Microsoft Fails Windows Phone Fans Again By Delaying Windows 10 Mobile (venturebeat.com) 189
An anonymous reader writes that Microsoft says the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade will begin early next year. The company had previously promised a roll out this month. Venturebeat reports: "Windows Phone fans and fanboys have a tough job. They have to stand by an operating system with a new name every few years, significantly fewer apps than the competition, and a distant third place spot in the market. The latest news out of Microsoft isn't making their lives any easier. This week, Microsoft failed to deliver on its promise of rolling out Windows 10 Mobile devices to existing Windows Phone devices in December. The new target? 2016."
Is there such a thing? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Microsoft Fails Windows Phone Fans (...)"
Is there such a thing as "windows phone fans"? I'd have thought that fans as in coolers would be more likely than fans as in enthusiasts regarding Windows Mobile...
Re:Is there such a thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Is there such a thing? (Score:4, Informative)
Having owned one myself, I don't particularly care for its UI for a few reasons:
- You have to wait through animations when you do just about everything (these animations are what a lot of people refer to when they use the word "smooth" to describe the platform; which I'll admit that they have flashy appeal, but it gets old quick.)
- Android widgets are INFINITELY better than the live tiles. For example, my calendar widget can do a vertical layout and display multiple events in advance and can even scroll through extras, which sits in parallel with my voicemail transcripts where I also see multiple at once. On WP, your options are horizontal rectangle or giant square that nothing else (besides tiny tiles) can fit next to, and you'll see two upcoming events at best. Worst is that WP tiles will just periodically flip so you don't necessarily see what's pertinent, and they're about 15 minutes behind (as per the OS's restrictions.)
- The app drawer in WP sucks. It's long, has a really big font, and since the icons are mostly monocolor, you may not easily "spot" your app as you're scrolling by if you can't remember exactly what it was called but you remember what graphic it used. This basically means that you have to fill up your home screen and then essentially memorize your layout; otherwise launching apps feels impractical. I think the grid style in Android works much better.
- The flat UI concept sucks. Yes, I know it's better than the heavy bitmapped crap used in the past, but you can do at least light skeumorph without using bitmaps. Flat specifically means that you have no hints of depth (i.e. no shadows, no overlapping objects, no gradients, etc) which lends to the current fisher-price look as you have to do sharp contrasting colors in order to differentiate objects, which gets old really fast.
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these animations are what a lot of people refer to when they use the word "smooth" to describe the platform
Actually, even without the animations, I find the simple transition between apps really nice and snappy. The nice thing about live tiles is you can fit way more of them on a single page than you can widgets on android. There is nothing similar on iPhone.
On both Android and IOS devices, I always spend a good deal of time just navigating between pages with different app icons. On Windows Phone it is all right there. Even the stuff that is not is literally a swipe and a flick away. I think they really nailed t
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Bottom line is a Windows Phone is much cleaner and more efficient to use than either an Android or iPhone...
I'm not sure how that could be argued. You're giving vague descriptions of things just being a "swipe and a flick away" but even the most basic tasks are more complicated on WP.
Here's a specific example: Task switching. On WP you have to hold the back key for a few seconds, which adds time to what should be a very quick function. On Android you just tap the task switch button; instant, easy.
And strangely, on WP they opted to put there...of all things...a search button, worsened by the fact that it's hard co
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Wow you are picky- how about your claim that widgets are 'infinitely better' than live tiles? It's just something you click on to do something.
Actually it's not. Widgets are fully interactive, i.e. I can tap on individual calendar events and it will open that event, or even scroll through events. You're just thinking in terms of live tiles where there's no interaction at all. It's just there, and if you tap on it, it opens the app. If you want to see e.g. other events, you just have to wait for it to flip through it; it literally does nothing else.
The only way it could be infinitely better is if the live tiles were completely non-functional.
