If MS cancelled all future phone development, what would you do?

[Mr Mogambo]

Alternative Black Berry

 

[Praxius]

I'm kind of curious. For all the pissing and moaning about MS I do (of which I do a lot haha), Windows is still hands down my preferred OS. I'm not really sure what I would do if they killed phone support, since I find iOS so restrictive and Android's UI so incredibly unfriendly.

What would you folks do? Also feel free to delete this post if someone's already made a thread asking this

I would turn to Blackberry.

I wrote a lengthy post about this last night but of course, the Windows Central forums are not very friendly with Internet Explorer on Windows Phone (Isn't it Ironic.... Don'cha Think?) & when I switched to another tab and went back to paste something, the forums refreshed and I lost everything I was typing, despite me knowing this might happen and decided to hit the preview post button to store the written text just in case. On other forums, that works.... Here, not so much.

Anyways, to post my reasons in as short as possible in order to prevent a second loss, here's the low-down:

iPhone:
The Fisher Price of Phones. Too basic and kiddie looking. Apple only lets you do with it what they want you too. Specs are always sub-par, screens have been tiny up until recently and for the iPhone 6 to barely compete with a Lumia 925 & the 930 beats it in almost every category, purchasing an iPhone would be an insult to my intelligence. I have used Mac PC' for years as a Graphic Designer and they're unreliable, lock up, freeze and otherwise glitch out when doing large projects like batch actioning folders of up to a couple of thousand images at once. My wife went through FIVE iPods in a few months due to reasons unknown as Apple wouldn't explain the problem or provide a solution to the terminal lock up screens and only replaced her iPod with another iPod that would do the same thing in a few more weeks. Was it a specific song, album or file?

Who knows??

Android:
My wife had a Samsung Galaxy S3 and we had an Android Tablet. The OS is made more complicated than it needs to be for what very little it allows you to do. After a couple of months, both the tablet and Galaxy bogged right down and became bloated regardless of how often I cleaned up apps and files from the system.

Blackberry:
When I first decided to get a mobile (I waited a long time and had no interest up until I hit 30-31 years of age) I spent a couple of months going between four different carriers and tested, handled and tried almost every single device that seemed to suit my needs.

It came down to the Blackberry Torch and the Lumia 800. I only chose the 800 because some of Blackberry's features were extra costs on existing plans while the 800 came with a lot of free stuff right out of the box.

Since then I stuck with Windows Phones, but I still wonder what would have been if I picked the Blackberry. It was a slick looking phone.

Hypothetically speaking, if Microsoft did decide to drop Windows Phone (hardly likely at this point) I would go to Blackberry in a heartbeat without even thinking about Android or iPhone.

Their new phone, the Z30 is a nice looking phone with some good features, but still doesn't compete with my Lumia 930 in many ways.

Still, by the time my 930 needs to be replaced, a new Blackberry would be out.

If my Lumia 930 vanished and all Windows Phones disappeared, the Blackberry Passport would be what I would get at this very moment:

Spec-wise, this phone is pretty good and has some advantages over the 930..... and I like what I have seen in reviews and handling. It's a nice OS too.

 

[PepperdotNet]

I'm kind of curious. For all the pissing and moaning about MS I do (of which I do a lot haha), Windows is still hands down my preferred OS. I'm not really sure what I would do if they killed phone support, since I find iOS so restrictive and Android's UI so incredibly unfriendly.

What would you folks do? Also feel free to delete this post if someone's already made a thread asking this

What would I do? Keep using my existing phone, which wouldn't just magically stop working because the manufacturer decided not to make any more new ones. When it wears out, find another one on ebay.

If it ever got to the point that things simply did not work anymore, new cell technologies or whatever rendering it obsolete, I would get whatever is the cheapest thing available that makes phone calls and has internet tethering and carry around whatever small computer/tablet I actually want to use for anything other than phone calls. Theoretically at some point you'll be able to get a small x86 compatible Windows tablet with cellular radios and phone call support built in, a.k.a. a "Windows" "Phone" and I'll say that this is what it should have been to begin with...

