How can Windows Phone succeed? Why would anyone buy it? Too little, too late?

[GoodEnough]

What "made" Windows? It was the developer support and massive application availability. Windows phone is WAY late to the party. There is probably little developer support with their $100/year registration. Why would anyone buy this phone? What will it offer than Android and iPhone don't? To displace technology, you need to leapfrog it. Does Windows Phone do this, or is it just a "me too" entry? If it's the latter, as we've seen in the past, 9 out of 10 times, this is a belly flop. What's the word on the street in tech savvy circles?

 

[breadnatty08]

Looks like Woz is a fan:
Steve Wozniak: Windows Phone is more beautiful and intuitive than Android, it's 'no contest' | The Verge
I'll admit, the Lumia 900 is some sexy hardware but after that, I feel like it's just a mess. WP7, for me, just looks awful.

 

[NJSmoke]

Well the only thing that it has going for it right now is that it is different, and that might be enough. There has to be people that are pissed off with their experiences with both Android and Iphone, and don't want to go back to BlackBerry.

What I think they need to do is keep their best phones cheaper then Androids and IOS's best phone. Windows still has name recognition. And they can still become the 2nd best Tablet Software out there once they get into the game.

WP7 looks totally different from any other mobile OS and they are apparently trying to make the OS for their computer run the same way. That will be interesting.

 

[GoodEnough]

Does the fact that MSFT dominates gaming w/ XBOX have ANY benefit for sales of Windows Phone?

 

[jetx2x]

Does the fact that MSFT dominates gaming w/ XBOX have ANY benefit for sales of Windows Phone?

Nope... the two have no correlation other than the branding.... in my opinion Microsoft should have just stayed in its place which is the PC market... blackberry has a better chance of resurrecting from its soon to be grave than windows phone will ever have

Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

 

[mikedt]

I assume we're talking about the US here. From what I've heard it's the carriers that don't like Windows Phone. Things like people going into AT&T stores asking for Windows phones, the SAs discouraging them and trying to sell them iPhones mainly or Android phones instead.

Here in China, the world's biggest mobile market by far, I've never actually seen a Windows Phone device yet. Most smart phones are Android, there's many iPhones as well.

Good luck Microsoft...you'll need it.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/21/windows-phone-goes-on-sale-in-china/

 

[Adauth]

P.o.s. its not even going to get the update. How can you abandon your new "flagship" phone so soon?

Lol

 

[dan330]

I agree.. they are behind the curve.

MS needs to leapfrog the others.. bring out something that makes consumers want to get this over other choices.

 

[Steven58]

Ms needed to come out with Windows phone 7 right after the iPhone came on the scene. The didn't rise to the occasion. They came out with Windows Mobile 6.5 instead. It was warmed over old stylus tech, which debuted to compete with palm phones, which ruled the market, second to blackberry.

Neither Windows, Palm nor blackberry kept up, so imo they are dead or dying tech. IPhone and android rule the roost. The consumer votes with his wallet.

 

[Pitamakan]

Microsoft is smart enough to realize that in order to maintain a significant level of consumer tech dominance, they have to strongly compete in the mobile OS arena. Unfortunately for them, they're not smart enough to understand how to actually DO that. But they have a giant pile of money in the bank, and they're desperate, so I'm sure they'll keep trying.

It's really hard to see them being any more than a niche player, though ...

 

[OstrichSaK]

I've always LOVED Nokia hardware. Symbian was a great and solid OS. I like the idea of product alignment with Windows and don't underestimate the ability to interact with Windows based PCs and networks and such. MS has been very secure with the whole Xbox LIVE site and allowing apps to access your information. I believe the large reason is that they want their phone to be the only one with native Xbox LIVE messaging real-time and game stats and such. Being able to use your mobile device as a native Windows Media Center extender would also be a bonus for those using their home network and WMC to serve up their programming. I mean, lots of this can be done with various apps and hacks but for the average user that's too much effort & to have a phone that just 'works' is how Apple put themselves on the map. I don't know, I love my Android devices and always have but if MS can get this phone dealio right I would like to give it some testing. I mean, the one thing that makes me jealous of my Apple loving buddies is that all their devices just work well together with minimal fuss. I can't say that about my Android devices, PCs, TVs, tablets and yadda yadda. I don't think that the market is too small for two mobile OS's and I think that MS could have something depending on how it's implemented.

 

[Hrethgir]

I'm not counting MS out until Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 come out, they might have a sweet combo of an easy to use mobile OS that works seamlessly with desktops, laptops and WP8 tablets. Plus, they have name recognition and a reputation, they might be able to eat up some marketshare soon. Especially with the Lumia 900 selling well and being liked, it's keeping their foot in the door until the next gen is ready.

