Posted on 10/15/2010 7:52:17 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
Last week, we told you the things that work against Microsoft's new mobile operating system; Windows Phone 7. Today, we list the top 5 things that actually work in its favor. Actually there are six; but since the first one is obvious, we'd rather not discuss it at length.
With Apple you just have two iPhones to choose from. Windows Phone 7 trumps it there with at least four major manufacturers for now - HTC, Samsung, LG and Dell. Different people have different needs; some want a hardware QWERTY, some don't. So, it gives people a wider choice than what is in Apple's store. The following five points are more in correlation to Android than the iOS:
Strict hardware requirements
Forcing manufacturers to use high-end hardware in their phones for WP7 gives competitive OSes like Google Android brownie points for its ability to run on inexpensive hardware. But on the positive side, this ensures a few things. For one, telling manufacturers to put a 1 GHz processor and graphics acceleration gives Microsoft a minimum benchmark to ensure that the User Interface runs buttery smooth.
In Android, manufacturers have a free hand to make phones with 528 MHz processors that tend to slow the UI down, thus spoiling the experience a little. Initially, WP7 devices will have 800 x 480 pixel capacitive displays, but from what we've heard, lower HVGA displays (320 x 480 pixel) will be supported at a later stage. It's reassuring to know that low-end QVGA displays won't be used like the ones on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini Pro that affect readability due to the blurry text.
(Excerpt) Read more at techtree.com ...
I didn’t say they wouldn’t sell high end phones. If you want to see the future of Android look at Windows Mobile. It’s a fragmented market with inconsistent user experience. The carrier controls the user experience and google is left watching what will happen to their users.
The reliable high-end user experience will be iPHone and possibly windows phone 7.
“Cool” doesn’t drive the main market. Most people don’t think they’re cool, don’t want to be cool, and don’t care what is cool. MS has never been cool and yet they have over 80% of the desktop computer market, I don’t know if they can get that penetration in smartphones, but if they don’t it won’t be because they aren’t cool it’ll be because they couldn’t out market Google.
Cloud is bigger than just syncing your own info. Think google maps vs. bing maps...gmail vs hotmail.
I normally don’t purchase extended warranties for equipment that sits around on the desktop, but for stuff that I lug around, (and, especially, small, handheld equipment) I have found that the warranties usually pay off...
I suppose. I just think of syncing because I don't trust google with much...would rather they not have good info on/about me.
Here’s a good fair review...it appears there is more than just xbox integration to win people over.
http://www.gsmarena.com/windows_phone_7-review-521.php
Wrong. Here are the September numbers, the most recent:
Wii - 687,000
Xbox 360 - 347,200
PlayStation 3 - 232,400
PlayStation 2 - 173,500
The Wii even surpassed the XBox 360 in total installed base a while back, despite coming out over a year later (now 74 million vs. 42 million sold). The PS3 isn't too far behind the 360 with 38 million. The recent XBox increase in sales to this high number is mainly due to a drastic price cut, not sudden overwhelming demand for the system.
Also remember that Nintendo was making money on every Wii sold from day one. The XBox only went profitable a couple years ago, and still hasn't erased the multi-billion dollar overall loss of the system since it's introduction.
Who said it needs to be better than BOTH? It just needs to do well in the areas it is focused on and if it’s what consumers want than it will sell.
You’re using both Android and iPhones to say Windows Phone 7 isn’t better.
Where did you get those numbers? Those are as wrong as wrong can be.
NPD stopped releasing #s for America to the public this month and Europe has never had reliable numbers. But here’s the only reliable info out and it says 360 sold the most.
http://www.vg247.com/2010/10/14/npd-september-2010-xbox-360-moves-483k/
Where is your link to prove otherwise?
What on earth does that have to do with anything. Google doesn't charge for andoid OS so I guess that means we can dismiss it as a player on the phone market...if I follow your logic.
LOL. Great post AMPG.