Well put it this way: Think of Windows Phone's live tiles as being like linear TV whereas Android's w
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Because it literally is a swipe an a flick away, swipe to one side you have an alphabetized list of all of your apps.
With Android you just hit the app drawer key. It's really just as simple, only better because you get a smaller grid layout with very distinctive icons. On WP it's just a big list with small, monocolor icons.
Flick the top down you have a lot of quick options that are editable and access to settings.
Umm...actually that's a feature Windows Phone ripped off of Android. In case you've forgotten, 18 months ago WP didn't even that whole shade system. Microsoft's answer was that you're supposed to use the tiles for notification, even though they were often 15 minutes behind. Needless to say it was shitty
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All those "issues" you find are considered features by some people I know. To describe them as a group, would be ... old and near retirement.
Huh? I thought it was all the stupid 20-something hipsters who loved this flat-UI crap.
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Bah, humbugh, those 30-ish younglings also fall for this shiney... GET OFF MY LAWN!
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I don't really see the appeal myself, but I know three people in my office who swear by them (all three of whom are at the lower end of the tech-literacy spectrum, so I doubt it's platform-fanboyism). The UI isn't bad for a mobile platform, I guess, it's just that the software ecosystem is rather poor. If you're not going to need a huge amount of third-party software, then I suppose a Windows Phone might be as good a choice as any?
The Surface tablets are becoming outright popular around here as well. I see
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The UI isn't bad for a mobile platform, I guess, it's just that the software ecosystem is rather poor.
The UI is ugly and unconfigurable. ArmoredDragon's highly informative post just above [slashdot.org] goes into great detail why WP OS is crap.
But even if it were pretty good, nothing is going to make up for a crappy software ecosystem. This is exactly the reason why Windows (the PC OS) is so popular still even though it's complete shit with the Metro UI: it runs everyone's favorite or at least necessary applications. I
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Windows Phone not having Tinder is an awesome feature.
I'm a loud and proud Windows Phone fan. And I *like* the lack of apps!
Think about the 'must have' apps from 3 years ago. Or 2 years ago, or 1 year ago. Chances are, you aren't using them now.
Apps are generally just a way to waste time. 99.99% of them are not really valuable.
I'd rather have my phone in my pocket and live life, than sit there on my phone working the coolest new app.
Seriously- I've been on this train of thought since I got rid of my iPh
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This used to be a problem like almost 10 years ago with Windows CE based phones. This happened to me all the time, which is why I switched off of Windows Phones as soon as Android came along.
However, after experiencing Android and it's sluggishness (which never really got better), I switched to iPhone... which was ok, but I never wanted to "buy in" to the whole Apple ecosystem and so therefor always felt like a second class citizen.
Anyway, I wanted to give Windows phone another shot and bought a very low en
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I'm a fan. I was using a Moto G and managed to drop it screen first onto marble tile, so I picked up a $50 Lumia to use until I fixed the G. That was months ago, and I haven't bothered fixing my old phone.
To be fair, my needs are modest. All I care about are the stock social media apps, a browser, a music player, a podcast player and a terminal client.
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This is a very similar story to mine.
I figured "what the hell, $40 on amazon... what could it hurt?"
A year later and I am still using the phone...
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"Microsoft Fails Windows Phone Fans (...)"
Is there such a thing as "windows phone fans"?
Ballmers new basketball team. By orders.
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Yes, of course. There are three. Two are paid by Microsoft.
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But what's to prevent someone skinning Android with a new UI?
MS could create an Android variant with their own UI and their own apps set as the defaults instead of Google's, while also providing compatibility with the huge array of existing Android apps...
This would be a lot less development effort, a lot less risky for the users etc..
Windows phone has a lot of negatives going against it...
