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.
If Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is going to succeed (Score:2, Insightful)
It's going to need to drop the Microsoft and Windows branding.
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Yeah, look how well that worked for Zune. They tried this already, why throw good money after bad? The only useful consumer brand they own is X-Box, and nobody over 24 is going to carry an "X-Phone."
They need to integrate it with Exchange, AD and Communicator. Then it'll be a useful device for corporate customers. That's their only hope, no end-user consumer wants one no matter how nice they make them.
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The only reason X-Box is a "successful" consumer brand is because Microsoft has dumped billions into buying market position. Microsoft hasn't even made back its investment into the X-Box. But unless Microsoft and Nokia are basically willing to sell at a substantial loss for a considerable length of time, they are intruding into a market already crowded by iOS and Android devices.
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...it needs more cowbell!
WP8 is like Kia (Score:2)
why buy Kia when toyota and honda already offer what you want. except to save a few dollars on some option.
same here. iOS and Android have sold a billion devices. why switch to a platform with such tiny market share? what will you gain for it. what does it do better that iOS and android don't do already?
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try to factor in resale value
you have to pay money to get rid of a 4 year Kia while my CR-V will be worth enough to put down a big down payment on my next car
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.
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Wish I had mod points, because this is it exactly. It's been their problem right from the start.
These narratives exist for successful phones. I know why I bought an iPhone. I know why I almost bought an Android phone instead. I know why my dad bought a Blackberry.
I look at a Windows phone and just wonder "why would I want that?" Microsoft has never answered that question in a satisfactory way.
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100% agree. Especially with the grandparent. I think whats happened is MS has never really had to justify "why?" before.
They are used to being the default choice and now that they are not. Also they do not have the broadest base of apps to draw people in thus sales have gone nowhere.
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You can also replicate it quite closely with the Android interface is you like. Having configuration options is wonderful.
Microsoft will Force the consumers to use it (Score:2)
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I'm not sure they're in a position to try this. No huge-corp would upgrade it's Exchange servers if it meant that they need to replace all their mobile hardware (BBs, iPhones, Androids), and plenty of other services that connect to Exchange.
The result would be:
1) Some sort of third-party middleware.
2) A different upgrade path that doens't include windows.
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Yes, they could kill ActiveSync, but in the process not only would they deeply anger everybody from medium sized businesses to large corporations, and most likely they would land themselves back in Antitrust Hell.
In my case, pulling a stunt like that would mean I would just keep my current Exchange server going, even if its only purpose was to serve the Androids and iPhones feeding off of it. Exchange 201x won't support syncing with my iPhone or my business partner's Android, well then, just won't upgrade t
Re:Microsoft will Force the consumers to use it (Score:4, Insightful)
Closest "bird farm" to Redmond?? (Score:2)
If they even breath trying to lockout Non-Win8 phones then they will find a herd of "Hogs" on their front lawn.
Don't forget that The Pentagon has lots and lots of nDroids , iThings and Crackberries devices running around.
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Would have to be since Hogs (aka the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II) are know for many things and Subtle IS NOT ONE OF THEM. For a Hog subtle is not using DPU rounds in its Gatlin Gun.
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If that was all they could do, they'd be doomed (Score:2)
Not a very imaginative article... But then, I wouldn't want to create great ideas for spreading MS's domination either. Really, if that was all MS could do, they'd be doomed from the beggining.
By the way, what "high-profile startups" means?
What would it take for Windows Phone 8 to succeed? (Score:5, Funny)
It would take someone dropping a nuke on Cupertino. Outside of that, I don't really see it happening.
Re:What would it take for Windows Phone 8 to succe (Score:4, Funny)
And Mountain View. And Seoul. And Waterloo. And Tokyo. And Redmond, just to be sure. Then Windows Phone 8 can really fly.
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Most important? (Score:3)
How is this Microsoft's most important push into the smartphone industry to date? Why is this more important than Windows 7? Because it is happening now?
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Replace our laptops (Score:4, Interesting)
Simple dock for peripherals and the deal is done. They would trounce the market.
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Most important? (Score:2)
its most important push into the smartphone
Why? All the others were equally touted, the difference being the situation was never as dire as it is now for MS WinCE.
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.
