Coping with the end... what's your poison?

[anon(50597)]

I don't really feel that the average consumer buys a phone based on apps. They rarely even know the storage or cpu of the phone. And as far as apps go, win10m has everything for the basic user other than, in some case, banking (it has my bank, and I am in NZ, so even there its not that bad).

I honestly think that this "apps" thing that phone enthusiasts focus on, isn't the reality. For niche applications it matters. For most people not really. But regardless, I myself have confidence that windows on arm will boost UWP adoption. As will this device. One is released this year, the other likely next year. Combined the effect of that, and the centennial bridge/windows s will all herd developers to new userbases.

It's a bit of a 1-2-3 punch. They likely have planned the timing all of this, as to give UWP steam. Like they intend each thing to add to the other, in terms of UWP adoption. That explains why they have been quiet - getting all their pieces together to elegantly release with planned timing.

As for if enough people buy it? Well IDK. The tech news will cover it, even mainstream, because its new. So there will be some buzz. Hopefully (please god) some marketing, lol. From there we will have to see.

It's not to replace the surface line, its like a mi max sized phablet with two screens and a hinge - so far as what I am seeing - 6.4 inches maybe?

Just small enough to hold and pocket, but a bit unwieldy. Its for those people who's pockets and hand sizes are just annoying limitations getting in the way of more screen XD

And yeah, with the other screen as a keyboard I could see it being pretty ideal for business travellers. Like a mini-laptop.

Actually if the hinge/crease is low visibility, and you can full screen across both screens, I'd buy it. Beats travelling with a 9.7 inch tablet, you can flip it out anywhere. People on the bus and train might even be jelly. Fold it out and look at "maps". Show people pictures. IDK, guess we'll have to see more about how it works in practice. At minimum it would be excellent for reading, even with a crease - you'd actually have essentially a book.

As far as your point about apps, I think you're deeply mistaken.

 

[Drael646464]

As far as your point about apps, I think you're deeply mistaken.

My experience of using win10m, is that I am missing nothing. I actually use a lot of apps and games. Studies have show that people only use 4-6 apps on the regular. I think my mum uses about 3. I don't really see regular users as people who hoard apps, and given my own experience, and where the weak spots lie - things like wearables, travel apps etc. I just cant really imagine joe the builder being like "damn it doesn't have snapchat, or I'd buy this if only it could operate my Samsung watch".

I can't really picture it. Especially when if you buy a phone, they only display minimal details like camera megapixles and OS version. I actually sell tablets, and most people don't have a clue what the numbers mean, or much about what they are buying.

Consumers seem to use basic functions, and know little about OSes, or functions, in my experience. You might get a different impression I think, if your peer group is quite technically oriented.

Buuut, well they are both valid perspectives. There's no evidence to know for sure either way. You can't prove that apps is what stops people buying windows phones, and I can't prove it isn't. But to me it seems like everything normal, the every day task is pretty well covered. The only real exception being some banks lack apps on win10m. But its not that hard to use a website for that. It's not exactly a deal breaker unless you rely heavily on banking apps for some reason.

 

[anon(50597)]

My experience of using win10m, is that I am missing nothing. I actually use a lot of apps and games. Studies have show that people only use 4-6 apps on the regular. I think my mum uses about 3. I don't really see regular users as people who hoard apps, and given my own experience, and where the weak spots lie - things like wearables, travel apps etc. I just cant really imagine joe the builder being like "damn it doesn't have snapchat, or I'd buy this if only it could operate my Samsung watch".

I can't really picture it. Especially when if you buy a phone, they only display minimal details like camera megapixles and OS version. I actually sell tablets, and most people don't have a clue what the numbers mean, or much about what they are buying.

Consumers seem to use basic functions, and know little about OSes, or functions, in my experience. You might get a different impression I think, if your peer group is quite technically oriented.

