Windows Phone, Latin America’s second most widely used mobile platform | Hacker News Reader

Windows Phone, Latin America’s second most widely used mobile platform

microsoft.com

34 pointsBootvis34 comments

I think the most interesting thing about this development is that in Latin America app developers have a much stronger motivation to build apps for Windows Phone. As a Windows Phone owner I think that the lack of apps is the most annoying thing by far. The rest of the OS is actually quite OK.

I'd be completely happy with my windows phone if only it allowed me to set custom SMS tones. I was very surprised that I like it so much. It has caused me the most frustration I have ever experienced in a phone, but I still like it.

The cheap Nokia Lumia models seem to be making it more popular. My brother and I both independently bought one, despite both being self-proclaimed apple fanboys.

The little devil in me would like to see Microsoft burn. The little angel in me knows that a third big mobile OS will be good for competition. I guess I hope Windows Phone does well, but not too well :)

Don't worry, there will always be some sort of old-fashioned OS with row of icons around.

Despite being a UNIX die-hard, I rather like Windows Phone. I'm on my second handset (Nokia 710, now 720) and will buy another without hesitation.

If someone can suggest a handset that has better navigation with zero cost, has a battery life like the 720 (2 days EASILY), is silky smooth, has an IMAP client that isn't a piece of shit, is available SIM free for under £200, has perfect Exchange integration, never crashes and can withstand being dropped hundreds of times then I'll switch.

Oh and Nokia build quality: these things are like Nokia 3310s - you can throw them across the room, drop them from full head height and they still work flawlessly with no breaks (I've tried it).

Not one single Android, BB, Firefox or iOS device can actually do all that, which is my problem.

Maybe you're not a UNIX die-hard. :)

I have a SPARC Ultra 30 running FreeBSD as my backup MX on the end of my ADSL line with a VT220 console and my car registration ends UNX.

You stand corrected :)

"my car registration ends UNX"

well that's certainly more original than having an apple sticker on your car

Well, then you should be as sad as me about the Ubuntu Edge funding failure.

Why?

I'm not for reference.

Ubuntu Edge was intended to be a Debian based smartphone with the feature of becoming a full desktop if you plugged a desktop display and a keyboard in.

Right now, we will be able to install Ubuntu in Android phones, but with less hardware for the same task.

>Despite being a UNIX die-hard, I rather like Windows Phone.

I love the UX of Windows Phone but what has kept me from getting a WP8 device for myself is the lack of an SSH client as configurable as JuiceSSH for Android or PuTTY for Symbian (as far as I'm aware). Is there one fit for a UNIX die-hard? The killer feature of JuiceSSH for me (which was a major reason why I decided to stay on Android) is transparent SSH hopping.

Another, lesser, concern is the lack text reflow in IE but I think we can expect that to be addressed soon. It's one of the top feature requests.

I gave up on SSH on "glass" devices so this is fine for me. Too easy to FUBAR something from miskeying.

I switch on the WiFi hotspot on the device and use PuTTY on my ThinkPad instead.

>I gave up on SSH on "glass" devices so this is fine for me. Too easy to FUBAR something from miskeying.

As I've said in a previous HN thread on WP8 (edit: [1]), now that Android devices with QWERTY keyboards are being phased out it could be a real opportunity for Windows Phone if Microsoft encouraged vendors to ship devices with physical keyboards. How viable a market this is, I wonder? I imagine past Nokia Eseries users (like myself) would appreciate it, as should at least some of the enterprise Blackberry users Microsoft seems after.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6200051

As a UNIX newbie and owner of an Android device, could you give an example of typical use cases of SSH on a phone? I may give it a go myself. EDIT: I just noticed this is a SSH client rather than server right? Can you really do much on such a cramped keyboard or is it for use in emergency situations?

I use SSH to check up on the status of and control the services running on my home and work servers (I make good use of the aforementioned transparent hopping feature for the latter). To easier manage things over SSH on devices with a limited input rate I've set up one-letter bash aliases and scripted dialog(1) menus, e.g., to look at temperature sensor data or to change the running state of the motion detection camera system I've set up at home (using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_%28surveillance_softwar...). A little while ago when I used a QWERTY S60v3 device from Nokia I would routinely issue more complex commands from my phone and have even written a few short shell scripts but I'd rather not do that on a touchscreen.

Edit: As for running an SSH server on a phone, I run one on a Palm Pre Plus that I've set up for use exclusively as a portable wireless flash drive / file server with a Debian chroot. It's also convenient to have on a Pre because much of UI in webOS consists of regular HTML and JavaScript files you can edit with vim/nano to do things like adding extra settings for how long the phone stays running when not given user input (you want to be able to set this value high on a server).

Great summary- thank you I will give it a go.

Have you tried Windows Phone 8? I was rather sceptical but it kinda blew me away, and now I wouldn't mind at all if it became sortof big. It deserves it.

Microsoft are evil. They enthusiastically helped the NSA spy on their own customers. Now I hear they have a big fat contract with the US government. Shady as all hell.

I had the Lumia 920 but sold it when Microsoft betrayed my trust. Installed Mint Linux and phasing out the godawful Windows 8 too.

> "...Installed Mint Linux..."

Goes nice with a tinfoil hat.

Buying an iPhone in Argentina is really complicated. First, because the many complications to import, second because you can't buy dollars making it more complicated and third because even if you use your credit card the government charges an extra huge percentage of the spent price in taxes. All these things are done to stop argentinians to buy foreign money.

Argentina has some strange things going on, but why is it different with a windows phone?

Sadly (I'm a Windows developer), it's almost all Android here in Paraguay.

I spoke with a couple local companies that do mobile development and the biggest problem is still the cost of hardware. That's even though Paraguay doesn't have anywhere near as large a problem with importing as other nearby countries do (for example, Uruguay's 60% import duty and 22% IVA, Argentina's restrictions on imports and spending money outside the country). I occasionally pop into cell phones stores and I haven't yet found a Nokia Lumia to replace my old X6. I'm sure they're available, but they certainly aren't common.

Wow, I love how with all this PR text they manage to not mention Android even once.

Because that would, like, make so much sense for them.

Interesting, what is the reason for the growth in Latin America compared to elsewhere? Does Nokia have a strong brand there?

Maybe with the lower price point Lumia phones? I don't know. Maybe they are pushing it really hard like here (Germany). Buy Lumia here ad, buy Lumia there blabla marketing.

Yeah, at least in the south of Brazil, you can't enter a city without seeing a huge ad saying something like "welcome to cityname, here you can buy windows phones in the storename" That and a lot of pictures of windows phone interface everywhere

Telcel was giving the phone for free with an 18-mo contract in Mexico.

The options were really poor, an iPhone 3GS, an obsolete Samsung android phone, or a Lumia.

I don't think this was the reason of the overall growth, but I still suspect it helped.

Stronger marketing, better prices, better UX and I think that a lot of people is still buying their first smartphone, so lack of apps isn't really an issue since they have never had apps in the first place.

Lack of awareness. No one knows what's a phone OS here.

This is just anecdotal evidence from my personal experience, I could be wrong.

Hard to know what to make of this without any numbers, but I doubt the iPhone (or any similarly priced top-end phone) was flying off the shelves in many of these countries.

People are buying things they can't afford in every country. That might be a defining characteristic of our age.

I wonder if Windows Phone will soon have TPM 2.0, too:

http://investmentwatchblog.com/leaked-german-government-warn...

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