid). I'm pretty sure that's how religion started thousands of years ago, back when Ugh and Agra were sitting in their cave grunting over the matter of what stick could possibly be better suited to use to kill Sluggy the mammoth.

 

[N_LaRUE]

With all the news this week, I'm beginning to have less faith in MSFT and its willingness to support Windows 10 Mobile in the long run. Right now, I'm totally embedded in the Windows ecosystem - Surface RT, laptop, and Windows phone, but now that I have my doubts, I'm wondering if my loyalty will waver. What do you think the 5 year future for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows phone is? What can make me regret a move to iOS?

5 years in the mobile market is a long time. We really have no idea what plans MS has at all as they tend to be fairly quiet about such things. So no one really can say what will happen between here and there.

As for what you can regret moving to iOS? Only that you're using an iPhone? No idea how good the MS apps are on iPhone but I'd assume they're good enough if not better than they currently are on WP. You won't be missing much other than the WP interface. Which is up to you to decide if that's an issue.

At least with iPhone there is not many apps that are missing on it (if any). If that's of any importance to you. You won't have that constant question of if or when an app will be updated.

Even with the release of W10 for mobile we have no idea, none, if any developer is at all excited about the idea of universal apps. There are just assumptions that developers should be excited based solely on the idea that Windows OS is on millions of computers, which is a large assumption based on people with a PC OS using cross platform apps. The other assumption is that people will want a WP because of this feature. Again, we don't know how many people are really that interested. Even with Continuum we, a feature many geeks like myself have wanted from a smartphone since the idea sprang to life, it's questionable how many people would use the feature.

On the whole there's just a lot of what unanswered questions currently. In my personal opinion, get an iPhone, wait to see what happens with W10. Go back if it shows positive signs.

 

[Slovenix]

Buy an Android, saved.

 

[Timbre70]

Buy Sony Xperia Z3.

 

[Slovenix]

Lg g4

 

[Varun Prabhavalkar]

Dear Microsoft,
I have been a literal "******" for Lumia devices and having it since I first bought my Lumia 800.
I was impressed with the interface, offline navigation, Free music, Great camera etc etc.
I have always bought phones like Lumia 925 and recently 930 which is your most advanced phones. As usual phones start off great. But the disappointing facts are that after 5-6 months it starts having some basic level problems like headphone jacks and microphones.
My Lumia 930 after 5 months of purchase suddenly one day started giving me microphone issue (Let me tell you that i already had a similar experience with 925).
The problem was primitive and i went to Microsoft care service center here in Lower Parel, Mumbai, India, to which they said it is a "Primary mic issue" and said it would need a change. To which I said OK and they changed the primary mic for which I had to wait for 2 hours. The phone still had similar issues so I returned immediately to the center and this time made me wait another 2 hours they said it is also a "secondary mic problem" and "primarty mic would only function when they change both, the primary and secondary mic" and that "secondary mic would also be required to be changed". Since they did not have secondary mic they asked me to wait another week. When the secondary mic arrived i was informed and so I went again and they made me wait another 2 hours and said, its a "motherboard problem" and they need a weeks time to figure it out. I bet they dont know what the hell is the actual problems. As a practicing surgeon, I do not have liberty of time to visit the center 10 times for a basic problem.
My observations:
1) Your high end phones have basic issues like microphone since years and you fail to rectify them
2) Your service center guys are either poorly trained or these issues are extremely grave and they cant handle it. In any case it is pain to take your 5 months old high end phone and repeatedly go to service center 10 times
3) I have lost faith in your lumia devices after good 5 years and henceforth just like many others who have raised this issue and you have never actually replied, I will be shifting to either androids or iphones.
One lost Lumia fan

 

[Wbutchart1]

Correct me if I am wrong, can anyone give the information from MICROSOFT where they even hint that they are going to stop developing windows phone? Refocus, yes, and rightly they should, there is no point in wanting to get other manufacturers on board for development unless there is space for them to build into, as it stands lumia has at least 5 phones in every imaginable category.

Apart from Bloomberg plucking two years and Thurott blogging Lumia into the grave (is he on commission or does negativity really get that much more hits??) where is all this coming from?

 

[Mad Cabbie]

I came from android quite recently. I used to cook roms, mainly for the note 3 as the manufacturers attempts were errrrr.....P*SS POOR. Samsungs had so much bloatware it was ridiculous. If you wanted your phone to perform well, you had to root / go the custom route. Guess what? Samsung in their infinite wisdom created KNOX. If you decided to run a custom rom, the knox fuse would be 'damaged' and they refused warranty claims. They now have most of their flagship devices locked down.

Although the windows system is very 'securely' locked down, the lack of excessive bloatware makes it very useable, and even a basic model like the 435 can run Asphalt 8 without glitching.

