
Windows Phone 8 vs. iOS vs. Android: One giant leap for Microsoft - evo_9
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/131487-windows-phone-8-vs-ios-vs-android-one-giant-leap-for-microsoft
======
rrreese
I used a WP7 for several months last year. In many ways I really liked it, the
UI was pretty slick, live tiles where great, the whole thing was surprisingly
polished.

But I now use an iPhone. The reason is lack of quality 3rd party software. The
PDF viewer available for WP7 (there was only one) was absolutely abysmal. Very
poor UX. And that was all to often the case. Where Android or iOS would have
numerous great apps, WP7 would have significantly less and usually all lower
quality. Such a shame as the OS itself is pretty nice.

~~~
untog
Absolutely agreed. The issue now isn't that the major players aren't in WP,
but it's that their apps are absolutely terrible, and obviously barely tested.
The Rdio app didn't even play music for months, and the Spotify app is glitchy
as hell. So the "100,000 apps" boast is a little hollow.

~~~
barista
Apparently that is what Microsoft is trying to solve with the unified core. If
the developers have ability to write code one time and target both the phone
and the tablet/desktop, it is quite appealing proposition.

------
mindstab
"Now that Windows Phone has managed to clobber iOS when it comes to
customization without losing its aesthetic charm, it’s time for Apple to step
it up"

This sentence really leapt out at me. Are we looking at the same rainbow
disaster screen shots? Windows phone looks like a unicorn puked on a phone.

I don't think it give any compelling reason on it's own for iOS to shift.

~~~
pilgrim689
I guess it's subjective, but you would be in the minority [1] for thinking
Metro UI is a "unicorn vomit/rainbow disaster".

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_UI#Response>

~~~
meepmorp
I hate the Metro UI. I hate the live tiles,I hate the way text seems to drift
off the edge of the screen; I hate the way it looks, and navigating through it
annoyed me. I've only ever seen it on a phone, though, so maybe a tablet would
improve things.

I'm not a UI expert, so maybe I'm missing something awesome. I am, however, a
user of consumer electronics, and as far as that qualifies me to comment, I
think it looks like crap and would never buy a Metro UI based product.

------
redsymbol
With the recent WP8 press coverage, it's interesting (from a PR perspective)
that many stories complain about WP7 phones not being upgraded. Some tech
journalists seem almost angry about it.

I don't know if this will die down or not; that's what eventually happened
when Google revealed the Nexus 1 (iirc) wouldn't be upgradable to 4.0. So far,
though, this point is significantly distracting from the amazing improvements
in '8 - note how the linked article mentions it in the first paragraph, and
I've seen at least one mainstream article [0] focused entirely on it.

There must be a lesson about product launches in this. If Microsoft had a good
answer for this from the start - by "good", I mean one that satisfied
journalists and their readers, and/or made it hard for anyone to stoke outrage
- the positive press coverage for WP8 wouldn't have been diluted by this.

[0] <http://mashable.com/2012/06/20/no-upgrade-windows-phone-8/>

~~~
untog
The issue is the timing of this. The Nexus One was introduced in Jan 2010, ICS
was released in, what, March 2012? Over two years difference. I had a Nexus
One at the time, and while I was disappointed, I'd got two years of use (key
point here: two years is the typical cellphone contract length) out of my
phone. Not so for people who bought a Lumia 900 when it was released in April
of this year.

The issue from a PR perpsective is that MS don't seem to be controlling the
story here. Will WP8 apps work on 7.8? Sources are totally conflicted. Will
7.8 do multitasking? No-one knows. MS should have been all over this out of
the gate- explaining exactly what 7.8 users are getting. Instead everyone is
resorting to rumour and assuming the worst.

~~~
redsymbol
Good point about the difference in timing! Who knows what info Microsoft has
that we don't; but for brand-trust reasons, it seems important to update at
least the Lumias to WP8, if at all technically possible.

~~~
mc32
Or at least offer vouchers (with proof, of course --which carrier would have)
toward the purchase of a WP8 system so that people don't feel duped.

------
amolsarva
Those homescreen tiles are a cool new idea in mobile UIs and keep getting
better. Kudos to those guys.

~~~
KeyBoardG
Agreed. I've been on WP7 for just over a year the the live tiles with update
counts have replaced the need for a notification center for me.

------
laacz
It is quite possible, that Microsoft move with releasing Windows Phone 7 was
just an expensive way to make Nokia buy in. Nokia would not wait for Windows8,
if there was no Windows7 Phone . Now they must. And Microsoft probably never
looked at Windows Phone 7 as a long-term OS.

------
jmonegro
Suddenly, Microsoft's purchase of Skype makes a lot more sense.

------
vignesh_vs_in
finally, games can be ported to WP.

~~~
KeyBoardG
Yes and this is great for developers. Develop once, run on phone, tablet and
laptop/desktop.

~~~
AndrewDucker
Have we had that confirmed? I was hearing that compiling a WinRT application
for phone and desktop was going to take tweaking and recompilation.

~~~
KeyBoardG
I do know that design tools like blend support multiple layout views for
different screen shapes and orientations. I can't see how this would be
different. Underneath if you write .Net code it'll run on both.

------
huggyface
The real foundation for cross-platform code -- from mobile platform to mobile
platform -- is whether WP 8 will support OpenGL ES 2.0. The explosion of
quality Android games came courtesy of the NDK and ES 2.0, allowing for an
almost direct migration of apps from iOS with only minimal I/O changes.

Given that the mobile GPUs are targeted to that, I have to think it will.
Having portability between the desktop and mobile is less valuable, really,
given that even the most impressive mobile GPU pales compares to a miserable
desktop GPU. The limitations would render such an exercise much more
prohibitive.

~~~
stuntmouse
No OpenGL ES support. DirectX only.

~~~
huggyface
I have only heard them talk about DirectX, unsurprisingly, however have you
seen an official comment on this?

------
zanny
One giant leap for Microsoft that I won't touch with a 5 meter stick because
the company has way too much of a treasure chest of influence to ever get my
money ever again, and one that I will continuously tell anyone I am related to
or friends with never to associate with.

The secure boot nonsense doesn't help. The image of M$ is destroyed, and even
if they try to repair it I can never forgive them for ie6.

~~~
untog
And there I was, thinking that HN is above using "M$".

Do Apple and Google not also have a "treasure chest of influence"?

~~~
zanny
Absolutely, they are all massive corporations. They are beyond the scale
anyone can reasonably expect a company to act in the interests of their
customers.

I'm not saying Microsoft is evil - they are just a massive company, who like
Apple is controlled by shareholders and therefor maximizes profit at the
expense of everything around them.

I have no idea what is going on with Google. Android 3.0 and the unified
privacy plans being closed source seems like a good example of how their
benevolence may only be skin deep, but they have acted "better" than the
others at some superficial level. They are still absurdly powerful and I would
always be hesitant to give them money, because companies like all three can
turn around and use that absurd influence to harm consumers.

