Posted on 10/13/2010 11:05:58 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
Perhaps Windows Phone 7 won't come dead on arrival after all. Maybe the analysts and naysaying pundits don't give Microsoft the respect it deserves. Maybe there is enormous pent up demand for Windows Phone 7. Maybe the silent majority that loves Microsoft products has waited for this day -- ah Monday, when Windows Phone 7 officially launches.
Three days ago, I asked: "Will you buy Windows Phone 7?" The response was immediate and overwhelming: More than 150 comments to the post and more than 3 times the usual number of e-mail responses I normally get to buying questions. Among the e-mail respondents, the majority plan to buy a Windows Phone 7 device. Even among those saying nay, many expressed interest if circumstances were different, such as Microsoft getting the product to market faster (they couldn't wait and already got something else) or limited carrier availability (in the United States, no Verizon. Yet.). Most of the e-mail respondents who chose something else bought or will buy an Android handset -- that's a painful dig for Microsoft, because Android more directly competes with potential Windows Phone 7 developers and smartphone buyers than iPhone.
I am still mulling how best to handle the responses. For today, I will start with those readers sending e-mail, because they are identifiable; many Betanews commenters aren't. I may post again over the weekend from commenters, some of which are sourer on Windows Phone 7 than the e-mailers. I'll start with an apology: There are simply too many of you to include in this post. I am cramming in more respondents than usual, but still leaving many out. Hey, much as I love long-form writing, a post using all the respondents would be in the 5,000-word plus range.
(Excerpt) Read more at betanews.com ...
Reading the headline my first thought was that Obama and Pelosi included it in the ObamaCare bill, so supposedly we are all going to be forced to buy it.
If the experience of our own in-house developers is anything like typical, Apple is going to have to change it’s cryptic and seemingly schizophrenic approval process before you can say that any app that’s available on WP7 will be available for the iPhone.
I like a phone that does a few simple things. Takes calls, sends calls, stores some phone numbers, and maybe calculates your restaurant tip. That's It!
Oh and make it FREE.
Its called my work provided cell phone.
NO Thanks!
I like a phone that does a few simple things. Takes calls, sends calls, stores some phone numbers, and maybe calculates your resturant tip. That’s It!
Oh and make it FREE.
Its called my work provided cell phone.
Fair enough, and good point. But that is really outside of the development process itself, and more of a flaw in their basic business strategy. In fact, the point you raise will end up being a fatal flaw for iPhone, until they change it, especially now that they have lost the aura of being the one and only “cutting edge” mobile device.
I am just curious. How do you see HTML5 playing into this (nor for graphic intensive applications, obviously, but run of the mill apps)? I have read numerous articles that speculate that HTML5 will become the development platform for mobile apps. Having played around a fair amount on HTML5, it seems to me that it is good enough (and has enough support of the critical features) for most apps, and has the dual benefit of a) existing outside the scope of any OS-dependent app market and b) any app is OS independent.
It’s because they are targeting the typical user not a power user. Typical user would install an app...have their battery drain and then complain that WP7 sucks.
Unfortunately the stupid are dumbing down the phone. Apple has mastered this...appealing to the dumbest user and they will sing your praises. It’s yet to be seen if Microsoft can appeal to that same crowd.
...and a 2-year obligation.
Which WM6.5 did you have? I have a tilt 2 and it blows away any phone on the market (after I reloaded the ROM without all the ATT crap on it).
Problem with windows mobile was the carriers and hardward OEM were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Which ironically is the same problem Droid will face as well. Droid will sell in large numbers but the user experience will kill it as people complain after buying a cheap droid loaded with bloatware from the carrier. Same thing happened to windows mobile.
I can tell you that I personally felt pretty dumb for being a Windows Mobile 6.x user for several years.
I had a company provided phone a year ago or so. It was a Blackberry. I hated it. I couldn’t get the hang of the teeny keyboard, and I couldn’t keep it in my pocket. I gave it back. I’m back to using my personal phone (the razor). It works well enough, although call quality isn’t great (I don’t think there’s been much improvement in call quality in many years).
I’m not a developer, so I haven’t really paid much attention to that arena. I’m basically a network/Exchange administrator. I pay attention to what’s going on in the mobile device market because I’ll eventually end up dealing with those devices as mail clients. About the closest I get to development work is using Powershell and the Exchange Web Services API to script some automated processing of incoming email. I do talk to the developers on occasion, and they’re very frustrated with Apple and the approval process.
So in other words, a long-term criticism of the iPhone that Apple has already worked to alleviate is going to be in Microsoft's brand-new phone. It doesn't have copy/paste either, or IPsec for VPN.
WP7 is starting off way behind the competition.
It has context sensitive data transfer BUT they will add copy/paste early next year.
iPhone doesn’t multi-task.
I develop in .NET, Java and thanks to iPhone objective C... While I think objective C is the most obtuse of them all and Java the most elegant.. I personally own an iPhone.
If I buy a windows 7 phone it will only be to port things I write for other platforms, and that is only worth the effort if the adoption rate is reasonable... Frankly I don’t see it happening.
Yes it does. Originally it multitasked the same way WP7 does now, only within its own applications. It would be very difficult for any modern smart phone to operate if it couldn't multitask. Now the iPhone allows limited multitasking by third-party apps, where WP7 still offers none.
That should be after iOS 4.2, and after Android 3.0 is already shipping in phones. Like I said, WAY behind. Microsoft is promising stuff everybody else already has.
” limited multitasking”
Oh. So the iPhone doesn’t truely multitask!
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