What Windows Phone 8 Needs To Do To Succeed 246
As Microsoft prepares for the launch of Windows Phone 8 devices, its most important push into the smartphone industry to date, speculation is rampant about whether or not consumers will continue to ignore Windows-based phones. There are many obvious ways Microsoft could misstep and lose its chance to participate in another generation of phones, but what would it take for Windows Phone 8 to succeed? To start, they can take advantage of manufacturers who are worried about being pursued over patent claims. They could also work to establish the permanence of Windows Phone 8, after the upgrade inflexibility involved with Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5. Finally, they could take a page out of Amazon's book and make WP8 devices more about services.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:2, Insightful)
They had Nokia and Visual Studio last year. Here we are in 2012 and it hasn't been enough.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a bit player in a competitive market. Microsoft has not leveraged Windows Phone 8 to better integrate with Windows business technologies (I'm talking Active Directory and Group Policies), and since both iOS and Android support ActiveSync for Exchange connectivity, it's not as if Microsoft is going to improve on that.
So I'd say the odds are stacked against Microsoft. It's about three years too late to the party, and not leveraging its phone OS with other Microsoft products means there is absolutely no reason for a business customer like myself to give a damn about it.
If Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is going to succeed (Score:2, Insightful)
It's going to need to drop the Microsoft and Windows branding.
They need to answer: Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is simple, why should I buy a Windows phone? What does it give me that I cannot get from Android or Apple? After all, if there is no big reason to choose Windows phone, then I would lean towards one with a broader base of apps. Once they're able to get a compelling mainstream reason why to move to Windows phone, they need to market it. Right now they think having a unified experience between desktop and phone is that killer feature. We'll see if they're right.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
Hello copy-paste shill and welcome! I happened to observe that you posted at the instant the story went live, and had nothing but good things to say about MS. You also called out in particular MS's awesome Visual Studio product - a common thread among these kinds of posts over the last few months. Perhaps not coincidentally, Slashdot is a site that's seen as catering to developer types.
On other sites, I assume you have a similarly tailored copy-paste message ready to go.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
No you're missing the point. It's a long writeup ostensibly about how MS is positioned for success - but if you read a little closer, it's actually pitching Visual Studio to the slashdot crowd (like so many similar posts have in recent months). By presenting commentary related to VS as fact in the context of opinion related to the phone product, they're trying to send a subtle message that it's already proven beyond question that VS is a good product. By focusing on the debate around the phone - evidenced by your inclusion of "Nokia" in the list of culprits - you let that slip right by ;)
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:2, Insightful)
I think Microsoft mostly needs two things for Windows Phone 8 to succeed.
1.) Great hardware partner. Nokia here, along with HTC and other little players.
2.) Great developer tools. We got Visual Studio covered here, along with things like Microsoft's XNA for games and easy, yet powerful languages like C#.
The idea here is that Microsoft really has all it covered. Nokia has a very stable history of making good phones. Their hardware really is rock solid. Nokia is the perfect partner Microsoft needs, and they have them. Motorola Mobility for Google doesn't even come close to what Microsoft-Nokia partnership is. I seriously think that Google tried to get Nokia on-board but they had already decided on Microsoft.
What comes to development tools.. well, you can't really go wrong with Visual Studio. It's an industry standard, really widely used IDE. Pretty much everyone agrees that it's rock solid product from Microsoft. Even if you hate Microsoft, you can but agree on this one. And the availability of things like XNA, C#, great documentation and the fact that Visual Studio Express is free really helps. Microsoft really is the developer friendly company. Much more so than Google or Apple.
I'd say these two things are well covered.
Then there's the matter of UI. Again, Microsoft has done remarkable job with the design. While I agree that Metro UI doesn't work too well on computers, it really is great on mobile phones and tablets. Everyone who has tested one of the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 phones can agree. The UI and system are good.
The last part Microsoft has in front of it really comes down to marketing. Nokia never really was that well known company in North America and that's why other companies like Apple and HTC have gained a following there. Nokia largely ignored NA market while they concentrated on Europe and Asia. Let's not forget that Nokia is still the worlds biggest phone manufacturer and controls almost half of the markets when dumb phones are included. Even without, Nokia has a much better base in Europe.
What Microsoft and Nokia need are phone companies that will push the products to consumers. That's all there is to it. They have a wonderful product in their hands but are missing the marketing required for it. I think it mostly comes down to so much different market than what it is in Asia or Europe. They just lack the experience.
