Nokia Windows Phone Revealed 211
DMiax writes "Nokia's controversial CEO Stephen Elop just revealed the prototype of the next WP7 handset. The CEO asked the journalists present to turn off the cameras because the new phone was 'super confidential.' Did he really expect them to comply? After all he must know that this has the potential to hurt the sales of the recently released N9, the last non-Windows Nokia smartphone. He would never want to do that, right?"
It's reverse psychology! (Score:5, Insightful)
"This phone is super secret, don't say a word!" actually means "Please, please, please, please give us some press for this. Even bad press. Just anything you can say that isn't another iPhone or Android story is great."
Somehow... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's reverse psychology! (Score:5, Insightful)
This.
Color me uninterested. Windows Phone is too little, too late. To an entrant in the mobile OS market this late, they need to come to the table with something that can generate enough wow on it's own accord to get the press it needs.
WP7 doesn't do this. It's arguably more or less on par with the existing OS's (though I'd certainly debate that) but it definitely doesn't have anything making it particularly appealing in comparison. Why give up the huge support base and massive app availability of Android or iOS for.. well, Something Else.
As it stands, WP7's only feature is that it isn't iOS or Android.
Re:It's reverse psychology! (Score:3, Insightful)
Why give up the huge support base and massive app availability of Android or iOS for.. well, Something Else.
on that note we should probably give up on OSX and desktop linux.
What a retard (Score:1, Insightful)
how can he expect anyone to take him literally and not see the real plea for publicity cloaked in a poorly executed attempt at reverse psychology?
oh wait, this is for windows users who enjoy the Microsoft experience, makes perfect sense, carry on.
Re:N9? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's the only commonly available follow up to the N900. After that it's only devices running WP7 from Nokia, at which point I will cease ever being a customer.
At least now we know the exact terms of the deal.
Re:It's reverse psychology! (Score:5, Insightful)
They have to show they have /something/ that takes away the impression that the next "real Nokia phone" is going to be released sometime Q2 2012.
But to everyone else with two brain cell to rub together knows that a mock-up is not a product.
Elop is an idiot. Not only did he piss everyone off including the developers and every single customer, but he /also/ did an Osborne.
Where is the outrage? Where are the shareholder lawsuits?
--
BMO
Can't really hurt the N9... (Score:4, Insightful)
At least, not any more than Elop has hurt it already. If anything, this mad scramble and poor demo was his immediate reaction to interfere with and disrupt the positive press that built around the N9 and Harmattan. It had such a good immediate demo and favorable reviews that people were quickly looking at Elop as a complete fool, instead of the mere tool that he is.
Re:Nokia? (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:It's reverse psychology! (Score:3, Insightful)
If he really meant it, he wouldn't have shown the phone...
marketing fluff, nothing to see here.
Re:Unfortunate (Score:3, Insightful)
On the bright side for MS, they can hardly do any worse than they did with the Kin.
Metro is ugly as sin. (Score:4, Insightful)
That metro calendar reminds me of really shitty websites from the 90's. Calendars should be on a light background and you should use a high contrast colour for the text to stand out from the background instead of blending into it.
The entire metro "experience" reminds me of many flash websites from the late 90's to early 2000's and it will not scale well to other latin character set languages let alone non-latin ones like Chinese and Japanese.
Nokia made a huge mistake hiring Stephen Elop and going with WIndows Phone 7. They should have chosen either Maemo or Meego, ported the Symbian UI framework for backwards compatibility and developed a modern competitive UI to compete with iOS and Android.
I'll never buy a Nokia device regardless of OS.
Before you label me as a blind Nokia hater, my second cellphone was a Nokia (first being a Motorola "Brick" flip phone). I am also a Finnish citizen so I would like to see Nokia find a way to survive. I just don't see Windows Phone 7 as the right way forward.
Oh come ON (Score:5, Insightful)
The CEO asked the journalists present to turn off the cameras because the new phone was 'super confidential.'
Seriously - the guy gives a presentation to a bunch of journalists - who I assume weren't just randomly milling around on the street before the Nokia folks brought out a podium and a microphone - and says "Hey!! Here's our super-secret WINDOWS PHONE! Ssh! Don't tell anyone!" Is there anyone in the world with a greater than room temperature IQ that'd actually fall for that? (and yes, that's room temperature in Celsius)
I see the former Microsoftie has brought along those mad Microsoft advertizing skillz for which the company is renowned...
Re:Can't really hurt the N9... (Score:5, Insightful)
My point is that he's a tool. He isn't supposed to think for himself, or do what 's best for his company. He's doing what's best to drive his company into a weak position so that they are dependent on Microsoft. His reaction here is to undermine the notion that Nokia could actually exist without the Microsoft dependency.
He is a tool, wielded by Microsoft.
Re:N9? (Score:4, Insightful)
To some degree. The drivers tend to be messes that don't ever end up in the upstream kernel so they rot as the kernel moves on. Then you have the problem of graphics drivers existing in userspace, which leaves you in a lurch with things like MeeGo that use glibc and your only graphics library is compiled against Android's Bionic.
Give them some credit. (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize people love to dump on Microsoft, so they're going to be dismissive of Windows Phone 7 without even having tried it. It's the total opposite of how people respond to the iPhone. Anytime someone asks for suggestions for a smartphone people default to the iPhone like mindless drones.
I have an Android phone which I'm extremely happy with. However, a friend recently got a WP7 phone which finally gave me an opportunity to give it a try. I was extremely impressed. I felt like Microsoft, moreso than either Google or Apple actually put thought into usability, into how people will interact with the phone. Menus and settings are clear and better organized and the interface seems more consistent. I can navigate more efficiently and there seems to a good amount of customization. And I'll give them credit for not just going and cloning Android and iOS's look. Blackberries might offer some great functionality, but in terms of usability they aren't even in the same galaxy as their competitors.
Of course, not having to actually live with the phone I can't speak to how I'd feel about WP7 over the long run, if I'd find it as satisfying an experience as Android. My point is that Microsoft deserves quite a bit more credit than they're getting for this OS. I've found that friends of mine who've actually used a WP7 phone have been quite impressed.
Things missing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Things missing (Score:5, Insightful)
Like customers for your apps, for example.
Didn't spot the transparent strategy then? Hmm, Windows 8 apps look a lot like Windows Phone apps, and something similar is moving onto the XBox too...
The implication is that they intend Windows Phone apps will be the same apps you use on Windows 8 which will be the same apps you can access on XBox. The famous "three screens". And if you're not coding specifically for Windows, well standard HTML5 and Javascript apps will run just dandy on Windows 8 and the future version of Windows Phone too. I don't see there being a problem with getting apps, or with getting customers for your apps.
It's plain and simple leveraging from the PC market into the phone market. And my goodness there are a lot of Windows PC customers, and neither Google nor Apple have that advantage.
Re:It's reverse psychology! (Score:4, Insightful)
And MS has embraced unlocking/jail-breaking as well, which will enable side-loading apps.
If they actually embraced it, it wouldn't be called jailbreaking, it would be called sudo.