The "Windows" brand is not generally associated with phones, and carries negative connotations both from its desktop re
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Except Android is laggy as hell. To have a stutter-free experience on android, the phone needs to have 4GB of RAM, a burning hot octa core CPU assisted by a GPU that can shame the original XBOX. It's ridiculous. Meanwhile Windows phone chugs along smoothly on a phone with 1GB RAM, dual core CPU, etc. and gives better battery life too. Ditto goes for iPhone. So I'm glad Microsoft didn't go the skinned Android route, and decided to develop a real competitor. They have been incredibly sloppy though, and that m
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I sure hope they don't take your advice. I'd rather see them bet the company on Windows Phone.....
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The "Windows" brand is not generally associated with phones, and carries negative connotations both from its desktop reputation (crashing, insecurity) and its previous mobile incarnations.
The brand also implies compatibility which isn't there, i knew several people who bought windows ce based netbooks a few years ago only to be disappointed they couldn't run regular windows apps on them. Their sole reason for buying the "windows" netbook instead of the linux ones also offered, was this mistaken notion of co
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" I still prefer Windows Phone over the alternatives. Does that make me a fan?"
No, IMO, as long as you are ready to change as soon as a better alternative *for your particular, personal, individual* needs arises. A true fan (enthusiast) won't move on no matter what.
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I don't know about that, it would probably be really slow, not to mention the need to always have some sort of a dock with you. Besides, if that were the case, then Surface tablets would always be used in place of iPads. (Which by the way, I own a Surface Pro 4; wonderful little device, but at least at the moment it doesn't have the business mindshare that iPad has.)
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P.S. Sales people are the bane of my existence so grain of sale and all that.
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Windows automagically shows paired Bluetooth Windows phones as available connections. The feature was introduced in 8.1.
If they really want it, they can do it *now*.
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Kind of like Continuum?
http://windows.microsoft.com/e... [microsoft.com]
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Well minus the x86 processor, that's the direction Continuum is headed?
The murmurs I heard were to wait for the Surface Phone coming in 2016, designed by the same team that do the tablets.
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IOS and osx share much already. The fact that they do not share an interface is because phones are not desktops or laptops. Apple continues to reiterate the difference but apparently you aren't getting those memos. See MS for an example of how to screw up when you confuse the two.
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Microsoft Surface had Apple worried enough for Tim Cook to announce the iPad Pro.
So 'market driven' is a salient point; the cannibalisation has begun.
Oh and Apple once produced a touchscreen laptop with a stylus running a tablet OS. The eMate 300 was 18 1/2 years ahead of its time.
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This wouldn't have been possible until recently, as x86 was too power hungry (and the low power versions too slow)...
It's been possible with Linux for a long time, but never supplied preconfigured or marketed as a feature.
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If Microsoft had been smart about their strategy, they'd have made the tablet and phone modes for Windows able to revert to a full desktop when a keyboard, mouse and display are connected. Corporate America would **love** a phone with 4GB of RAM and a good Atom CPU that can be plugged into a standard display and use bluetooth inputs to become a small desktop computer. Microsoft would probably have jumped from 2.5% to 20% of the market within two years if they'd adopted a strategy that was based on the premise that Windows adopts to your usage and any Windows device is a computer.
This is pretty much what they're doing with the Lumia 950/950 XL and the dock, problem is that it's an ARM processor so the only thing that'll run are universal apps. To run traditional x86 applications they need a x86 processor, like the last generation of Surface products. And while a "Surface Phone" using an Intel X3 Atom SoC has been rumored for a long time, it's a no-show thus far. My guess is that Intel is the blocker, despite their CPU/GPU experience they struggle to create a compelling x86 platform
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Meh, RT was a shit-show well above and beyond not being "something Microsoft wanted to do". I've never seen a company shoot their own product in the foot (or the face, more like) so hard before. There is absolutely no technical reason that RT couldn't run .NET desktop apps; if you jailbreak it, .NET apps written years before RT existed run just fine. Native code required a recompile (but often nothing else); a native Java runtime would have added a bunch more apps immediately (there's a Java-on-.NET runtime
Hey now (Score:3)
The staff of Microsoft lost a lot of time doing that elaborate funeral for the iPhone years back.