 

[nohra]

I'd settle for iPhone due to it's closed environment. Wouldn't like paying those prices, but at least it's a decent second choice.

That would be once my 920 dies... which will probably be sometime during WWIII.

 

[Mike Majeski]

Probably go back to Android. My GF has a Note 4 and the Microsoft apps look amazing on it. She uses the stylus in One Note and I'm just like, how do we not have a Surface phone yet?

Or if I still wanted to be a part of the "other guys" of Phone OSs, I'd go with a Blackberry Passport - looks pretty sweet.

 

[someone2639]

I'd go to Nokia feature phones or BlackBerry

 

[steve_w_7]

I'd just switch to an iPhone and hope that they revolutionize the keyboard by adding Swype or word flow.

iPhone has Swype and wordflow keyboards now.

 

[big dooze]

It breaks my heart to have this conversation, but I feel like W10 is the "last hope" for adoption... Now that Cortana is going to IOS and Android, how can any of us have any faith in the future of the product??? I have no hope in Windows on Phone surviving another 18 months. I hope I am wrong, because the OS is really nice. I like the live tiles, I like the customizable start screen for "me" but when apps like vevo are dropping, we never got a real youtube app, office on ios/android, no local banking apps (and the major banks are dropping too)...im not going to be the last one in the room to turn the lights out, going to iPhone.

 

[Witness]

I'd probably be on iOS. On a related note, check out this post that gives reason to why MS won't cancel phone development: http://forums.windowscentral.com/mi...-microsoft-can-not-give-up-windows-phone.html

 

[Witness]

Probably go back to Android. My GF has a Note 4 and the Microsoft apps look amazing on it. She uses the stylus in One Note and I'm just like, how do we not have a Surface phone yet?

Or if I still wanted to be a part of the "other guys" of Phone OSs, I'd go with a Blackberry Passport - looks pretty sweet.

Yes, how is it that we do not have a Surface Phone yet? Those Nokia 15xx phablets are the right size for it with a pen!

 

[EMINENT 1]

I will never touch craptunes again. I liked Apple products at one point, now they're just milking the wallets of unknowing non-techhnical people. The lack of innovation and price gouging is beyond bearable even though I can afford to buy every one of their products if I wanted to.

No, i'm not buying into the idea that I have to have a separate laptop to use with my expensive giant non-phone and expensive tiny phone that they finally decided to increase the size of 7 years after it's introduction. Nor is marketing an accessory that's going to be outdated in a year that's out of price range for most of the public, something to lust for. Their business model and offerings are tired and it's about time the general public come to their senses and realize.

WP is not without it's lack of features, but 10 on pc's and tablets will insure the life of WP goes on. WP is here along for the ride now that they share the same universal code. No point in dropping it as doing so would be just dropping W10. Don't think that's on the table.

 

[realwarder]

The truth is, after Windows 10 comes out, after about a year, if Windows Phone still sits under 2.5% of the global market share, I would almost bet my life, that there would be discussions in very high up meetings about dropping Windows Phone for good or selling it off. Not that it would happen right away but, it would be discussed.

As for me, I'll stick around for a while, Might grab a Android phone to really play with it (and use tap to pay and access Bank of America on...and oh, MLB 2015 and Dish Network stream app) but, over all my heart is with WP and it's success.

Simple fact is Microsoft don't currently care much about global market share. Of course they do big picture, but there's only so much of the world you can focus on to grow share.

Europe has been a strong sales zone and they are aggressively supporting sales in this area. The outcome of this will be larger app support because Europe exceeds the US in potential product sales (twice). In the USA Apple has been impossible to beat due to, well a great product. Europeans also have their history with Nokia which provides more openness to phone selection.

