"Windows Phone Has A Totally Unique UI" - I don't think this is a valid point. Unique does not automatically win anything. Better might be a winner, but the article does not say that.
"Originality Means Fewer Forays Into The Patent Wars" - Why? Just about everything is already patented ("An object oriented interface to the operating system" by Apple), so I don't think this is a valid claim.
"Uniformity Across All Devices and Carriers" - Apple has that too. Also, the non-uniformity is one of the selling points of android.
"Zune Is Baked Right Into the Operating System" - Remember Zune? No? It was the next iPod killer. By the way, the iPod is baked into iOS.
"Xbox Live Gaming Support" - IMHO this is the only valid point. Still it's not a unique point, with play station integration into Sony's androids...
"Windows Phone Has A Totally Unique UI" - I don't think this is a valid point. Unique does not automatically win anything. Better might be a winner, but the article does not say that.
It matters in that it's something that people can't complain about. If it had a non-unique UI, then it would be dismissed almost immediately.
"Originality Means Fewer Forays Into The Patent Wars" - Why? Just about everything is already patented ("An object oriented interface to the operating system" by Apple), so I don't think this is a valid claim.
They got this wrong; in actual fact the reason they don't need to worry about patents as much with WP7 is because they have the patents from windows mobile to attack pretty much anyone who tries to sue them.
"Uniformity Across All Devices and Carriers" - Apple has that too. Also, the non-uniformity is one of the selling points of android.
It's also one of the major annoyances of android, as we've seen updates go completely ignored by OEM's and carriers. From a developer point of view it's also a more challenging experience due to fragmentation.
"Zune Is Baked Right Into the Operating System" - Remember Zune? No? It was the next iPod killer. By the way, the iPod is baked into iOS.
Not every music service/player is born equal, and far too many people gloss over its excellence. Zune has the Zune pass, which is unique to it and allows it to have a far richer music discovery experience, which is unrivalled in the marketplace. Speaking of which, also has as much content as iTunes these days (same # of songs etc.)
"Xbox Live Gaming Support" - IMHO this is the only valid point. Still it's not a unique point, with play station integration into Sony's androids...
This is actually one of the lesser interesting parts of WP7, as there aren't many multi-player games.
Someone else mentioned press releases - this article is far too error-prone to have come from Microsoft. It's more likely just someone with a passing interest who's been asked to write something on it.
Yeah, I think something fishy is going on here I've seen quite a few articles in the last few days saying Microsoft has been getting rave reviews for its phones without seeing any of them.
1> It doesn't capture the "I WANT CONTROL" people or "I WANT SEXY ALUMINUM" people. These are significant, and vocal minorities on the two platforms. So all that is left is the not so particular middle.
2> It limits developers to Sandboxed C#. This means software written in C which is portable to pretty much every other device (Android included) isn't portable to here without a rewrite.
3> The simulators don't run in VM's on Macs. Why does this matter you ask? Because people putting out things for the other platforms OVERWHELMINGLY use Macs, due to the "Must have mac to make an iPhone app" requirement. So yes, you can dual boot to make this, but that costs an additional $150 for the OS as well. You might try to argue "why doesn't apple have to put out windows compatable SDKs", but you'd be ignoring the fact they're currently the dev environment which is the revenue leader, so aren't playing catchup, while MS is playing catchup.
4> It doesn't have any penetration to the crossplatform tools. It doesn't work in Adobe Flash Builder, it doesn't work in Titanium, it doesn't work in PhoneGap, it doesn't really work then for the people who publish on multiple platforms.
I think it's a beautiful project. I just think the guys running the developer relations programmers spend too much time buying iOS developer groups beer and not enough time making the toolchain usable by iOS and Android devs without hardware outlays and hard disk reformats.
This may be a good phone. I don't know. The problem is the network effect they relied on for years now beats them. The people who still don't have a smartPhone is large, but those late adopters will follow their friends to android and iOS devices. It simply lacks the mind share of apple and the bombardment if devices that android has.
Honestly. If you aren't number 1 or 2 in a market. Get out.
How many non-geek users actually care about most of these points?
Users want gadgets that they can wrap their head around, they won't care about "Uniformity Across All Devices and Carriers" also carriers and device makers will certainly not appreciate this move.
Apps matter the most, but I think Microsoft will be stuck in catch 21 on this one, the fact that they want tighter control over the phone only makes things horribly worse: for apps, you need critical mass, for critical mass you need devices, but that will only happen if carriers and device makers embrace WP7, but they will probably ignore it, because they can't differentiate themselves because MS wants control.
So unless Microsoft makes something that is leagues better than the iPhone, they have zero chance to compete. Why the iPhone and not Android? Because both of MS and Apple want to have full control, which most device makers reject.
This is a common pitfall of marketing (and spec) for phones I think. Tech driven customers are the loudest on the internet but that doesn't have to mean they are your key demographic. Look at the iPhone.
Beautiful design + great apps + crappy camera + small screen = slightly increased OPEX + greatly increased margin = happy times
Should've mentioned I was referring too earlier models (not 4 and 4S). And maybe "crappy" was a bit too emotive. Just referring to Apple's wise choice of cost saving with 3mp when many used 5 and some overspeced to 8 or 13.
"Originality Means Fewer Forays Into The Patent Wars" - Why? Just about everything is already patented ("An object oriented interface to the operating system" by Apple), so I don't think this is a valid claim.
"Uniformity Across All Devices and Carriers" - Apple has that too. Also, the non-uniformity is one of the selling points of android.
"Zune Is Baked Right Into the Operating System" - Remember Zune? No? It was the next iPod killer. By the way, the iPod is baked into iOS.
"Xbox Live Gaming Support" - IMHO this is the only valid point. Still it's not a unique point, with play station integration into Sony's androids...