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Nowhere to go but up. Survey shows WP7 with 1% of U.S. smartphone marketshare.
- Thread starter ChazUK
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See my posts on WP7.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1155816/
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13056942&wp7#post13056942
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=12850151&wp7#post12850151
There are the reasons. They're pretty obvious, if you think about it.
In a nutshell:
Just adequate (nothing revolutionary)
Late (lost the universal licensing crown)
Redundant
Poor launch
Incomplete ecosystem upon launch
Bears the name "Windows" (serious image problem)
In this market, at this point, if your device is not awesome and backed by a complete and rich mobile (particularly app) ecosystem on Day 1, you're in for pain. Your device, at this point (even in November 2010) needs to be complete and near-perfect from the get-go. These are new rules, new realities. There is no "give it a year" anymore. That was back in 2008-2009. The market has been saturated for a while now.
And frankly, consumers are expecting a lot. Apple's launches, promotions, their entire ecosystem, the way it is fleshed out so well and completely, is a very hard act to follow. MS came in with something that was considered way below par (compared to Apple) and into a market where Google had taken the universal licensing crown a long time ago. On one end Apple's platform was already as complete and rich a solution as one could get. On the other end of the spectrum Google was already selling masses of devices at all price points. It might have been MS in Google's place, but MS' (Ballmer's) retarded arrogance and wilful denial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U) once again came back to bite MS square in the a.ss. So when they did finally wake up, they were once again late to the game. Zune-like. And of course, no one really cared.
All of this might have been forgivable three years or even two years ago, but not in 2010/2011.
And there is another direction in which to go: down. Like WebOS. Like RIM's Playbook, etc. Like the Zune. The list of failed devices and OSes is long.
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Your opinion is anecdotal.
I guess Microsoft have to start somewhere. I hope to see a large increase in WP7 marketshare in the next year or so. It's a great mobile OS and Microsoft deserve some sales.
I dont think Mango itself is what will give WP more success, but I think it is what is required for Microsoft and partners to make WP a success.
After Mango, WP is on par or better than the other OS's in just about everything that matters to most, besides total app count. Mango will allow new APIs that are required for some of the missing types of apps people want also.
Anyways after Mango they need to go on the offensive against Android with a huge marketing push and lay out why WP is great for consumers and Android is not. There are many points to be made if they wanted to about how WP is better. Including TV and other ads they need to educate salesmen about WP and what it is because many dont have a clue in retail.
Lastly they need hardware that intrigues people. Everyone only talks about how they want "x" phone because it has "y" hardware. No WP's so far have any hardware that Android doesnt have better which is a problem.
Why WP is better than Android IMO:
Zune syncing of music and stuff (versus nothing for Android)
Zune Music
Better Games (android is seriously lacking)
Smoother UI (Android is not smooth for many things, though some apps are)
Smoother apps (after Mango mostly)
More reliable (Microsoft could probably do some work by pushing this over Android because its Android's biggest flaw)
Better updates
Less bloat/crapware
After Mango, WP is on par or better than the other OS's in just about everything that matters to most, besides total app count. Mango will allow new APIs that are required for some of the missing types of apps people want also.
Anyways after Mango they need to go on the offensive against Android with a huge marketing push and lay out why WP is great for consumers and Android is not. There are many points to be made if they wanted to about how WP is better. Including TV and other ads they need to educate salesmen about WP and what it is because many dont have a clue in retail.
Lastly they need hardware that intrigues people. Everyone only talks about how they want "x" phone because it has "y" hardware. No WP's so far have any hardware that Android doesnt have better which is a problem.
Why WP is better than Android IMO:
Zune syncing of music and stuff (versus nothing for Android)
Zune Music
Better Games (android is seriously lacking)
Smoother UI (Android is not smooth for many things, though some apps are)
Smoother apps (after Mango mostly)
More reliable (Microsoft could probably do some work by pushing this over Android because its Android's biggest flaw)
Better updates
Less bloat/crapware
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I wish it were only opinion.
Wait, no I don't. LOL. Because I really couldn't give a damn if WP7 goes up in smoke tomorrow. OP asked for analysis. He got exactly that. The other explanation for poor sales would be Alien mind-control.
I swear I just heard that they had a 5% share.
Either way though, this is excellent news. I recall Apple was bragging they'd be estatic with a 1% market share
Either way though, this is excellent news. I recall Apple was bragging they'd be estatic with a 1% market share
I swear I just heard that they had a 5% share.
Either way though, this is excellent news. I recall Apple was bragging they'd be estatic with a 1% market share
I think 1% of current smartphone owners are WP7 users. 5.7% of sales are WP7.
That was my take
They don't exactly inspire a whole lot else. I just talk about it. Like everyone else.
It might be a different story if Apple and Google didn't exist. Then no one would be the wiser. But there you have it.
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Certainly a low % share, but with the way phones get replaced so quickly, I think MS can succeed if they hang in there for the long run. All they really need is to get the software on some good hardware and let the software mature.
I tried WP7 properly today and I was blown away by the smoothness and intuitive layout of the interface. I really like that there's more swiping to bring up options, etc as opposed to hunting for buttons like in iOS. I also think it's a very beautiful interface, very minimalistic and sleek (if HTC could stop crapping it up with their tiles). I really hope MS can get this platform going strong, it's a great option to have.