BTW: From the link I provided here’s NPD #s
August
1.Xbox 360 – 356,700
2.DS – 342,700
3.Wii – 244,300
4.PS3 – 226,000
5.PSP – 79,400
September (released from HW vendor)
1. XBOX 360 - 483,989
2. Wii - 403,000 (approx)
3. PS3 - less than 400,000 (NPD guestimate)
YTD
1.DS – 4,214,800 (approx.)
2.Wii – 3,237,100 (approx.)
3.Xbox 360 – 3,179,889 -> 360 is really gaining since the slim released. Expect it to pass it by end of year.
4.PS3 – 2,031,500
5.PSP – 762,700
If you have a valid link that says otherwise please share.
see post 60 & 63. I think antirepublicrat’s numbers are wrong.
Yep, my numbers were old. I found revised figures, the 360 is back on top. Thanks. One of those sales was almost to me because I didn’t want to pay MS $150 to fix one of my current ones (why when $50 gets a brand-new one?), but I was too pissed off at MS to even buy one.
Financial health of the departments. Google is making quite a bit of $$$ for its small investment in Android through the ad impressions.
It also shows how Microsoft doesn't mind taking a loss leader and rushing poorly-designed products to market even if it's going to cost billions.
How old is your xbox that is broken?
Ok so it’s okay for google to take a loss leader in the Android OS to make money elsewhere. But Microoft can’t do that even though they make money on game sales and xbox live fees/sales.
I think your bias is showing.
It's one of the early Falcon chip systems. It's not RROD, it won't synch with the controller. MS Support says it's a hardware issue and was otherwise not very helpful, and even a bit insulting. After I cool down I may get one of the new ones, should be a lot more reliable with the SoC internals. Until then I have plenty of PS3 games to play. Fable III coming out may get me to finally replace it.
You know if you tell them it RROD they will fix it even if it has other issues ;-)
More than anything else, this would be the killer for me. It's one of my biggest beefs with the iPad, is that you have to jump through all kinds of hoops to attach external storage.
Screw that. I like being able to pop out an SD (or microSD) and either take stuff off, put stuff on, or swap it out for another one.
Traded a Windows phone for an HTC android a couple months ago. I hated the Windows phone and it’s quirks and crashing but didn’t realize how bad it was until I updgraded. Just an aweful system. Good luck with the upgrade, but will never even consider giving a Win phone another shot.
Every company effectively takes a loss leader when developing something, and before money starts rolling in. Microsoft never made any profit off the original XBox, and only started making any profit a couple years ago off the 360. That's about seven years and billions of dollars behind. That's a loss leader. Microsoft basically bought its way into the console business.
Tempting.
Then the iPhone is definitely not for you either. But so far in my experience with my Android, I still haven't had the need to pull out my SD card.
“MS is definitely not too late to the game and it’s very premature to announce winners and losers”
Not announcing. Giving an opinion.
“...only very tiny number(approx 100 million units last year), were smart phones.”
Are your figures worldwide figures? If so, there may be an important reason - cost. Meanwhile in the good ol’ USA...
Study: 42 percent of U.S. uses a smartphone... January 2010 - probably higher now.
http://mobihealthnews.com/6178/study-42-percent-of-u-s-uses-a-smartphone/
Wii - 687,000
Xbox 360 - 347,200
PlayStation 3 - 232,400
PlayStation 2 - 173,500
Ummm..No.
YOU are wrong. Them Seprtember figures you got are from September last year. We just got September's figures for THIS year last night, and the 360 clobbered the Wii, selling close to twice as many units as the Wii did.
As a matter of fact, the 360 has outsold the Wii for FOUR straight months:
Correct September figures are:
Xbox 360: 483,989 Units (Up 37% Year Over Year)
DS: 403,000 Units (Down 23% Year Over Year)
PS3: 312,000 Units (Down 37% Year Over Year)
Wii: 254,000 Units (Down 45% Year Over Year)
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/31012/Analyst_September_PS3_And_Wii_Sales_See_DoubleDigit_Declines.php
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-10-15-npd-results-show-8-percent-decline-in-september
As a matter of fact, for September, the Wii came in LAST, amongst current gen consoles. In addition, NPD has stopped giving out PS2 figures long ago. That alone should have warned you that your figures are wrong, since your figures contain PS2 figures.
