How many cell phone users don't understand there are different OS's?

testarosy

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It's true that most people don't really care, so long as it works, and there's little need for them to. Those who want to know more and will look for more information are a minority. I came rather late to this party. It was 2012 before I realized that I could be a "driver", not just a "passenger" where my personal tech was concerned.

My husband was in high end car sales for years and would sometimes get "a blue one" as the answer to "what kind of car do you have to trade in?", yet they chose a specific brand to drive in to, to pick a new car. They don't need to know many things about the nuts and bolts of the car they'll choose but they have expectations and believe that this brand or model suits their needs over others.
I guess my question morphs a bit to how could Windows phone have become a first choice for Joe Buyer? The OS is the differentiator, it's certainly exclusive by numbers only, and for a while, had quite a few affordable as well as high end offerings. How did so many people not even know of this choice?
 

tgp

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Here's a different take... Every time I take a flight, you'll hear the the announcement for passengers to switch off their phone at such and such a time... and so many people totally disregard the announcements...
I won't be wrong to say, these stubborn people are always using Androids. Once a while I see a apple user sheepishly tapping away...
... but, i have never, ever ever seen a WP user doing that.. (Haha. I know we exist in small numbers, but its true...)

... !!
That's pretty much a reflection of market share. :eek:rly:

I think hardly anyone shuts their phones off on a flight. And for the record, you don't have to shut it off; they usually ask you to put it in airplane mode. You can still play games offline or watch downloaded movies.
 

PerfectReign

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She was using a Samsung Galaxy S5, I believe it has the "Lollipop or Marshmallow" Android version. It'll be cool if Samsung had they're own OS away from Android itself. That'll be very interesting!
The S5 was a great device. Probably the best one they have had. Removable battery, great camera, SD card, not too much TouchWiz, not too small - all made for a great experience.

Samsung does have its own OS, Tizen. https://www.tizen.org/ This was supposed to be an Android replacement. Not sure how far it has come. I know it was originally a FOSS project.


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Josiah23

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The S5 was a great device. Probably the best one they have had. Removable battery, great camera, SD card, not too much TouchWiz, not too small - all made for a great experience.

Samsung does have its own OS, Tizen. https://www.tizen.org/ This was supposed to be an Android replacement. Not sure how far it has come. I know it was originally a FOSS project.


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That's interesting. I always knew of Tizen, I just wasn't too sure who made it and what it was used for, lol.


Edited: Yeah, I had a galaxy s5 a while back! It was a pretty solid phone! Even had the "Active" version which I liked a little better :p
 

tgp

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Samsung does have its own OS, Tizen. https://www.tizen.org/ This was supposed to be an Android replacement. Not sure how far it has come. I know it was originally a FOSS project.

Samsung tried a couple phones with Tizen, but it doesn't seem to have worked out very well. Last I heard they released a very limited run in India.

Samsung's smartwatches are all Tizen. They don't use Android Wear anymore. Reports are that they work nice for stock Samsung features, but functionality is limited due to few apps (the infamous "app gap" lol).

There might be some other applications where Tizen is used such as smart TVs, but so far not much has happened with phones. I think Samsung is in an awkward position where they wouldn't mind breaking free of Android, but they cannot. It would kill their smartphone business.
 

kaktus1389

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Here in my country (and a few neighbouring countries that I know well) at least teenagers from my experience know what OS they're running, though it's true that the identification with brand is more popular. As already mentioned for Spain, you can spot mostly Samsungs here, though iPhone has a solid market share too. I'd say that particularly in my country Windows Phone had almost 10% market share a few years ago, I'd say that situation right now would be like 70% Android 27% iOS and 3% Windows Phone as I still see those in public.

Luckily I live in a family that has above average tech knowledge (not superb, but slightly above average) so at least they understand the difference between operating systems on phones and PCs, but I don't have many experience with people older than 30 years, though I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't know anything about that.

If I go slightly off topic: when I went to buy a Continuum display dock to a local tech store (where they had a demo of Continuum on a Lumia 950 XL) and asked an employee about it, he said that they didn't have such thing, even though that very dock was about 2 meters (about 7 feet in US system) away from him. He had to look on their website to figure out what it was but then he said they didn't have it in stock.
 

etphoto

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A couple years ago I was at a Verizon store at the counter waiting for a sales rep. A few feet from me was a girl talking to a sales rep. She was attempting to decide on which phone she wanted. She was looking at an iPhone and some Android phone. She was attempting to decide on which phone solely based on it's color. She went back and forth while the sales person offered his advice. I finally left and the last thing I heard her say was "can you check to see what other color phones you have". There is no doubt in my mind she had no clue about the OSes those phones ran.