 

[zuben el genub]

It ain't:

Nokia Faces Class-Action Suit Over Windows Phone Deal - Slashdot

 

[pastafarian]

M$ still has a chance to succeed, but that depends on what's their definition of success and will the cost be worth it. I've tried the OS, and the stack of boxes ui isn't for me. They also allowed the geek community that supported Windows Mobile to get away, mostly to Android, and they're (us?) not coming back anytime soon. That's a lot of market influence lost. I know they're banking on Win 8 integration? That's the exact same plan they had with Windows mobile....and it ultimately failed! With the xbox, they demonstrated their willingness to spend heavily in order to gain traction, so I wouldn't count them out yet. OTH, that was against an already fading and disjointed Sony, not Apple and Google!

 

[Granite1]

Agreed Pasta, MS lost their whole modding community to android. I was starting to mod my home pc when I found android, I haven't touched my pc since.

Now if MS can deliver a nice UI with seamless cloud capabilities and easy transfer from mobile to pc and integrate printing from the phone, they may gain something. The way corporate business is run now a days, that would sell a lot of units to corporations. BB would disappear, wait where did they go........

 

[JunBringer]

You guys mention a lot of cool things they could do for sure, but the main thing to me is that there is no competition within the WP7 community. Since they wanted to not be "fragmented" like Android they have a bunch of super similar phones and no way to differentiate between them. Android did well because people have choice. I have a 5.3inch screen. Some people have 3.whatever inches etc. They need to bump up all of the stats across the board if they're going to compete.

 

[mikedt]

Finally saw my very first Windows Phone yesterday at the local China Unicom store, a Nokia Lumia 800. It's very nice and the Metro UI seemed very smooth and polished. However it's also extremely expensive at a whopping 4000 RMB, that's about $600 USD, with a rather stuff mandatory two year contract. So it's priced roughly about the same as the 16GB iPhone 4S, which makes me think it's extremely overpriced for what you get. The iPhone is very overpriced in China as well, however Apple products are always popular the affluent brand-whore crowd. unlike Nokia or Microsoft.

It's very difficult to see who's actually going to buy the pricey WinPhone Nokias over iPhones, or the absolute plethora of Android phones available here. Thing is here in China, Apple has a perceived desirable lux brand cachet, like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Armani, etc. Nokia on the other hand is probably much more associated with cheap candybar dumb phones here.

BTW no Facebook integration of course, instead the Chinese version of WinPhone 7.5 appears to have Weibo and Q-Zones integration, these were on the Metro IU panels.

 

[OstrichSaK]

You guys mention a lot of cool things they could do for sure, but the main thing to me is that there is no competition within the WP7 community. Since they wanted to not be "fragmented" like Android they have a bunch of super similar phones and no way to differentiate between them. Android did well because people have choice. I have a 5.3inch screen. Some people have 3.whatever inches etc. They need to bump up all of the stats across the board if they're going to compete.

I think you need to write to Apple and tell them that fewer designs for devices is a sure path to failure. Something tells me they didn't get that memo.

 

[Bnice]

I still think windows phone will have a place, just not as big as Android. As long as Android provide the many choices in phone size not to mention the customization and personalization, it will have that upper leg. I think many folks take for granted a lot of people want to differentiate their phone to some degree. For some it is bad enough they have the same phone but then you can't make changes to suit your needs and like.

 

[mikedt]

I assume we're talking about the US here. From what I've heard it's the carriers that don't like Windows Phone. Things like people going into AT&T stores asking for Windows phones, the SAs discouraging them and trying to sell them iPhones mainly or Android phones instead.

Here in China, the world's biggest mobile market by far, I've never actually seen a Windows Phone device yet. Most smart phones are Android, there's many iPhones as well.

Good luck Microsoft...you'll need it.
Windows Phone launches in China today (updated) - Engadget

Well it's a few weeks since I posted that. Microsoft is certainly putting a lot of money behind promoting Windows Phone in China, it's everywhere!! On TV, high profile in-store promotions, massive billboard ads all over the Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou subways. I think just about everyone most know about it now. Can MS transform their massive advertising investment into product sales? Time will tell.

 

[argedion]

Well if there is one thing MS is known for its being late to a party. As far as successful competition goes MS does have a grand following. People will love the fact how easy it will be to communicate between the phone and pc. When Microsoft does jump on a wagon its all in so no surprises about the advertising.