In addition, the 360 totally dominated September software sales with Halo Reach alone selling a massive 3.3 million units, and that doesn't not even include Reach sales with bundled Reach/360’s.
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/30991/NPD_Results_September_2010_Industry_Down_8_Percent_As_Halo_Reach_Dominates.php
“The recent XBox increase in sales to this high number is mainly due to a drastic price cut, not sudden overwhelming demand for the system.”
You really don't know much about the games industry do you?
Well, I do.
For your information, there has been no XBOX 360 price cut for over two years now. Last real 360 price cut was in 2008, when the Arcade price was cut to $200, and the Elite was cut to $300. The only thing we had this year was when Microsoft intrduced the 360 “S”(aka 360 “Slim”), and reduced the prices of the old stock of the old Arcades and Elites to clear tham out. Those are normal temporary clearing out sales, not real price cuts. Get it?
“Also remember that Nintendo was making money on every Wii sold from day one”
Nintendo’s profits took a very sharp fall only a few weeks back.
“Nintendo Profit Halved as Wii Console Sales Slow
By Martyn Williams, IDG News
Oct 29, 2009 4:40 am
For the last few years Nintendo has been riding high on the runaway success of the Wii console but now that success appears to slowing considerably. Sales and profit at the Japanese games company fell sharply during the first half of its financial year as demand for the console dropped.”
http://www.pcworld.com/article/174633/nintendo_profit_halved_as_wii_console_sales_slow.html
And you are late, see 65.
As a matter of fact, for September, the Wii came in LAST
Given that the main selling point of the Wii was its much lower price, it was inevitable that the others would catch up if Nintendo didn't drastically lower the Wii price to keep it well below the others, which didn't happen.
Nintendo’s profits took a very sharp fall only a few weeks back.
That doesn't really hurt the financial strength of the company. Nintendo has been making money on each Wii since day 1, and the profit increased as manufacturing cost went lower. That profit just slowed down again. The XBox line, even with the current profit-making sales, still isn't even close to paying off its loss leader. The gaming division was already $4 billion in the hole when the 360 was released, and then proceeded to take a several hundred dollar loss on each 360 sold until 2008.
Yup. antirepublicrat has no idea what he ie talking about. I have posted the correct figures for September in my post # 78
Nope.
Main selling price for the Wii was the motion sensing Wiimote novelty, and the games that went with it. The Wii is still a much cheaper(at $200) than the top selling 360 SKU right now(the 250 GB 360 “S” at $300), and that hasn't stopped the 360 from outselling the Wii for 4 straight months has it? The point is, the PS3 Move now does everything the Wiimote does and does it better, and it's in magnificient HD as well. So even at $300 for the PS3, the PS3 still outsold the Wii for September with the release of the PS3 Move. Microsoft's Kinect is experiencing excellent pre-order sales as of right now. I am gonna be expectoing the 360 to easily outsell the Wii for this comming holidays with the Kinect launch. Kinect already sold out at Gamestop in the US.
http://www.lazygamer.net/kinect-already-sold-out-at-gamestop-in-the-us/
Microsoft Kinect’s pre orders sell out!http://blog.gadgethelpline.com/microsoft-kinect%E2%80%99s-pre-orders-sell-out/
Xbox 360 is Top Console in September, Kinect Selling Out http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/xbox-360-is-top-console-in-september-kinect-selling-out/
So. Why do you care? It's all good as they have moved the console gaming business forward. Before XBOX there was no viable online component.
Symbian and Windows Mobile have had video calling for 4 years, and there's a reason the new versions of those OS don't have it - NO ONE USES IT. It's a "me too" feature that Apple is touting, and no one uses it.