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No one cares about Google play, which is why iPhone sells. Store you entire library on Apple servers and download as you want to use it. Like MS used to be, any almost any App you want is in the store, and often for free. It will cost money, but people have mo
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Visual Studio is far and away better than Eclipse and Xcode.
No it's not, it does project management better than Eclipse, is worse for editing code (for a lot of reasons, but refactoring is so much nicer in Eclipse), and VS11 is an ugly dog [globalnerdy.com].
Let apps be free.
Well said. You might add, let the devices be free, too.
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> Well said. You might add, let the devices be free, too.
Well, yes, they shouldn't be beholden to the carriers' interests.
Oh, I get it, you're an idiot and misinterpreted "free" by ignoring context.
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.
I think it's very simple (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Support new hardware on all major carriers. Verizon currently has backwater outdated Windows Phones. That cannot happen with Windows Phone 8.
2) App parity with other platforms. With Windows 8 compatibility, this will likely be the case for Windows Phone 8. All the major players
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2) App parity with other platforms
I think Microsoft has done really well in this regard.
3) A variety of hardware. Nokia is a great hardware partner but they cannot be the only one.
I totally disagree, I think Nokia hardware is good enough they could be the only one. Works for Apple. Making Microsoft squeeze out Android from other devices really helps Apple more than Microsoft. Squeezing them for patent royalties does help Microsoft though.
2) Stop the Upgrading Uncertainty
I agree but they have really scre
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Totally disagree, I think Nokia hardware is good enough they could be the only one. Works for Apple.
I love the new crop of Nokia hardware, and own a Lumia 900 myself. But I still want choice and variety, as do many others. iPhone is a counterpoint to this, but the success of Android supports my position. But yes, it has worked for Apple in the past, but I don't know for how much longer. Apple has enjoyed being ahead of the pack for a very long time, and manufacturers have spent a good 5 years catching up. In the past, every year the iPhone announced a new set of amazing capabilities that all manufacturers
Won't happen (Score:2)
> There are many obvious ways Microsoft could
> misstep and lose its chance to participate in
> another generation of phones...
Or, they could do everything right, and it still won't matter. Beating an entrenched winner is HARD. How many times does it have to be said? Being "as good as" IS NOT ENOUGH. You have to be SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER in SEVERAL WAYS that will appeal to MANY PEOPLE to make any headway at all.
And it doesn't help that MS has made MAJOR recent blunders, like "oops, no Windows Phone 7 p
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.
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.
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Magic (Score:2)
Option Q (Score:3)
Considering Windows Phone 8. (Score:2)
I'm considering the new Nokia Windows Phone, whenever the hell it's released. I was curious to see what the iPhone 5 was all about and while I think it's a fine device I don't see much that I find compelling. Really, the biggest thing they've got going for them is the App Store, and I've got that covered with my iPad.
I've had an Android phone for two years and while I've been reasonably happy with it I'm not particularly compelled to stick with the OS. I've used Windows Phone 7 and I've been very impressed.
Change name to iPhone 8 ... (Score:2)
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They had Nokia and Visual Studio last year. Here we are in 2012 and it hasn't been enough.
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Yes, porting to WP8 is a PITA from C++ or Obj-C, however those who have used C#+mono, HaXe, and eventually Flash will probably be fine.... sooner or later.
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.
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MS has one advantage they can use with this device, and that is that they control both the horizontal and the vertical in the enterprise. In typical /. form:
1: Create an ActiveSync successor protocol. One that is heavily patented, perhaps undocumented.
2: Sell the AS successor as a lot more secure than just TLS/SSL to get it firmly rooted in the enterprise. Show how it is more secure than BIS/BES as well.
3: Leverage the new AS successor in next revs of the OS making AS depreciated, or even yank it out
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Then everyone would just figure out how to grab the data off the OMA/OWA site like guys figured out to do for Yahoo and Hotmail back in the day. ActiveSync makes things easier, but it isn't the only way to grab data. Besides, I'm sure if it came to that, someone would just build a middleware solution. The day when Microsoft could use its market dominance to bully everyone else is done.
And besides, you can't patent protocols or APIs, so I'm reasonably certain that trying to leverage Exchange in that way woul
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Agreed, one can scrape data with OWA, or even plain old POP/SMTP/IMAP which Exchange has available with just a kick-start of a couple services.
