Nokia’s Lumia line ‘not good enough’ to battle iOS and Android, say carriers
venturebeat.com
venturebeat.com
At this point, Microsoft is probably too late. It'll sell phones to people who just want phones, but I think it's too late for the whole ecosystem. Not to worry for fans, I doubt if they'll ever give up.
So unless you're predicting imminent death for the company with the overwhelming majority of marketshare, people will be developing apps for Windows, which puts them 90% of the way towards having an app for Windows Phone.
I'd bet accomplished mobile devs would take exception to that. Changing the UI, inputs metaphors, device capabilities, etc. may not be significant to some apps, but those are are in the minority.
Better off spending that time and effort on some polish for your iOS or android apps.
To blithely say that it will only require "slight modifications" for the apps to run doesn't mean that they'll run well, or be suited towards touch interfaces etc.
For example, I have Citrix on my iPad. So in theory I can connect to my companies Citrix farm, and RDP to my desktop. Even with a Retina Display, it's painful.
In short, I wouldn't hold your breath.
If WP7 fans are anything like us WebOS fans, you're probably right. But who says it's too late for Microsoft? When DOS (and more importantly, Windows) came about, Apple was already the established king of its market. It could happen again, right?
Nice rock you tied yourself to, Nokia.
They better stay pipes.
They should naturally be just dumb pipes. They are fighting tooth and nail to not to be forced to that role.
Does the fact that someone isn't wildly successful doing this indicate a market failure?
I doubt that's a strong reason.
Isn't this what the sales reps are supposed to do? Help the customer make an informed decision? Or are they just paid to be hand the customer a phone?
Why wouldn't the conversation go like this:
Do you own a Mac or a PC? Mac: buy an iPhone, unless you care about... PC: Do you like to listen to a lot of music/are you active on Xbox Live/etc... do you use iTunes/have a lot of friends playing iPhone games... do you like (whatever mainstream aspect Android has over the competition)...
Fill in the blanks with what sales reps are paid to do. Find what your customer wants and needs, show them the phone that covers that aspect, show them the competition, make a recommendation, then let them choose. If the customer doesn't go into the store knowing 100% what they want, it's the reps place to help them understand. Not to sell them an iPhone or a Galaxy.
Because then it's a discussion and sales process. If the rep simply hands the customer the iPhone (or top Android), he's out the door happy and the rep can sell the next phone. Apple and Google have taken care of education and creating customer desire by the time the customer arrives at the store; Microsoft is failing at this.
Unless you depend on Office, which doesn't run on the phone anyway. And they already have Xboxes - they don't need matching phones.
Office does run on the phone! It's not full featured of course but you can do basic editing and reading... see [2] for early version
There are plenty of games on the phone which have some connection to similar games on xbox through Xbox Live - achievements. I think that Microsoft could do more to improve the standing of WP7 in the Xbox live - it's available on other platforms and some games are released even first for iPhone and then for WP7
But overall I think WP7 has quite some association with the ecosystem.
Similarly, the Xbox is a different platform in of itself, might just as well be made by a different company.
I get the feeling that Microsoft / Nokia is going to have to aggressively go after the pre-pay and feature phone market. They need something that undercuts the price and makes money for all the independents that sell phones. Android and iPhone are not players in the pre-pay market.
If Microsoft could also make data more available/affordable for prepaid plans, it would definitely be a hit.
Entering the pre-pay smartphone market wouldn't be a new strategy that no one came up with before. This market is already competitive and completely dominated by android.
Of course not. People come into the store and ask for a phone the does "the email and stuff", and walk out with some Samsung model they've previously never heard of.
Microsoft is currently paying AT&T to push the Nokia Lumia. The rest of the carriers have zero incentive to push Windows Phone devices when companies like Samsung and LG are so willing to customize their Android devices to each carrier's whim.
lack of carrier crap is a feature, but it's not an advertisable one. even microsoft can't advertise it, because they have relationships with carriers to maintain.
[1] http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/03/brutal-...
For the vast majority of people out there just about any of the decent smartphones will work for them, they just have to play with them to decided which one they like best. Arguments over things like "not enough apps" or "too much fragmentation" is most likely not an issue (knowingly or unknowingly) to most shoppers.
It seems logical to assume that the sales guy will push you towards the phone he needs to sell, whether due to kickbacks, quotas, or management pressure. This is done regardless of the wants and needs of the customer. Part of my reasoning behind this is just the general behavior of these companies towards their customers to begin with.
I once worked retail as a computer 'technician' for three months and I made as much in free stuff as I did in wages. (I was quite up front about my limited tenure there but I later found out why HR took no issue with that: at three months you can be the senior non-mgmt employee.) I would assume these loyalty programs are becoming even more aggressive towards retail workers and that you could even quintuple your 'salary' for the lowest paid computer/phone positions.
If you've ever wondered why Craigslist was flooded with $1000 CPUs priced to $300, now you know.
http://ceklog.kindel.com/2011/12/26/windows-phone-is-superio...