Last night I was out with several friends, many of whom have iPhone 4s. Not a single one had used video calling, mainly because of the requirement to only talk to another iPhone 4 user AND be in WIFI.
Unused feature, non-issue.
Limited third-party apps availability
For now, it's growing. It doesn't really matter how many programs are out there, it's if there are productive, useful ones. That 250,000+ "app store count" that Apple loves to tout? 90% of apps in the App Store are basically unused. You don't need huge volumes, you need quality. Not quantity.
No Bluetooth file transfers
GOOD! It's slow and power-hungry. WP7 is all about the cloud, auto-syncing and even auto-sharing. I've got a few dozen hours hands-on with RTM systems, and it's seamless. You want a file from my phone, like a picture or Word doc? Great - I just send you a link (auto-sent by just touching the file and selecting you as recipient). And if you have a WP7 phone, it just appears on your phone. Nothing to do.
If you have a non-WP7 phone, then you get an SMS or e-mail (depending upon the default contact method for you) with a link. Click it, you have it.
Bluetooth file transfer is gone - no need to pair phones, or leave your Bluetooth in promiscuous mode. Just decide what you want to share, and it shares.
No copy/paste
Wait a few months. Given that iPhone users lived for 3 YEARS without it (and Apple's mantra at the time was "you don't need it" until, of course, they added it then it was "you have to have it"), 3 months is a blip in time. Irrelevant after January 2011.
And you don't have to "hope" your phone maker offers the update - it's OTA update on the OS, so when it's released by Microsoft, everybody gets it.
No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
It's there, on the phone. Used it last night here in Shanghai, going from the Jazz Festival to meet some friends at a small restaurant 20 km away.
New ringtones available only through the Marketplace
False. You can assign any media file - including video - to be an alarm/annunciator/tone for any event, and do so on a person-by-person or event-by-event basis.
I guess I could pull the common AppleFan approach and declare your entire post as nothing more than FUD, but hopefully it was posted out of ignorance not spite.
I bet most people in this thread have less than zero time on a Windows Phone 7 device, yet they believe the crap and garbage spread out there. This is a serious phone, and it's got some things going on for the social networking that are light-years beyond what anyone else has.
For example, the deep-integration of Facebook with the phone. LAYERS beyond any Facebook app for the iPhone or Android - it's actually a key component of the phone. This IS the Facebook phone. For a lot of people that's irrelevant, but there are 500 million ACTIVE Facebook users - that's 14% of the world's population! It's huge, and it's growing.
Windows Phone 7 is all about simplifying your social connections and connectivity. And it does it in a stunningly seamless way. It's scary good at that. For me, that's not a big deal - I don't Facebook. But I know lots of people who do, and this phone completely merges anything you want to do with or on your phone with Facebook if you want. In any way you want. With a VERY slick and easy UI.
Spend some time with the phone and the UI - it's a definite game-changer, and on the strength of the integration with the entire Microsoft Live (a real, living, operating cloud system that is fully integrated for just about anything you want - Microsoft Live has rapidly changed and grown up) infrastructure, this IS the first phone that really is a simple portal to your cloud.
Live Mesh is amazing in auto-syncing any device you have, seamlessly. Your data follows you, you don't worry about transferring/transporting it. It just happens. Add in the meshing of your laptop, office computer, home computers, phones, etc. and it's a really freeing experience. Data just exists for you to access how you want and where you want.
Why are you going line-item on the list with me? It was from for-q-clinton’s source. I just pared the source list down to things that aren’t opinion and apply to both competition platforms.
I notice you don’t seem to mind that WP7 doesn’t multitask. Didn’t you think that was a serious iPhone deficiency a while back?
Yet about the same price as the base 360, which still gives you much more power and video quality than the Wii.
Because it's FUD - pretty much all lies - and needs to be corrected.
I notice you don’t seem to mind that WP7 doesn’t multitask.
Wrong. It does multitask, at least as well as the current iPhone. If you want to lie about it, you'll be called on it (and yes, you've been told this before, about the multitasking inside WP7).