However, this is definitely a hammer in their toolbox, especially if they can convince upper management that the new AS replacement is a lot more secure to the point of locking out all other protocols. If MS could convince a regulatory board that this is the case, it would be a major coup.
Locking this protocol wouldn't be just limited to patents. It also can be tac
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If AS is an installable option, then I can see no pressure that Redmond could apply. Managers, in particular senior managers, are going to go to the IT department and go "You just updated to Exchange 2015 and now my iPad 5 can't check email", and IT is going to go "Oh yes, we need to install that module". Sure Redmond can send its sales boys in, but it's still playing catch-up.
Besides, unless Microsoft is going to completely bust new versions of Exchange's ability to synchronize and work with older versions
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Can settings on your phone be centrally altered via Group Policies? The whole point to having a "Windows" phone in an enterprise, to my mind, would be the ability to make a domain member and to use the same tools I use for member servers and workstations.
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I know you can control the iPhone using centrally administered policies. Not sure about WP. http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/ [apple.com]
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Hey everyone, a Microsoft/Nokia marketing department employee! :D
Come on, you need to understand your audience before advertising. Nobody will take this seriously. Whoever paid for you to write this *absolutely* wasted their money, because it'll be buried by others who see right through it.
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 ;)
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Can I write Android and iOS apps in VS?
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You can if you use XNA because CodePlex has a porting framework called Monogame under active development that uses mono to target iOS. Obviously can also just write basic apps using the Mono framework too, even within VS.
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Also, you can compile to Android, to answer your question properly.
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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.
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Can I write Android and iOS apps in VS? Yes, yes you can.
Clearly the answer to that is yes.
Some body on an incredibly sketchy site has hacked together something to work very poorly with visual studio.
You didn't check the links did you? The second one is from Google for developing Android apps with full integration with Visual Studio.
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No-one supports *ALL* of the C++ standard. Except maybe Comeau, and even then I'm not sure.
What kind of "Microsoft-specific #pragmas and #defines" do you believe you need to do anything useful in VC++?
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It's probably easier just to get VS to use a custom build step and call gcc/g++/clang/icc directly in an msys or cygwin installation than it would be to put the pragmas in. Not sure what the real issue is there. The IDE isn't really coupled to the compiler. Debugging is a different issue, but there seem to be some solutions for that.
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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.
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If it is "copy-paste", I haven't found the original source. You are right that it is too well written to have been done so quickly, but I'm not sure how the trick is being done.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm assuming he's got a library of such commentary pre-written and ready to go, possibly provided by his employers. Most likely a subscription account as well (but posting with indicator turned off), so that he can get FP on these types of stories.
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It is a lot of work using a different account each time. Not unbelievable, but certainly not easy.
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Brain turned off?
Re:not sure how the trick is being done. (Score:2)
I bet there's a couple of parts to it.
Of course it's a marketing department, and I wouldn't put it above the New /. to "help them" with certain news items. Remember how they wanted a new "Business Intelligence" department a while back?
Don't stories all come through the Firehose? So he'd see it sitting there in the Firehose and could have as long as he wanted to type out his speech.
Meanwhile, creating an account is easy, so they could do them in batches of 5.
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It's so funny watching you idiots trample over each other in a rush to get trolled. Really; are you that dumb?
I'm smart enough that I don't need to insult random strangers on the Internet to feel better about myself.
On to the substantive part of what you had to say: Yes, as I've noted in earlier comments it's possible that this is nothing but a troll. It is over-the-top obvious - though some subtlety too, such as the misdirection around WP8. Hard to call it from reading, but if it's a troll then it's one that someone is putting a lot of repeated time and effort into.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
First post to this story. First post ever for this account.
Quite amazing if you ask me...
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Here here good Sir! You're not suggesting that he had some sort of privileged access to the thread before anyone else!? That would require an inside man, and we all know that the Slashdot editing staff would never allow such a thing! Surely you jest!
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Your theory has crossed my mind as well. Even a subscription account would requre a lot to pull this off as well as he/she/it has.
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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'.
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If he worked for MS, he'd have realized that XNA is in the process of being deprecated.
I think it's too late for Nokia to make this work (Score:5, Insightful)
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Soon enough all of the people in those less developped parts of the wrold will be using smartphones too. And everything indicates they'll be running Android.