Buuut, well they are both valid perspectives. There's no evidence to know for sure either way. You can't prove that apps is what stops people buying windows phones, and I can't prove it isn't. But to me it seems like everything normal, the every day task is pretty well covered. The only real exception being some banks lack apps on win10m. But its not that hard to use a website for that. It's not exactly a deal breaker unless you rely heavily on banking apps for some reason.

The evidence shows that when the 2 current leading ecosystems took hold, both of which are app-centric, the other ecosystems failed. Look at Blackberry. These exact same arguments were made back then and the same thing happened, market share plummeted.
As far as the argument that "people only use 4-6 apps regularly", that was proven to mean nothing also because if those particular apps are not available or work poorly, people will leave, which they did.
The world is a large place and we can't use our individual experiences to explain what happens or will happen as a whole. We only have the past to learn from. I support MS's efforts to build for the future, whatever that future date is. It will surely come and people will be using some non-current-smartphone device in their everyday lives. I would be shocked if it was anytime soon.

 

[mattiasnyc]

I didn't, but here you go:

Windows 10 Mobile will stay in feature2 branch, no new features planned - Winaero

That isn't Microsoft confirming something though, it's just some to me random person saying something about what Microsoft supposedly said. It does not equate to officially confirming that MS "will no longer add features to W10 Mobile."

 

[PerfectReign]

I don't really feel that the average consumer buys a phone based on apps. They rarely even know the storage or cpu of the phone. And as far as apps go, win10m has everything for the basic user other than, in some case, banking.

Oh they do.

I gave my younger son my 950xl after his Android phone was smashed during a basketball game. He liked it but missed snapchat, a valid FB messenger that did video, several games, and Chrome. He did have Oovoo and Skype but they were slower.

Eventually I relented and got him an Iphone SE. It is small but he's been happy because all his apps work. When he and my wife were visiting family in England last month, the only way we got video chat working was through FaceTime. Skype kept blowing up on my wife's 640. (She could care less about apps.)

My older son won't have an Iphone for the same reason. He's currently sporting a rooted LG V20 with multiple side loaded apps he uses for "research" in networks and such.

Yes, for the moment, apps matter.

 

[anon(50597)]

Oh they do.

I gave my younger son my 950xl after his Android phone was smashed during a basketball game. He liked it but missed snapchat, a valid FB messenger that did video, several games, and Chrome. He did have Oovoo and Skype but they were slower.

Eventually I relented and got him an Iphone SE. It is small but he's been happy because all his apps work. When he and my wife were visiting family in England last month, the only way we got video chat working was through FaceTime. Skype kept blowing up on my wife's 640. (She could care less about apps.)

My older son won't have an Iphone for the same reason. He's currently sporting a rooted LG V20 with multiple side loaded apps he uses for "research" in networks and such.

Yes, for the moment, apps matter.

Absolutely. Now someday I'm sure it will be different and we will have moved on to an appless (?) world, but I don't see the current ecosystems being uprooted anytime soon.

 

[FXi2]

Sadly iPhone 7s plus or 8 depending.

 

[fatclue_98]

Apps schmapps. If you like Windows on a phone just use it. We're all reasonably well informed people here. If not we wouldn't be on a tech site. We all know what a Windows phone can and cannot do, so let's stop pretending this is news. If people keep proclaiming that the end is near and do so long enough, it will eventually become true. Even a broken clock is right twice everyday. At some point people need to realize that their phones aren't going to self destruct. There are no Jim Phelps Lumia special edition phones out there so let's cut the Chicken Little talk. Someone asked for a link earlier and the reply was from another tech site. Someone produce a link from Microsoft and I'll be convinced "Windows is dead".

 

[anon(50597)]

Apps schmapps. If you like Windows on a phone just use it. We're all reasonably well informed people here. If not we wouldn't be on a tech site. We all know what a Windows phone can and cannot do, so let's stop pretending this is news. If people keep proclaiming that the end is near and do so long enough, it will eventually become true. Even a broken clock is right twice everyday. At some point people need to realize that their phones aren't going to self destruct. There are no Jim Phelps Lumia special edition phones out there so let's cut the Chicken Little talk. Someone asked for a link earlier and the reply was from another tech site. Someone produce a link from Microsoft and I'll be convinced "Windows is dead".