I think you'll see Europe business use explode (with 640 being 1/3 iPhone pricing). Eventually this will roll over to the USA, especially with continued aggressive budget pricing like the $29.99 L635. Hopefully 640 will be priced competitively with Moto units.

 

[TLRtheory]

How did you get NFC payment on WP??

We've had it for a while via Softcard.

I don't quite understand what invokes the dollar back and instant discount on purchases, but I love it.

 

[chezm]

We've had it for a while via Softcard.

I don't quite understand what invokes the dollar back and instant discount on purchases, but I love it.

wasnt softcard recently purchased by Google and WP no longer supported?

I also find it hilarious that you say you've got a G3 and Nexus 5, and find them horrible. I've had my Nexus 5 for 8 months and its running better on Lollipop than WP has run since WP8 was launched (for me, 920/1020). Meh.

Man, i do rather enjoy WP as a mobile OS...but when i read some of the responses from WP fanatics...its just hilarious how fanboyish they sound, when they think they're being unbiased.

 

[TLRtheory]

wasnt softcard recently purchased by Google and WP no longer supported?.

Yep, Google purchased it (why, I don't know since Google Wallet is infinitely better and easier to use... the only thing that's come of the acquisition is them immediately announcing that they will kill off the only NFC payment WP has)... and it'll be unsupported at the end of the month. Still works for now.

I also find it hilarious that you say you've got a G3 and Nexus 5, and find them horrible.

Horrible? Jesus Christ this community loves exaggeration more than any other.

 

[MikeSo]

We've had it for a while via Softcard.

I don't quite understand what invokes the dollar back and instant discount on purchases, but I love it.

Sadly, Softcard is being discontinued, so there will be no payment system on WP until a replacement is found.

 

[MikeSo]

I'd get an iPhone, and hope that I could keep using the MS services on it. I REALLY don't want to give up on what MS offers.

Actually, scratch that. I'd get whatever phone would best let me use all my existing MS services on it. I really hate iOS and Android is a mess, so I want WP to succeed though.

 

[anon(8966963)]

I'd go back to my old Nokia 3310

 

[Motor_Mouth]

Edit: What Walkman do you own? I currently own a Z1040, but I wanted to use my 925+subscription model. Tired of carrying two similar sized devices haha.

I have an NWZ-A15 with a 64Gb microSD card in it. I tried using my phone for music but it annoyed me far too much that it kept getting interrupted with annoying things like phone calls. But I bought the Walkman to use at home, I don't take it anywhere with me (I don't enjoy listening to music on headphones - I like to feel the bass, not just hear it).

I'd never use any streaming service. Having spent the last 40 years or so collecting music, I have a lot more of what I enjoy than any streaming service could ever hope to provide. I still buy around half my music on CD because there is no other way to get it.

 

[Yazen]

I have an NWZ-A15 with a 64Gb microSD card in it. I tried using my phone for music but it annoyed me far too much that it kept getting interrupted with annoying things like phone calls. But I bought the Walkman to use at home, I don't take it anywhere with me (I don't enjoy listening to music on headphones - I like to feel the bass, not just hear it).

I'd never use any streaming service. Having spent the last 40 years or so collecting music, I have a lot more of what I enjoy than any streaming service could ever hope to provide. I still buy around half my music on CD because there is no other way to get it.

No microSD support on the Z, not even sure if the ZX1 has this! I wish I could audition the A15 ... Mine is bigger than my 925, but at least the sound quality is pretty nice. I have only taken it out a few times because of this.

Xbox Music has quite a few artists I enjoy listening to, and I was hoping that I could explore using Radio.

The headphones I use are the HD600, DT880, M80, and M500. The sources I use are the Walkman WMZ-Z1040, Aune T1, and my Lumia 925.
Even on my Lumia I notice the compression, and (imo) the Lumia 920/925 was one of the worse flagships for music (even 822 had better hp out).

Lesson learned. Could have been worse. Could have spent $99+tax for a service I have no intention of ever using again