Microsoft, or Nokia for that matter, could introduce one leading phone. The "one" phone that everyone would choose. But I think it's much better when Nokia produces many different phones and everyone can choose the one they like the best. Let's not forget that Microsoft does have hardware requirements so there is no problem with fragmentation like Android has. Apple, of course, has little next to none fragmentation problems, even with the different resolutions. Nokia and Microsoft are almost at the same boat.
All in all, both Microsoft and Nokia have wonderful product. They just need to market it to people.
Hahaha.
You didn't have this speech prepared by any chance, eh?
Pathetic. Both the 'news' and the first 'commercial'.
I think it's too late for Nokia to make this work (Score:5, Insightful)
Buck the trend, and stop trying to be Google/Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
The marriage of operating system with services on the internet is stupid, stupid, fucking stupid.
Let apps be free. Let the apps implement that third party integration. Nobody fucking cares about Bing or Zune, stop trying to shove it down people's throats.
What they should be doing is emphasizing how little it actually matters what search engine you use, or how little matters if you post to Twitter versus Facebook, or how little it matters if apps come from iTunes or Google Play or the Zune store.
All that really matters is usability and security, and you can do that without crippling the devices and locking them down tighter than Steve Jobs' mummified sphincter.
The UI spectacular, and Visual Studio is far and away better than Eclipse and Xcode. So stop giving developers reasons to hate Microsoft and the apps will come, and then the people will come. Developers developers developers.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:1, Insightful)
Nokia has a very stable history of making good phones. Their hardware really is rock solid.
Nokia just closed the factory in Salo which was the base of their entire quality. Nokia is now another Foxcon OEM just like Apple but without the buying power.
Microsoft really is the developer friendly company. Much more so than Google or Apple.
The Microsoft which just more or less invalidated the work done on putting out WP7 apps? The Microsoft which is slowly depreciating C# which was previously their main devlopment language? The Microsoft which has a shared source license which basically means "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine". This Microsoft?
Development is a bit of a lottery in many cases. Most products begin and fail; some products make a little; a few products become the next Google or Oracle. This means that the maximum upside is huge. This is an important part of the reward in IT. Look at partners that have gone with a Microsoft: Netscape; Borland; Sendo. People who could have made it really huge but, because they based their success on Windows ended up with nothing.
Microsoft loves developers in the same way that eagles love mice. Of course they want them to breed. If they didn't what would the chicks eat?
Then there's the Windows UI. It's very interesting that you say:
Everyone who has tested one of the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 phones
And certainly don't say "owned" or even "used". We know that WP has been a design disaster. Where all the competent companies used grid arrangements allowing multiple apps per screen line, Windows came up with the "original" idea of having everything in a long list meaning that the app you want is always half an hour's scrolling away. Imagine the idea that all your social networks are integrated into one hub with little control making it almost impossible to partition data safely between them. Think about a system where a third of the bottom of the screen is dedicated to Bing with no possible user control to change it.
for starters, don't dump previous customers (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm serious. every iteration of WinPhone has abandoned its users to no upward compatibility and no further support. If I had been silly or strung out enough to have bought a Win7 phone, I wouldn't have a WinProduct ever again.
not that I'm in the market, because they are a year late and a trillion dollars short in the market. the only industry reaction in anything close to real time to the iPhone was Google, and that's why those two lines have killed the rest of the business. you add up all the alternatives... WinPhone, BBOS, Symbian, Palm, whatever the Chinese just started up... add 'em all up, and it's an asterisk, too small to measure.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:2, Insightful)
You can also write PHP, Python and wide array of other languages. VS is really powerful IDE.
That's sort of weird how your first long post is basically error-free in terms of grammar, but now you're dropping your articles. That would be *a* wide array, and *a* "really powerful IDE". It's almost like the first post was written by one or more native English speakers, but now in a short comment your English isn't so good.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Insightful)
No. You're FUCKED without compatibility.
You want a walled garden? That's iOS and Apple. They win. Look what MS did to Apple in the 90s. That's who and where you are now, bottom bunk in a Turkish prison.
You want the ability to do anything you want? That's Android. I can transfer any of the files I... rented... to my HTC, watch em when I want, listen to the music I like, and it works with any computer on the planet as long as it's got either a USB port or Bluetooth. Would a Windows 7/8 phone be able to sync with my dad's four-year-old phone and drag off the photos? No. I can link my freakin' WATCH to my Android.
MS wants a proprietary system, specialized software, and total lockdown. I can't transfer files via Bluetooth, or USB, or anything else. Just your software, your walls, your garden. Sure, it's pretty, but I can throw that skin onto my Android.
I've used VS before. Nothing like being unable to run a program you've written because it's unsigned. True, I could be admin all the time but you never can be on a phone, since they're usually feature-locked by the Telco.
What's the advantage to getting a Windows phone?