OK, it's extremely old, living in a nursing home and suffering from multiple chronic diseases. Better?

 

[PerfectReign]

Apps schmapps..

...back in day, I had to walk uphill twenty miles through the snow while raccoons tore at my heels in order for me to get a good signal on my cellular mobile device, and I liked it.

 

[fatclue_98]

...back in day, I had to walk uphill twenty miles through the snow while raccoons tore at my heels in order for me to get a good signal on my cellular mobile device, and I liked it.

Back in my day, I had to walk uphill both ways.

Sent from my Galaxy S8+

 

[anon(50597)]

Backwards...

 

[AndyCalling]

Originally posted by mattiasnyc

Originally Posted by AndyCalling
I didn't, but here you go:

Windows 10 Mobile will stay in feature2 branch, no new features planned - Winaero

That isn't Microsoft confirming something though, it's just some to me random person saying something about what Microsoft supposedly said. It does not equate to officially confirming that MS "will no longer add features to W10 Mobile."

Feel free to listen to the podcasts mentioned in the article, then you'll be able to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, from Microsoft themselves.

 

[camaroz1985]

I'm just in wait and see mode now. I am happy with my iPhone for now, but I anxiously wait to see what comes out next from Microsoft. A large part of me would love to see them thrive in this segment, but I'm not willing to compromise on the functionality like I did in the past. I just want a device that works and makes things easier, and not something that I have to use as a work around.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Feel free to listen to the podcasts mentioned in the article, then you'll be able to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, from Microsoft themselves.

Which podcast? Which webcast? Do you want us to randomly listen to webcasts until we find it?

If you're talking about Sarkar's comments they weren't what you said was said.

 

[Drael646464]

Feel free to listen to the podcasts mentioned in the article, then you'll be able to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, from Microsoft themselves.

He's completely right. Not only is the insiders team not privy to long term plans the questions were both about _immediate_ plans to take it off feature2, not _ever_.

I've seen transcripts for both. All they say is "mobile is not coming off feature2 soon", ie by FCU (which is really all insider teams would be privy to)

Which shouldn't really be news to anyone. If that was going to happen, the users on insiders would have known about it ages ago.

 

[trincowski]

Well, if Windows Phone goes... I'm back to old school, with a Nokia 3310 plus a Garmin GPS device. And if I want to use the Internet? Off to a cybercafe, I go.

 

[agaskew]

I'm stunned by a few posts.

No matter what happened to W10M, I could never ever go back to iOS. It's just....wrong.

 

[3earnhardt3]

I am 18 months without WP now, and honestly I can't remember what made me so enamored with it in the first place. I love wireless charging and glance screen, but Android has had that for years now on several phones. Live tiles? That's just big icons with semi-useful information plastered on them on occasion. I am still waiting on the true pocket PC, a device that runs a mobile OS on its dedicated screen, but can project wirelessly or wired to any nearby monitor/keyboard/clamshell/tv as a full-powered PC (No CSHELL or Continuum BS). I am tired of having to use separate whole solution devices (desktop at work, tablet/laptop/phone/xbox at home), which all have to be customized separately. I understand that this "surface phone" isn't what most WP users want, but it will be the only device that MS can become successful with because it is the only device the other platforms CAN'T make. Android as a PC is never going to work, look at the S8, sales of the dock are practically non-existent, and the S835 in it is very powerful. Until that day comes (several years from now, possibly a decade), I will continue to use an iPhone as just that, a phone. It makes calls, it browses the web and works on Verizon, something no current WP sold in stores can.

 

[anon(50597)]

I'm stunned by a few posts.

No matter what happened to W10M, I could never ever go back to iOS. It's just....wrong.

Well, it was pretty effortless for me. To each their own.