I replaced my iPhone 4 for a Samsung Focus at launch in November 2010. Purchased a cyan Lumia 900 at release in April 2012. Purchased a cyan Lumia 920 in November to go along with my cyan cover Surface RT. I've been on this forum since basically the beginning (I think it had a different name back then - Windows Mobile Central or something) and you probably can't find a bigger MSFT proponent than me.
However, it looks as though I'm heading back to iOS after all this time. My new job is giving me an iPhone 5 and iPad 4, and while I can probably stick with my Lumia and Surface there are two overriding factors that are pushing me back towards iOS.
1. Xbox Music is a complete, utter trainwreck. Words cannot describe how singularly awful this piece of software is and how much it has soured me on WP8. Half the reason I jumped ship to WP7 at launch was due to my Zune player and its amazing software. It was like a breath of fresh mountain air after having being stuck in the prison that was iTunes. The Zune software was intuitive and beautiful and it was a joy to navigate and explore and find new artists, etc.
To go from Zune to Xbox Music was such a slap in the face for any Zune/WP7 enthusiast that I'm almost convinced it was shipped as part of a big FU to the original Zune team. I simply cannot fathom how this critical part of the WP8 experience was botched so badly and has been allowed to fester without treatment. Do you know what the longest support forum issue is on Microsoft Answers? It's this:
Master List Of Issues With XBox Music On WP8 - Microsoft Community
42 pages, 415 replies. Not a single acknowledgment from the WP8 team. Not even a "we hear your concerns, and are addressing them."
Also, after all this time, my most important issue with music from WP7, gapless playback, has not only NOT been addressed, but they actually removed gapless functionality in the Xbox Music Windows 8 app. Listen to any gapless album (Pink Floyd, Explosions in the Sky, any live music) and you get a nice long gap in between songs.
Basically, after 2.5 years, functionality in this core product has gone BACKWARDS, not forwards, and it angers me to no end.
2. Apps.
This is a sore point for many on this forum, I know. I'm not even really a big app guy. But here again I am seeing signs of things going backwards, and not much traction going forwards. The USAA app is now gone in WP8. Spotify just made it back. Half of my WP7 game purchases are incompatible with WP8. The Facebook app is a trainwreck. NONE of the apps that the WP8 team promised us have materialized.
Instead of wasting money on whatever their half-assed initial marketing efforts were, Microsoft should have set aside all that money to simply pay out developers to create first party apps or create the apps themselves. After 2.5 years we still don't have Mint.com, Instagram, Pandora, Hulu.com, Yahoo Fantasy Sports Apps. MLB At Bat is still gimped. Where are the Unity engine games? I also know many people are upset about the lack of banking apps (Wells Fargo and USAA come to mind). There doesn't seem to be any momentum from Microsoft OR developers. It's disheartening, it's frustrating, it's sad and quite frankly it's pathetic that Microsoft still hasn't rectified the situation. This issue is killing the platform and forcing who love the platform like me to go elsewhere. We're seeing this in Windows 8/RT as well and it's really frustrating. I really don't know how else to put it.
Thanks for indulging my frustrated ramblings. I do plan on keeping track of the situation. Hopefully MSFT announces some decent things at MWC but I increasingly fear that the company is too slow on updates, etc. to make a noticeable difference at this stage. The WP team has a history of over-promising and under-delivering (enthusiast upgrades, anyone) and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
However, it looks as though I'm heading back to iOS after all this time. My new job is giving me an iPhone 5 and iPad 4, and while I can probably stick with my Lumia and Surface there are two overriding factors that are pushing me back towards iOS.
1. Xbox Music is a complete, utter trainwreck. Words cannot describe how singularly awful this piece of software is and how much it has soured me on WP8. Half the reason I jumped ship to WP7 at launch was due to my Zune player and its amazing software. It was like a breath of fresh mountain air after having being stuck in the prison that was iTunes. The Zune software was intuitive and beautiful and it was a joy to navigate and explore and find new artists, etc.
To go from Zune to Xbox Music was such a slap in the face for any Zune/WP7 enthusiast that I'm almost convinced it was shipped as part of a big FU to the original Zune team. I simply cannot fathom how this critical part of the WP8 experience was botched so badly and has been allowed to fester without treatment. Do you know what the longest support forum issue is on Microsoft Answers? It's this:
Master List Of Issues With XBox Music On WP8 - Microsoft Community
42 pages, 415 replies. Not a single acknowledgment from the WP8 team. Not even a "we hear your concerns, and are addressing them."
Also, after all this time, my most important issue with music from WP7, gapless playback, has not only NOT been addressed, but they actually removed gapless functionality in the Xbox Music Windows 8 app. Listen to any gapless album (Pink Floyd, Explosions in the Sky, any live music) and you get a nice long gap in between songs.
Basically, after 2.5 years, functionality in this core product has gone BACKWARDS, not forwards, and it angers me to no end.
2. Apps.
This is a sore point for many on this forum, I know. I'm not even really a big app guy. But here again I am seeing signs of things going backwards, and not much traction going forwards. The USAA app is now gone in WP8. Spotify just made it back. Half of my WP7 game purchases are incompatible with WP8. The Facebook app is a trainwreck. NONE of the apps that the WP8 team promised us have materialized.
Instead of wasting money on whatever their half-assed initial marketing efforts were, Microsoft should have set aside all that money to simply pay out developers to create first party apps or create the apps themselves. After 2.5 years we still don't have Mint.com, Instagram, Pandora, Hulu.com, Yahoo Fantasy Sports Apps. MLB At Bat is still gimped. Where are the Unity engine games? I also know many people are upset about the lack of banking apps (Wells Fargo and USAA come to mind). There doesn't seem to be any momentum from Microsoft OR developers. It's disheartening, it's frustrating, it's sad and quite frankly it's pathetic that Microsoft still hasn't rectified the situation. This issue is killing the platform and forcing who love the platform like me to go elsewhere. We're seeing this in Windows 8/RT as well and it's really frustrating. I really don't know how else to put it.
Thanks for indulging my frustrated ramblings. I do plan on keeping track of the situation. Hopefully MSFT announces some decent things at MWC but I increasingly fear that the company is too slow on updates, etc. to make a noticeable difference at this stage. The WP team has a history of over-promising and under-delivering (enthusiast upgrades, anyone) and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
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