When I took the leap from Android to WP, I found the range / models, VERY confusing. Same model number but single or dual sims, the 635 comes in lte or 3g with either 512mb or 1gig or ram, and so it goes on. Hopefully, with the 'restructure', this confusion will be diminished. I am well aware of this because, I took a 930, the wife took the 640lte, which by the way seems to be a well built device and nicer in the hand than mine (!!!!), my son of 15 now has a 635, again very nice to use, my daughter has a 535, again nice to use and no issues with the screen, and my autistic son has a 435 which is as cheap as chips, should he lose it or bust it. We got all of ours from a UK shop and all of them were unlocked (except mine!!) My 15 year old takes his to school and, despite the stigma attached to WP, his mates are quite impressed, although they will still buy the latest all singing all dancing samsung, because......it's sexy and allows one upmanship, and it is a great 'fashion' item!

I think the biggest issue with WP, is that they just aren't 'sexy', and lose their appeal to the younger prospective purchaser. As mentioned above, WP has a stigma attached and they just aren't viewed in the same light as the shiny new Android / Iphone. Then again, at least my kids won't get mugged for the latest devices!!! It also doesn't help that MS use older chipsets. Why anyone would want an octacore processor in a bloody mobile phone I will never know. I guess MS's retort would be that R&D costs would be negligable by using last years chipset.

I think they will still be around, with a greatly reduced, less complicated line up of devices. I'm guessing that the devices will be manufactured by thirds parties. Sod samsung et all, how about 1+One and HTC?

 

[Slovenix]

Dear Microsoft,
I have been a literal "******" for Lumia devices and having it since I first bought my Lumia 800.
I was impressed with the interface, offline navigation, Free music, Great camera etc etc.
I have always bought phones like Lumia 925 and recently 930 which is your most advanced phones. As usual phones start off great. But the disappointing facts are that after 5-6 months it starts having some basic level problems like headphone jacks and microphones.
My Lumia 930 after 5 months of purchase suddenly one day started giving me microphone issue (Let me tell you that i already had a similar experience with 925).
The problem was primitive and i went to Microsoft care service center here in Lower Parel, Mumbai, India, to which they said it is a "Primary mic issue" and said it would need a change. To which I said OK and they changed the primary mic for which I had to wait for 2 hours. The phone still had similar issues so I returned immediately to the center and this time made me wait another 2 hours they said it is also a "secondary mic problem" and "primarty mic would only function when they change both, the primary and secondary mic" and that "secondary mic would also be required to be changed". Since they did not have secondary mic they asked me to wait another week. When the secondary mic arrived i was informed and so I went again and they made me wait another 2 hours and said, its a "motherboard problem" and they need a weeks time to figure it out. I bet they dont know what the hell is the actual problems. As a practicing surgeon, I do not have liberty of time to visit the center 10 times for a basic problem.
My observations:
1) Your high end phones have basic issues like microphone since years and you fail to rectify them
2) Your service center guys are either poorly trained or these issues are extremely grave and they cant handle it. In any case it is pain to take your 5 months old high end phone and repeatedly go to service center 10 times
3) I have lost faith in your lumia devices after good 5 years and henceforth just like many others who have raised this issue and you have never actually replied, I will be shifting to either androids or iphones.
One lost Lumia fan

Hehehe, if it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure it's almost anywhere like this 2 hours is okay. I had to wait for weeks for my Android phone just to find out that the charging port problem needs to be fixed by buying the whole motherboard and that would cost me a half of phone price.

 

[jlzimmerman]

Dear Microsoft,
I have been a literal "******" for Lumia devices and having it since I first bought my Lumia 800.
I was impressed with the interface, offline navigation, Free music, Great camera etc etc.
I have always bought phones like Lumia 925 and recently 930 which is your most advanced phones. As usual phones start off great. But the disappointing facts are that after 5-6 months it starts having some basic level problems like headphone jacks and microphones.
My Lumia 930 after 5 months of purchase suddenly one day started giving me microphone issue (Let me tell you that i already had a similar experience with 925).
The problem was primitive and i went to Microsoft care service center here in Lower Parel, Mumbai, India, to which they said it is a "Primary mic issue" and said it would need a change. To which I said OK and they changed the primary mic for which I had to wait for 2 hours. The phone still had similar issues so I returned immediately to the center and this time made me wait another 2 hours they said it is also a "secondary mic problem" and "primarty mic would only function when they change both, the primary and secondary mic" and that "secondary mic would also be required to be changed". Since they did not have secondary mic they asked me to wait another week. When the secondary mic arrived i was informed and so I went again and they made me wait another 2 hours and said, its a "motherboard problem" and they need a weeks time to figure it out. I bet they dont know what the hell is the actual problems. As a practicing surgeon, I do not have liberty of time to visit the center 10 times for a basic problem.
My observations:
1) Your high end phones have basic issues like microphone since years and you fail to rectify them
2) Your service center guys are either poorly trained or these issues are extremely grave and they cant handle it. In any case it is pain to take your 5 months old high end phone and repeatedly go to service center 10 times
3) I have lost faith in your lumia devices after good 5 years and henceforth just like many others who have raised this issue and you have never actually replied, I will be shifting to either androids or iphones.
One lost Lumia fan

Why post this here? What do you hope to accomplish? It's like clapping with one hand and complaining that you're not heard.