Twitter: @PhotographyET
 

NYCMetsPDX

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I actually discovered WP because a neighbor had an AT&T 520.
I went home and searched on Amazon and found the T-Mo 521 on sale outright for $117.00 usd.
Bought one immediately.

So for me it was "affordability"

You pretty much told my story word for word! My decision was based upon price/features and the 521 on T-Mo hit both on the head. Unfortunately without a plethora of low priced, feature rich phones I don't know where the platform is headed.

Also, to echo an earlier post from Libra (5/4 7:16) I work with a bunch of tech folks and they give you guff (or confused looks) if you don't have an iPhone or Samsung. On a more jovial note, I was visiting coworkers in Taipei and one of them said to me "Can I ask you a personal question..." (Not knowing this person well or what was coming I felt a little awkward) "...why do you use a Windows Phone?" I had to laugh as it cracked me up that this is now considered a "personal question" and explain why I loved the platform.
 

AndyCalling

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Originally posted by Josiah23
@libra89
I asked someone if they use Android, IOS, or a WP, and the response was "neither, I have a Samsung" I chuckled a little bit (but was dying on the inside) lol. This was the first time I ever got a response like that. This was very recent too, so I really wasn't expecting it.


Did you ask them how they were finding Tizen on their Samsung OS device?
 

AndyCalling

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I don't think this is very prevalent. If it was, the Samsung Windows Phones would have out sold the Nokia ones by a huge amount. They didn't.
 

Zachary Boddy

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Were you referring to my post?

She was using a Samsung Galaxy S5, I believe it has the "Lollipop or Marshmallow" Android version. It'll be cool if Samsung had they're own OS away from Android itself. That'll be very interesting!

They actually do. It's called Tizen and it's what their watches run on. They've actually released a few low-end phones running Tizen that are under the Z moniker. Look them up, they're kind of interesting.
 

Josiah23

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They actually do. It's called Tizen and it's what their watches run on. They've actually released a few low-end phones running Tizen that are under the Z moniker. Look them up, they're kind of interesting.

Yeah, the previous posts explained it to me.
I always knew of Tizen, I just didn't know who made it or what platform it was for. I seen it in a game development program called Unity as an available platform to develop for. :p
 

Zachary Boddy

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Samsung tried a couple phones with Tizen, but it doesn't seem to have worked out very well. Last I heard they released a very limited run in India.

Samsung's smartwatches are all Tizen. They don't use Android Wear anymore. Reports are that they work nice for stock Samsung features, but functionality is limited due to few apps (the infamous "app gap" lol).

There might be some other applications where Tizen is used such as smart TVs, but so far not much has happened with phones. I think Samsung is in an awkward position where they wouldn't mind breaking free of Android, but they cannot. It would kill their smartphone business.

Tizen isn't meant to be a serious Android contender. It's Samsung's insurance plan if something goes wrong with Google or Android. It's also so that Samsung always has another option, such as with their smartwatches.
 

anthonyng

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@libra89
I asked someone if they use Android, IOS, or a WP, and the response was "neither, I have a Samsung" I chuckled a little bit (but was dying on the inside) lol. This was the first time I ever got a response like that. This was very recent too, so I really wasn't expecting it.

This is exactly what samsung wants anyhow, to be their own without anyone else.

And a samsung windows phone would've done better as a Samsung Galaxy 5W or something instead of a Samsung ATIV SE
 

raycpl

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Samsung had no marketing campaign for their Windows devices and they were never really on display anywhere like their flagship Android devices.

Back in mid2014 (ish)... when I was having display problem with my old 920 (which the local Nokia Service Centre, replaced it FOC as it was less than a yr old, and under warrantee) I was on the look out for another WP. In the IT mall, there was a big Samsung kiosk, all the Galaxies and Tabs. There on display, stood an lonely AtivS... The sales assistant explained to me "this is the latest technology"
(yeah, like, two years after it was launch!!)

I think initially, Samsung did try to push the AtivS, but folks only wanted the S3 or S4. The lack of response meant they will hardly support it with updates. My colleague uses one, he could only look on with envy as my 920 went from Cyan, to Denim/8.1...

... !!
 

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