Nokia is done.
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I agree with much of what you say but we have seen technically superior products fail in the marketplace before (ex. Beta vs. VHS). What MS really needs to do, in my view, is find a way to woo developers to the platform. Just having great tools like VS is not going to do it. They're going to have to convince developers that it's a viable platform that they can make money on. Otherwise, why bother? Without Apps the phone is worthless no matter how good the hardware.
From the consumer side, MS has to convince
You are wrong. (Score:2)
1.) Great hardware partner. Nokia here, along with HTC and other little players.
Nokia is selling its assets and would have been long gone if not for the MS Cash infusion. It's more like a zombie partner at this point.
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#.
Everybody is making games and apps for mobile (iOS and Android) using Java/ObjC/C++. None of such are what you mention and OpenGL isn't available either. So why would developers making apps for more profitable platforms rewrite their entire codebases for an irrelevant player? They are waaay too late to the game impose developers their own languages, APIs and tools.
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the ms cash infusion isn't that big of a deal really. they still have lots of assets.
HOWEVER.. the ms outhousing of os development provided them with a public friendly excuse to get rid of their huge, vast developer army - which was too big for their own good and which was really the problem in the first place.
now, what windows phone 8 needs? well, for starters, it would be nice to have the fucking SDK out. it's late, very late.
of course it would be nice if any of the new phones could match nokias symbian f
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HOWEVER.. the ms outhousing of os development provided them with a public friendly excuse to get rid of their huge, vast developer army - which was too big for their own good and which was really the problem in the first place.
This is so true, except the army wasn't so much developers as it was middle managers. There are so many managers that it's funny and sad at the same time. Yes, there were devs, but a lot more managers who never actually had any useful role in the company.
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The developer tools cost a fortune (MS windows + MS visual studio), certainly more than what I make in a few weeks. Meanwhile, most of the other mobile OS's dev tools cost $0. Except iOS, of course.
Re:Windows Phone 8 (Score:4, Informative)
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What you're missing is a customer base. If I build an app for iOS or Android, I instantly have millions of potential customers. Ask WP7 developers how well all those nifty tools helped sales.
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Express products are free, and VS 12 just came out. Also, you can write a game, for example in XNA and compile to android/iOS with monogame. C# is a decent language, and mono has a native compiler that generates good code. Also, Win8 is going to be $40 for the next several months. There's also that bizspark thing...
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XNA is dead in the water. Microsoft has said as much. For gaming support on WIndows 8/WIndows Phone 8, you're stuck with C++/Direct3D. :(
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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.
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I'd rather just use booze. At least when you lose data, don't answer your phone, can't perform simple tasks, and have a general bungling ineptitude there's a socially acceptable excuse. You don't get that with WP.
You do still get the splitting headache in the morning.
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It's written by Andrew Orlowski, which means that, in the article, everything Microsoft or closed is good and everything Linux or open is bad.
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What do you mean "dither"?
I don't mean anything by it, it's the title of the article I was referencing.
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I don't know about you, but I don't develop for platforms that are the easiest to code for, I develop for platforms that have sufficient market share for me to have a reasonable chance of making back the money and resources I invested into writing a product. So even if WP8 is some sort of developer's heaven, what difference does that make? I'd sooner spend 20% more time developing for a platform I have a reasonable chance of making money on than 20% less on a platform with virtually no customers.
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But that is putting the cart before the horse. You could have the world's easiest platform to develop for, but if no one is buying the platform, then ease of development is irrelevant. By extension, you might have the worst platform to develop for, but if the platform is selling well, then that is is the singular consideration.
To my mind, at this point, if I were Microsoft, I would be going out of my way to make porting from Android and iOS to WP8 as easy as possible.
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No Microsoft Phone 8 (MP8) will only succeed if they convince developers that it is worthwhile developing for their platform. Hence all the spam on these Slashdot threads, among other places - they think we're too stupid to notice their manipulation.
Microsoft would actually interest developers if they made fantastic tools and a fantastic open platform (rather than these troll posts, thinking developers are the same as general 'sheeple'). In fact, they would guarantee success if their tools allowed you to
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What MS needs is to get a time machine and go back and unscrew all the Wince5, Wince6 and Winphone 7 users they screwed by not offering upgrades! (Making a few pigs fly could help too)