LOL, bashing or not, OP had a legitimate question: It's been a year and MS has only lost share with WP7, so what is the problem? Why doesn't anyone care about WP7? And to the degree that the platform is actually doing worse with the passage of time? A new platform should be steadily gaining share, even if at a snail's pace (at least.) Instead, WP7 is actually moving backwards.
Seems from the consumer's perspective, there's a reason to be concerned about the platform, if not outright critical about it. Something is very wrong with WP7. You can use it and love it. Thats fine. But it doesn't change the fact that there just aren't enough of you out there who feel the same way.
Sorry if you don't like the reasons I gave. Very few people here actually attempted to answer the question that was asked.
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I swear I just heard that they had a 5% share.
Either way though, this is excellent news. I recall Apple was bragging they'd be estatic with a 1% market share
You did but that might both WP7 + the old wince devices
http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/04/comscore-iphone-continues-to-gain-ground-even-without-a-refresh/
Safari isn't co-operating with me this morning, so I'm going to have to move back to IE to respond to this post.
Compare the original % of users and current, I think you'll find that it gained share, you can't get a sub-0% share.
There are more phones with Android than Windows - in fact, Android ones are coming out amlost weekly.
Windows 7 phones just need more marketing by their companies - there are good phones out there, but I think Microsoft need to raise their specifications and make devices using the platform less flexible in terms of what they can and cannot have.
Either this week or last week, the platform reached a milestone of 30,000 apps. From my view of what's in there, a lot of the apps are useful applications, certainly no crappy ones. Most apps, if not all that I have tried have worked well on the device I trialled.
I am not concerned about the platform, from my point of view, it has had a slow start, but that's becuase the market is not ready for it. People who have used it are very happy with it. I've used it, and IMO, it's more fluid than my iPhone 4, not that it is slow.
I asked a few people why they hadn't used it - most of them replied: it's a Microsoft product, so it's bound to fail - had they tried it? No. It's not fair to dismiss a product based on its developers.
OP asked a question, what's holding it back? It certainly isn't the platform if its customer/user base is very happy with it. Thus, you cannot point 'revolutionary' as an issue. 'Late'? Depends how you define late. It's still got a good fighting chance. 'Redundant'? How? Incomplete ecosystem upon launch. Did iOS have a complete ecosystem on launch? Did Android? How do you establish an apps ecosystem before launch?
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In my case ( and I bet a few other Free software and Open source geeks), just the fact that it is a Microsoft product. Microsoft is a dangerous company with bad ethics. They have held back innovation in the PC industry all through the 90s and early 00s by their vendor lock-in and lack of inter-operating with other vendors/technologies, relying on closed protocols.
To me that's enough to never again give them my $. I won't participate in a repeat of history, I've learned.
People quote lack of apps and imo that's partially correct but that wasn't the case when android it. They had no apps but we saw a steady increase in marketshare.
I think Microsoft's problem is perception that they're phones aren't cool, plus the UI is so different. With android and iOS its relatively easy for someone to start using it. With android you have a higher learning curve to work with the intricacies and become proficient but to start off with, you have the app drawer and the desktop - its pretty easy. The same with iOS, its UI is incredibly intuitive. I'm not so sure about WP7 phones
I've got some different experiences with android:
My WP7 experiences have been mostly positive but no moreso than my experiences with my Nexus One/Nexus S.
My WP7 experiences have been mostly positive but no moreso than my experiences with my Nexus One/Nexus S.
So to start I'll say I use zune as my media player already. That in conjunction with iTunes and wmp to sync my Droid.
Here's why I made the comment: Droid X has given me a lot of driver issues or fails to let my computer recognize it. That means I have to restart my Droid and plug it back in for wmp to recognize it and let it sync. I have no doubt a wp7 phone would be issue free syncing and give me one less library to care for. used double twist and don't care for the program nor keeping track of another library.
Next the smoothness thing. Music apps for example are terrible on Android besides ubermusic which does everything pretty well with a quick responsive interface. Fede seems very good at writing smooth programs. Power amp is nice too but not free. Very powerful though.
The other smoothness issue is in the browser, list scrolling, and zooming. These are far better on my iPhone and wp7. Super smooth versus jagged and slow to respond. Lastly when trying to scroll smooth and slow in Android I often find the lists jumping to very fast speeds over and over even if I don't move my finger when lifting it.
Games: I haven't been able to find any games that deliver nice graphics on Android for the year plus I've owned it. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough, but attempt after attempt leaves me with only three games on my phone because honestly most are poorly done and don't take advantage of the gpu heating up my phone like crazy.
Reliability. I battery pull several times a day after using what I think is causing it. Pulse news. Atk helps but I don't always remember or sometimes it happens when i'm in the app or I turned off the screen for a while without exiting and using Atk.
I'd type out more but i'm on my phone for the whole day.
This is all about my experiences on a rooted and bloat free Droid x.
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Thanks TheSideshow, that was a good read.
It's pretty obvious that the differences in vendors, hardware and software equate to completely different experiences with Android.
A friend of mine has the HTC Trophy and it's nice to see two different phones by different manufacturers perform exactly the same (my Omnia vs his Trophy). That's a huge plus for WP7 no matter what way you look at it.
What we need is a WP7 with Mango and Retina Display to really shake up the market. These HTC bricks just don't cut the mustard.