Link related (Score:3)
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/... [techcrunch.com]
Know how you knew Windows phone was going to fail? The banner that called it "Windows Phone 7 OS Platform"
"What kinda phone is that?"
"Windows Phone 7 OS Platform"
"What?"
Things could be a lot worse. (Score:2)
Things could be a lot worse.
Consider that the headline might read "Microsoft Fails Windows Phone Fans Again By Releasing Windows 10 Mobile"...
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I'm honestly rather shocked they released the 950/950XL with W10M in its current state. First of all, let's make something clear: Anybody who wants W10M on a WP8.1 phone can get it, today, no big deal. It's called the Windows Insider program and has been available for many months. You'll get the same version of "Windows 10 Mobile (Preview)" that is on the new flagship devices, and you'll get updates just like they do.
The problem is, what Microsoft calls a "preview" is what other people call a "beta". Not re
Microsoft Fails (Score:2)
ntr
Very clever, very clever (Score:2)
I have one, it's decent but not a daily driver (Score:2)
I don't use it as a daily driver because of some of the software restrictions that impact how I use the phone (restricted app access to SMS and call logs). Apps are a little lacking and many are well behind Android counterparts, but that's
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Just for the sake of curiosity, what "app access to SMS and call logs" are you looking for? Apps *can* access those; it just requires capabilities that third-party devs aren't allowed to declare by default. We've had the ability to unlock those capabilities for years now - the first "capability unlock" was only for Samsung phones, but was published in 2013 - but relatively few people have bothered writing apps that take advantage of this. I'm curious what your use case for this kind of access would be.
Also,
Re:But think of how good it will be! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't just killed it off already. This is their third reboot, with nothing to indicate that this time will be any better than the last ones. Between R&D costs, marketing costs, the Nokia bribe, the Nokia buyout, and the fact that every phone sold costs them money, they've likely lost upwards of $20 billion on it already. I wonder how much longer the shareholders will tolerate this.
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Dude - they've likely sunk that and more on the XBox franchise... they were an estimated $7bn in the hole when they began working on the XBOne, and Heaven only knows what they sunk into the R&D/marketing on that. ...and they still lose money with each console sold.
Long story short, it's not like Microsoft is new at this losing money thing. If it weren't for the Windows/Office/Exchange/SQL licensing revenues, they'd have been in bankruptcy almost a decade ago.
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I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't just killed it off already. This is their third reboot, with nothing to indicate that this time will be any better than the last ones.
I am...not a fan of Microsoft. In fact, Windows 10 (with built in self serving advertisements) is something I consider really abusive to Windows users. But...
I'm looking at Continuum with a lot of interest. In my younger days, I loved to build computers, and tweak things, and try alternative operating systems, and upgrade my systems part by part, etc.
But these days, I mostly want things to Just Work with as little hassle as possible. Continuum has me interested because I'd love to have just one computing de
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I was looking at a continuum device in the local MS Store the other day. It appeared to be a dongle attached to a Windows 10 phone (I forgot the model, but probably one of the new flagship series) which allowed for keyboard, mouse and video input/output. The UI on the 24" screen was standard Windows 10 and it was pretty snappy... I think they are close.
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I was looking at a continuum device in the local MS Store the other day. It appeared to be a dongle attached to a Windows 10 phone (I forgot the model, but probably one of the new flagship series) which allowed for keyboard, mouse and video input/output. The UI on the 24" screen was standard Windows 10 and it was pretty snappy... I think they are close.
I'm so conflicted. I think Microsoft is abusive and I don't want to use their products, but Continuum is so compelling to me...
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I look at it this way: Not being a market leader in the Mobile space forces MS to be agile and innovative.
That can only be a good thing for end users. Especially if they use their deep pockets to subsidize R&D and hardware costs.
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Good points!