Is it true multitasking, like the older WinMo did? No. It's shared, restricted multitasking like the iPhone. If you want to say the iPhone multitasks, fine - so does WP7. If you want to say that WP7 doesn't multitask, fine - neither does the iPhone.
I concur with your multi-tasking comment in fact I believe earlier in this thread I said it multi-tasked. There is a lot of FUD about the WP7 out there.
Yes, there is. Hopefully anti will now realize his error and no longer make this erroneous claim. WP7 has multitasking, at least to the degree of the iPhone. If someone claims WP7 doesn't have multitasking, then they must also accept that the iPhone does not have multitasking, because they behave the same way.
Then complain to the poster.
Wrong. It does multitask, at least as well as the current iPhone.
Wrong, and you know it. Just like the earlier iPhone, it only multitasks among its own apps. This is not the multitasking anyone is talking about when comparing to Android and the iPhone. It does NOT allow third-party multitasking like Android does, and does NOT allow limited third-party multitasking like the iPhone does.
See, there you are, already making excuses for it, although it was not acceptable to you when comparing the iPhone to Android.
Why? You're the one repeating the FUD, and - unlike the poster of the thread - you're a person here who needs to be educated.
Wrong, and you know it.
BS. Keep lying if you want, because that's what it is now - lies. You've been corrected. Read and learn about how it actually works. Tombstoning is essentially cooperative multitasking with precedence levels, and it's the SAME THING THAT THE IPHONE DOES NOW.
You're flat-out wrong. Check the code, build samples for yourself, and learn. Quit repeating this lie.
Wow, right from your article, "so it’s not a true multitasking OS" including "The disadvantage obviously is that developers who actually have a legitimate multitasking need (like music streaming) just can’t do it right now."
Face it, WP7 does now allow third-party multitasking like Android, something I believe you considered to be a fatal flaw for the iPhone.
Along with the notification service, Tombstoning comes very close to a true multitasking experience for the end user for most types of applications without the disadvantages of true multitasking. Combined with the hardware back-button, the user will experience a kind of flow in daily use without always having to go back to the start screen. This lets the user multitask much more intuitively than for example on the Apple iOS even thou the phone actually pull off a David Copperfield.
The end user is God in Windows Phone 7 – like it or not, developers and nerds! (no offence, that’s me too)
The advantage of only allowing the Tombstoning model is that lazy developers (and trust me, developers are lazy) can’t just let their applications continue to run and drain battery in the background while clogging up the phones memory until the phone becomes unusable.
that was supposed to be in italics...not sure why the tag didn’t work.
As long as we’re clear that the multitasking of WP7 is as good as on the iPhone. Android has a bit better multitasking system, and none of them are real multitasking like old WinMo.
If you want to say WP7 doesn’t multitask, then you have to say the exact same thing about iOS. They’re the same multitasking approach.
“Windows xxx.”
Done right, that could sell very well.
“Windows xxx.”
Done right, that could sell very well.
I will not purchase another Windows Mobile phone after using Android.
No, we're not. The iPhone will actually allow some services of applications to continue running in the background, such as playing music, receiving phone calls or running GPS for third-party apps. It also allows apps to finish what they were doing before being paused, such as if an app was downloading, it could finish the downloading even after the user switches away.
Face it, for managed multitasking, WP7 is starting behind the iPhone. For those who don't like managed multitasking (like you IIRC), it's behind Android. For some reason, you have no problem with this now that it's a Microsoft product in this place.
BTW, tombstoning is pretty much the exact opposite of cooperative multitasking. Remember that cooperative multitasking requires each process to voluntarily give up time to other processes, not give up time according to the commands of the OS. You can't pause in cooperative multitasking. I guess the OS could ask apps to pause, but by definition they wouldn't have to honor it.
Then you don’t know what you’re talking about. Music, GPS, navigation all continues to run in the background when other apps run, and you can receive - and exit - a call seamlessly.
Sorry, you’re wrong. Spend some time with the device and framework and educate yourself.
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