4 Comments

• Craig said on Jan 5 2012 at 2:44 PM

  The biggest problem IMO is that most Windows phones are priced too high for their hardware features which are behind the curve.
  I wanted to get 3 Windows phones and a Zune pass to replace my families old devices. I waited and waited for AT&T to offer something that could compete. The choice came down to an HD7s (no front camera, 5 MP rear camera) for $200 vs. a Motorola Atrix (dual core proc, 8 MP camera, front facing camera, lots of accessories available) for $99. So I bought two Android Atrix devices for the kids.
  I just got a HTC Titan for $.01 during an AT&T black Friday sale - love it :) - Zune, xbox integration, awesome interface, and the easiest, most enjoyable platform to develop apps for. The Windows app store has more than I can ever use, although a search feature would be welcome.

• Abhi said on Jan 9 2012 at 5:52 PM

  Hey Craig:
  Check out Amazonwireless. They have a lot of good windows phones for real cheap and they let you roll over your phone number.
  
  John:
  I have personally introduced a lot of people to windows phone. Their first reaction is why should they even look at a 'Windows' phone. But once they see my Samsung Focus, they are all over it. So from my perspective, whats stopping windows phones from selling is 'Windows' :)

• Robert said on Jan 25 2012 at 3:53 AM

  Windows Phone 7 was a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to enhance the Windows family and encourage sales of the desktop/laptop Windows OS by giving the added benefit of mobile phone support.
  
  Virtually every business in the world has Windows PC's and runs MS Office. If WP7 had tight integration with Windows & Office it would have been an essential companion for Windows business (and consumer) users. Moreover it would have encouraged more desktop Windows OS sales because of the advantage of the availability of an integrated mobile phone.
  
  But the implementation Microsoft has chosen is a simple, non-configurable consumer phone which is only good for use as a telephone and media player and thank heavens for small mercies, email functionality is not bad though you can't attach any files other than image files. But they have completely ignored what would have been their only possible competitive advantage, that is tight integration with desktop Windows.
  
  So WP7 is simply a poor man's iPhone with limited functionality and none of the thousands of apps available for the iPhone. Why would anyone buy a WP7 phone over an iPhone? There is no compelling reason to do so.
  
  Even as a strategy to bring Windows Phone to the mass consumer market, surely it would have been better to have satisfied business and geek users who lead market trends, then go for the consumer market once the phone has developed a 'cool' reputation. Only after that would the time have been right to copy the Apple monetisation model of iTunes/Zune.
  
  With WP7 there is no desktop integration, no accesible file system, no Outlook syncronisation.
  
  Your phone could be connected to your computer via USB - but you can't transfer contacts, you have to do that through Windows Live. So you have to upload all your Outlook contacts to Windows Live (I don't particularly want my contacts stored on some Microsoft server somewhere), and then have to download them from Windows Live to the phone using valuable and expensive mobile bandwidth.
  
  The editing facilities for Excel and Word are a joke and of no real use, and the you can't upload the files anywhere anyway, unless you happen to have access to a Sharepoint 2010 server.
  
  The Calendar application doesn't allow you to connect to Sharepoint calendars.
  
  The foundations upon which Microsoft's success has been built (apart from being in the right place at the right time at the beginning) are backwards compatibility and configurability. They have ignored both those factors for WP7. They are playing a very dangerous game in trying to copy other vendors strengths rather than building on their own, which are many.
  
  In their rush to embrace and push "cloud" computing they are ignoring the fact that a sizeable chunk of their customers do not want their data stored on third-party servers, but do need their own devices to talk to each other.
  
  If they had made WP7 useful for business users with proper and deep Windows integration they could have had a real winner on their hands.
  
  I'm a fan of Microsoft and use their products extensively, but WP7 is a massive disappointment and missed opportunity. Shame.
  

• John said on Jan 26 2012 at 7:18 PM

  Just read your WinPhone article on VS Mag. Like you I'm clamoring to get my hands on the Lumia 900, however (big however), as long as I have to go with AT&T to get one I'll do without. I imagine many iPhone users who maight consider the Lumia 900 likely won't because they remember the horrible service on AT&T. Pass the word up the pike; Give it to T-Mobile also.