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What I wish they hadn't done is trying to unify interfaces between desktop Windows and Windows Phone. It's ruined desktop Windows IMHO
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Which apps are you looking for?
My understanding is that any app written for Windows 10 can run in either mobile or desktop mode... and no doubt the built in ones (mail, web, Office) will cover most initial needs.
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"Universal Windows [10] Apps", or whatever the hell MS calls them this morning, will run at most aspect ratios and display sizes. However, Windows 10 Mobile* still supports apps clear back to WP7.0, four API versions and one major infrastructure change old. WP 7.x and 8.x apps were never intended to run on anything that could be called "desktop mode". WP8.1 supported its own version of "universal" apps, where you could use the same code for PC/tablet and phone apps, but I'm not sure if that means universal
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I'm in a difficult position since I like gaming and there's no real alternative to Windows.
I might go with a double boot system in the future and use the Windows partition as a games console, and Linux for everything else
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Android is built on the Linux kernel so actually if you hook a keyboard, a mouse or such in the micro-USB slot on your phone it should just work [howtogeek.com] out of the box. I don't think there's that much consumer interest for hooking up a 10x sized a keyboard to a smartphone though. It wouldn't be a big push for Google to bring out a dongle-sized concept PC based on Chromium OS or Android if such devices prove popular, however.
And if you are willing to hack some there's of course the business-card sized Raspberry PI
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micro-usb hubs with card readers, USB on-the-go and HDMI outputs (MHL or Slimport depending on the phone SoC) can be purchased online for around $US10-15. As a holiday project I've purchased one, though Santa's postal service elves haven't delivered it yet. :)
The 'dumpster' phone promises a treasure trove - cracked screens with worn out batteries might attain a new lease of life if powered by mains and hooked up to a mouse, keyboard and expandable storage.
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You can also use Bluetooth keyboards and mice with most Android devices.
Ars Technica article discusses using Android as a desktop. [arstechnica.com] While it just works in many cases, they point out that mouse drags are interpreted inconsistently. Sometimes they are like finger drags and sometimes they can highlight text as on a desktop.
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They have yet to bring out the Microsoft Zunephone 360.
Well, actually, As far as I can tell, they just took some of the aspects of Zune and made it into Xbox.
Xbox music (now called Groove) is alive and well on Windows phones.
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Microsoft had all the pieces ready to be integrated into "Windows Phone" in 2009 when the Zune HD came out... Microsoft just didn't put any priority on defending their smartphone dominance of Windows Mobile (dominant in a small market) till *after* the iPhone and Android phones came on the market and made the "smartphone" a device for the masses.
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Not to mention that while Microsoft may be out of vogue now, who knows what it will be 5 years or even 10 years down the road.
Keeping a horse in the race is a good long run strategy.
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"I think people like myself and others might be really curious why you do this on every post?"
His reasoning is that a mention of cows following every story might cause more people to lose interest in space programs.
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I've seen one of the newer Luminas. Doesn't seem that bad for a basic device. And by basic I mean a device lacking apps, no a device not potentially capable of great things.
The interface takes some getting used to but only due to be different from every other standard phone. Functionally it's just fine, browsing works, phone works, skype works, sms works, facebook etc.
Really I see it as being a bit of a hit if:
a) it had a lot of apps
b) they removed the name Microsoft
c) they removed the name Windows
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Funny thing is, as far as I am aware, this is the first time in history where "Microsoft" and "Windows" are displayed prominently on a Windows Phone.
In the past, Windows Phone was "just an OS" and the manufacturer and/or carrier would brand everything.
So, at best, your B) and C) points have not had a lot of time to really prove out one way or the other. As for A) ... *shrug* it just depends on what you need. Also, just stating that you have 10,000+ apps in your store is really meaningless and only useful in
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But I wouldn't see any reason for someone to wish to use these in preference to an Android phone. They're not cheaper and they don't do anything special that can't be found on other devices. The most serious flaw is still the relative lack of apps.