There isn't one.
Stop calling it "windows" (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the fact that it's still Windows, and Microsoft is still working on the paradigm of a single code build to rule them all, that's a complete turn-off to me, and makes the chance of me ever owning such a device bordering on nonexistent.
It was trying to deal with a company issued Windows mobile 5 phone, and later a Windows mobile 6 phone, that taught me that Microsoft just doesn't get the differences between the touch and kvm paradigms. It appears that they're going to "solve" this by making everything (including kvm pcs) run a touch-friendly interface.
The thing is, Microsoft has yet to create a truly successful touch interface. (The original "surface" had some really cutting edge features but was never released.) "Windows 7 tablet edition" is unbelievably bad, being for the most part a re-branding of old accessibility resources. Windows 7 Phone never took off, despite some early moderately favorable reviews, perhaps due to it's association to other failed attempts (see paragraph one).
So now... honestly, why do I need Windows Phone 8? Compatibility with Exchange? A known solution on both iphone and android. Compatibility with Microsoft Office? My Android phone came with Quickoffice, and it appears to be working fine. I can mail myself a PPT, open it on the phone, and use the HDMI interface to display on a projector, no laptop necessary.
Tiles that update dynamically? Android has had that (widgets) for years.
That it's called Windows? That's actually a reason *not* to buy it.
So, like, what? The number of applications? Um, no. The maturity of the code base? It is to laugh. Let's see... Crush on Steve Ballmer... nope. Love the logo... nope, if anything, the new logo looks amateurish. Microsoft has done such a great job on my PC that I'll buy anything they produce? Let's see, examining feelings, um, that would be a no. I'm really reaching here, but I don't know what else might come into play. Oh wait, I know:
I work for Microsoft and they're giving me a Windows 8 phone and tablet for free? [webpronews.com] Well, that might work. At very least, it'll reduce inventory somewhat. Storage must be costly.
On the other hand, my company (which isn't Microsoft) issued me a Windows Mobile phone, and after a very frustrating three months I gave it back. (In all fairness, they also issued me an ipad, and after a week, seeing that I'd still need to carry a laptop, I gave back the ipad.) So a more correct wording might be "We're giving Microsoft employees a free Windows 8 phone and you better the hell be seen using it".
That, plus TV show prop departments heavily subsidize by Microsoft (cough-hawaii-50-cough) might be the only places you see the critters.
Re:Microsoft will Force the consumers to use it (Score:4, Insightful)
They could try having a product... (Score:5, Insightful)
They could try having a product when they have a product announcement. You know, a thing to sell, or pre-order with a solid ship date. I saw the new Nokia phone announcement and was like "that sounds great, I need a new phone now anyway" and looked for a ship date. nothing. Looked for a price. nothing. Looks like a great phone.
Shipping is a feature. Announce when that feature's complete, not other features. Amazon had an announcement, they had products, they had pre-orders, they had hands-on demo production products for the press, they're burning through sales. Apple had an announcement, they have pre-orders, they had hands-on demo production products for the press, they're selling product and their online store is already on backorder.
Microsoft and Nokia had announcements. They have no product, no preorders, people didn't get any hands on time with what the actual shipping product will be, the phone demo movie was faked up to the point where if they hadn't backed off they'd be looking at criminal fraud indictments, the actual "products" they had for demos were showing powerpoint slides for all they were worth.
Tease launches only work for industry-new products. Apple pulled it off with the original iPhone and iPad because there weren't any competitive products in the space, so the market didn't have an option to go out and buy something that filled that need *right now*. Microsoft and Nokia are trying to do a tease launch, when I can go to the store and buy something very similar for a probably similar price and have it in my hand before Microsoft and Nokia will get around to announcing prices, much less ship dates.
Microsoft is so used to being the industry leader they've forgotten how to act when they're not. Little hint guys: Apple's iPhone business is bigger than Microsoft. Not that Apple is bigger, Apple's iPhone business. Just that one piece of their business. Not that Apple couldn't be taken down by an innovative competitor with an effective marketing strategy, but Microsoft is neither an innovative competitor nor do they market effectively.
So, again, Microsoft is too little and too late to the party, and will be utterly ignored.
Re:If Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is going to succee (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm a 40-something tech guy with Windows at home instead of Macs. I'm looking at the Nokia Lumia 920 for my next phone (current is iPhone 4). iOS is kinda boring. WP8 is new and different.
I'm an end-user consumer, and I want a Windows Phone... and probably a Surface Pro too.
Your sweeping generalization is a bit too sweeping and too generalized I think.
(for the record, WP8 does integrate with Exchange, but isn't managed by ActiveDirectory).