 

[DJCBS]

What Android phone would you prefer then?

Currently my vote goes for the LG G4. It has the best camera on an Android phone since it's as good as the Samsung S6 one but gives you further manual controls. It does have a 2K display (which I think is overkill on ANY phone) but unlike the S6 the battery lasts longer AND is removable which allows you to solve a problem mid-day if the phone dies.
It also has the advantage of microSD expansion over the S6.

If you don't like big phones, though, then you should either get the Xperia Z3 Compact or wait a couple of months for the Z5 Compact from Sony. The phones are amazing and - hopefully - Sony will get their act together when it comes to the camera (which has been surpassed by the S6 and G4).

 

[Slovenix]

Currently my vote goes for the LG G4. It has the best camera on an Android phone since it's as good as the Samsung S6 one but gives you further manual controls. It does have a 2K display (which I think is overkill on ANY phone) but unlike the S6 the battery lasts longer AND is removable which allows you to solve a problem mid-day if the phone dies.
It also has the advantage of microSD expansion over the S6.

If you don't like big phones, though, then you should either get the Xperia Z3 Compact or wait a couple of months for the Z5 Compact from Sony. The phones are amazing and - hopefully - Sony will get their act together when it comes to the camera (which has been surpassed by the S6 and G4).

Yes LG G4 is super. Funny thing I can still see pixels without getting "that" close at 2K 5.5 inch screen .

 

[Slovenix]

Currently my vote goes for the LG G4. It has the best camera on an Android phone since it's as good as the Samsung S6 one but gives you further manual controls. It does have a 2K display.

I would suggest it too.

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

Do what you want, but I'm staying on the ship until it sinks.

 

[Kavu2]

A good read....
Exclusive: CEO Nadella talks Microsoft's mobile ambitions, Windows 10 strategy, HoloLens and more | ZDNet
Satya Nadella's post-keynote interview by ZDnet's Mary Jo Foley

Nadella on the future of Windows Mobile...
text of interest...emphasis mine
----------------------------
"Therefore, we have to be on the hunt for what's the next bend in the curve. That's what, quite frankly, anyone has to do to be relevant in the future....We're doing that with our innovation in Windows. We're doing that with features like Continuum. Even the phone, I just don't want to build another phone, a copycat phone operating system, even:"

"So when I think about our Windows Phone, I want it to stand for something like Continuum. When I say, wow, that's an interesting approach where you can have a phone and that same phone, because of our universal platform with Continuum, and can, in fact, be a desktop. That is not something any other phone operating system or device can do. And that's what I want our devices and device innovation to stand for."

"Last week's announcement was not about any change to our vision and strategy, but for sure it was a change to our operating approach. The way we're going to go about it. I'm not going to launch a phone a day. I'm going to focus on a few phones that actually grab share that, in fact, showcase our uniqueness."

"If no OEM stands up to build Windows devices we'll build them. There will be Lumia devices."

" If there are a lot of OEMs, we'll have one strategy. If there are no OEMs, we'll have one strategy. We are committed to having the phones in these three segments"

" If anything, the free upgrade for Windows 10 is meant to improve our phone position. That is the reason why I made that decision. If somebody wants to know whether I'm committed to Windows Phone, they should think about what I just did with the free upgrade to Windows, rather than -- hey, I making four more phone models of value smart phones."
-----------------------------

So Nadella's vision for the future of Windows Mobile (phones) seems to be that it is one part of a larger integrated operating system that is Windows 10. Windows Mobile(phones) is but one part of Windows mobile(OS) Tablets/Hololens/Band/Phone/etc. These are integrated through Universal apps, Continuum etc. And just as importantly, Nadella emphasizes that this integration across devices is the focus of where Windows (and Windows Mobile) is headed. Integration>Synergy>Innovation>Growth. Nadella says that while the business approach has changed, the vision hasn't ....the devices will be unique w/innovative features...that tie the users' IT access together across the broad platform that is Windows 10. The focus is on innovative useage rather than packaging. At least that's my take. To me the future of Windows Phone looks open-ended.

 

[Snowy Nokia]

That's all I needed to hear coming out of Satya...A clear and confident stand.