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Not a trace of Google on them. That's a very big feature.
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Besides, there are many Android phones which can be loaded with AOSP, and with just a little research ahead you can figure out which of the phones you're interested in are supported. Then you can use them without any Google services at all, and indeed without a store whatsoever by simply sideloading everything. You can in theory do much better with privacy with Android than with the other major phone operating systems for the simple reason that it's the only one whose source code you can see. And if the who
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I've never seen someone using one in the wild, and I tend to notice small things like that (and the WP UI is so ugly and unique that there's no way I'd confuse that for iOS or Android).
I *have* actually used a Windows Phone, a year or so ago at a MS mall kiosk, and a couple years before at a phone store. I had to see the horror for myself. But that was at places that were trying to hawk the thing; I've never actually seen a user in public or met anyone who had one.
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However, I don't profess it to the world, like owners of other phone systems.
Umm...you sure about that? I've both read and seen how Windows Phone fans react when they walk into a carrier store, ask where their Windows Phones are, and then when the staff say something to the effect of "we don't carry those because our customers don't want them" the WP fans suddenly behave like PETA activists at a fur store as if not carrying their brand is a crime against nature.
I know, it's rare because there are so few of their fans, but if you don't believe me go peruse some of the fan forums.
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they walk into a carrier store, ask where their Windows Phones are, and then when the staff say something to the effect of "we don't carry those because our customers don't want them"
You know the Apple store is not a carrier store right? Every carrier store I've seen carries at least one Windows phone (Lumina) if not more.
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See, I've experienced all 3 major OSs. My personal favourite at this point is the Windows Phone. I've just purchased my second Windows capable phone as I was going on 4 years with my first. I purchased the Blu Win HD Unlocked for $140 all in. Had to add a 32gb SD card since the base product comes with only 8GB. So you could call me a fan boy and since I'm a MS coder it just makes sense for me.
I realize their product accounts for less than 3% of the NA market so I don't expect carriers to bend over and stock
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" However, I don't profess it to the world"
You just did.
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>> What in the world makes you think that Windows 8 doesn't "phone home"? :))
Because "Windows 8" is not "Windows Phone 8".
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I've never seen anyone drive a Tesla, but that says more about where I live and who I hang out with than the company's success.
But I do see Teslas, pretty much every time I go further than the local store.
The Windows UI is way nicer to use
Than what?
The problem is lack of apps because Android and Apple have all the momentum, just like MS had all the momentum through the '90s.
Then they squandered it by releasing several incompetent phone OSes.
In the UK, at least, the main service providers are a lot more likely to sell Windows phones than in some other countries, but you do have the problem that no average person is a Windows fanboy
And with good reason.
Since a phone is half fashion accessory, this is depressingly relevant.
Not mine, it's just a phone. Boring, basic black.
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I've never seen anyone drive a Tesla, but that says more about where I live and who I hang out with than the company's success.
Where the hell do you live? Minot, North Dakota? Rural Wyoming? Kodiak Island, Alaska? I live in the boonies and there's one guy here who drives a Tesla, and when I go to any decent city I'll see a few.
The Windows UI is way nicer to use
No, it isn't, it's flat, ugly garbage. ArmoredDragon's post here [slashdot.org] explains it well.
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This right here is a good reason to never, ever sign up for a phone contract. It's just a bad idea. You can buy an inexpensive or used Android phone for very little money these days and get month-to-month service for far less than it costs to get service through one of the main companies. Getting service from the main companies is for suckers who feel the need to buy from an actual store instead of just signing up for service online.
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I went pre-paid years ago and have never looked back. It is half the cost and overage fees are impossible, if you reach your cap, that's it.
I have been using AT&T pre-paid for a while and the funny thing is, the cost of that plan has actually gone down by $10/month since I first started on it... That is basically unprecedented in my experience with carriers... Compare that to contract users. The rate may go down halfway through your contract term for new users, but since you are in a contract, you have
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I went with Virgin.
Bought the Phone outright on sale so no contract.
$35 a month for unlimited calls, text 2.5 GB 4G data and after that throttles down to 3G.
Impossible to get overage charges.
The downside is the network. I don't travel much but if a person does Virgin would be awful as its coverage is really bad outside metro areas.
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There's fans for everything you can think of. Think of any highly-obscure genre of music, for instance (like Norwegian shouting choruses): there's some fans of it out there, somewhere.
It's the same for Windows Phone. There's fans out there, somewhere. A few of them pop up on threads like this one to tell us how wonderful it is, even though it's a piece of shit. What's important is the numbers, though: there's not very many of them, and most of them work for MS (those would be "shills"). MS is infamous
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A few of them pop up on threads like this one to tell us how wonderful it is, even though it's a piece of shit.
And then there's the other end of the spectrum: Morons like Grishnakh who seem unable to acknowledge the platform's strengths, insisting on calling it "a piece of shit".
Here, let's examine one positive and one negative aspect of every major platform:
iOS
+ Carefully tailored for the hardware it's running on
- Some essential features are overlooked in favor of features of more dubious value
Android
+ Lots of options to choose from (both hardware and software)
- Asinine update model
Windows (whatever it is they're c
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Then there's fucking morons like ericloewe who don't even know what are and aren't strengths on various platforms. Developer support is probably one of the only decent things about Windows Phone, it's one of MS's strengths. It doesn't overcome the lack of interest by developers because of MS being late to the smartphone party so they don't want to waste time developing for a platform with 10 users, nor does it overcome the horribly ugly UI. Sure, it's actually a fairly speedy OS on leaner hardware (anoth
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Congratulations on your narrow views! You are incapable of understanding what "developer support" was meant as, which is frankly an amazing display of incompetence with the English language or a feeble attempt to discredit those who point out that you obviously have an axe to grind.
But let's talk about the "ugly" claim. It's as subjective as it gets and irrelevant, every platform will have people who dislike the aesthetic design. Lack of configurability is a dubious claim, since iOS is rather similar. And c
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And crappy live tiles? As opposed to non-crappy static icons?
No, as opposed to Android widgets. From a post by ArmoredDragon elsewhere in this discussion:
"- Android widgets are INFINITELY better than the live tiles. For example, my calendar widget can do a vertical layout and display multiple events in advance and can even scroll through extras, which sits in parallel with my voicemail transcripts where I also see multiple at once. On WP, your options are horizontal rectangle or giant square that nothing e
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Windows 10 is dead.
Does Netcraft confirm it?
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Is that number for the US or worldwide, or some other particular market? It has been acknowledged that WinPhone is more popular in some markets than others, and the US is one where they're not popular at all.
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It's been available as a "Preview" for months (since before Win10 on PC went RTM), though the early preview builds of it were far from usable. That 8.8% is a mixture of "Windows Insider" preview users (people with legacy phones) and the new Lumia 950 and 950XL flagships, which come with "Windows 10 Mobile (Preview)" and yes, the "Preview" part of that is not my own addition but is actually what Microsoft says the phone's come with. They are shipping hardware with a pre-release operating system installed. It
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Do you seriously think this is still funny (not that it ever was)?
How about some intelligent humor for a change?
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There are fans for every brand.
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Yep. Top articles (copied and pasted from the forums):
I Can't Deal With The 950XL Anymore...
Glance screen issues
why is my phone freezing up after a phone call (side note: Wow, I saw that one on Windows 6 mobile. They still haven't fixed it?)
Things I don't like about Windows 10
Don't understand why Windows phones aren't more popular
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Apparently, Windows phone having few useful apps is a plus.
That way, the battery lasts longer and since nothing needs to load, load times are amazing!
I miss my blackberry. I hate virtual keyboards.
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"fans" is plural, so there must be at least two.