Why did Windows Phone fail? Is there room for a third phone OS?

Why did Windows Phone fail? Is there room for a third phone OS?

there were always android alternatives to their phones in that price range. nobody bought them, and thus no developer made apps for them. nokia did not focus on being better or a viable alternative, it focused on being different and it failed. they should have adopted android and go from there.

The interface is horrible, it's the same as every other Windows product except the desktop (and it's infected the desktops too with Windows 10). They actually run pretty nicely from my experience but just look at it.
And no app support.

>The interface is horrible

Nope. Used one for years. The interface was great and just werked. What went wrong was nobody gave a shit about it especially devs.

You mean Microsoft
Nokia signed an agreement when it was purchased by Microsoft that restritecd them to not build anything but Windows phones for a period
Word is that such period is about to end and Nokia will start releasing Android powered phones
And I honestly am looking very much forward to that

Yes there is, it's just that they didn't market the products well enough
No apps meant that the phone failed as a "smartphone"
First versions of Windows mobile were good, later versions have horrible ui imo

>The interface is horrible

you wish. because apple's home screen clusterfuck or android's quintillions oems edulcorated gui variations are better, right?

I don't know but it's a shame. I have an old Lumia 920 sitting in my drawer. A very comfy piece of hardware, but it can't be used for much.

The user interface is just quite frankly the best. Android is second and iOS can suck a donkey dick with its worthless fucking homescreen.

But MS was late to the smartphone party (post-iOS I should clarify, since WinMo was around for a while), they were always late with features and no matter how much they paid and spent on developers to port their apps, there tons of developers that didn't care to port no matter how much paid, and a lot of those who did, did the barest amount of work with ugly looking and crash happy apps.

WP lacked OEM support, it lacked dev support, it lacked a thriving app ecosystem - it just lacked industry support in general. It was a better funded WebOS, but failed just as magnificently.

Is it too late to buy a 640 or 650?

It looks like a fucking advertisement, only on closer inspection do you realize the tiles represent apps and shit

>The interface was great and just werked.
AHAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHASHAHBAHAHAHA

I own a 640. Bought it a little over a year ago. The lack of apps sometimes bothers me...
Camera is quite good for the price, battery lasts quite good too.

I am now posting from an 512M windows phone. It works far better than an android device with the same price tag but the lack of apps and their uselessness makes my life really hard.

I really like the interface, lacks some core customization features but the biggest problem with it is the very small pool of apps.

Sorry for my shite enrish.

>only on closer inspection

You mean when you look at your phone?

>Apples homescreen clusterfuck
Lmao fucking what?

WP8.1 was pretty good
I think it's a very solid OS, just doesn't get enough love.
All the important shit was there for me, so I don't give a fuck.
A browser, video players, music players, Sup Forums clients, muh meymey clients

apple users are bad at reading comprehension, go figure

>Why did Windows Phone fail?
They named it Windows Phone.

To anyone who hasn't used one before, it looks like some ad thing you need to push back on to get to the home screen.

Compare it to pic related where everything is easily understandable and familiar, with icons representing things.

>IT'S NOT LIKE AN IPHONE SO IT'S SHIT!!!1
In all seriousness, the guy is right. It was a very functional UI that was always buttery smooth even on devices that would have lagged like crazy had they ran Android. We were talking Apple ad levels of "it just werks" here. The only real issue with the UI was that the main UI didn't rotate at all like Android does. Apps worked just fine sideways, but the main system UI didn't rotate. Then there's also the lack of customization, but most people who care about that are a niche group of sperglords anyway.

What really killed WP was that it was simply too little too late. WP7 was released in a state where it should have been released within a year to a year and a half of the iPhone to be viable, but didn't release until 3 years later. WP8 finally fixed most of the issues with WP7, but to have been viable it should have released at the time WP7 was released and not 2 years after WP7.

In a year all the "normies" will be using Win10 more, so everyone will know about tiles.

>lack of customization
but fampai, win8.1 had wallpapers and there was also #tileart.
You can't change the fundamental experience, just like on an iPhone, but it still allowed you for more freedom.

>Implying anyone is going to keep their Android home screen that clean
>Implying the on-screen keys at the bottom aren't a complete waste of screen space
I don't even own an iPhone (i do however own a Nexus 5), but even I can see that this comparison is pure bullshit. In regular use the iOS and stock Android home screens will be just as cluttered.

>Backgrounds and weaving those into the tiles
>"Customization"
That's customization in the same sense as putting a few decals on your car. It's not completely stock, but it's not what you'd actually call customized ether.

Mind you, I say this as someone who used a Lumia 920 until January of this year.

Unlike Windows 10 people weren't forced to use it.

Didn't Nokia's entire mobile division get bought out? Don't get my hopes up.

Best platform to get shit done on the move. I couldn't live without my Lumia 640DS.

All the tiny bits that make my life easier, from live tiles to glance screen are just cosmetic things.

They keyboard is still unmatched (if you don't believe android lags, it becomes apparent a month after extensive use of the WP keyboard, going back to android feels like going back to a symbian device with resistive screen that registers input slow as fuck).

Anyway, the app gap is there in form of 1st party apps like snapchat and pokemon go, but then again, not work critical so who cares. As far as an enterprise setting goes, managing a whole fleet of these is a breeze compared to android/iOS (my sysadmins raved when I brought this as my work device).

I had the 640 since it came out, the thing survived so much shit. I'm waiting and waiting for it to die to give me a reason to upgrade to a Lumia 950, but nope.

I hope they don't let the OS itself die. I don't give a fuck if it remains 1% market share, but I'd be pissed if they halted support and shut down notification servers etc...

Pic related, everything I need.

Well I used a 735, so I have experience with 8.1
Sure, it's not as crazy as Android/JB'd iOS, but it's not as bad as Stock iOS.

It came too late, Android and iPhone where much more popular. Right now Windows phone is as popular as iPhones when it comes to the number of users using them, and I bet if iPhones were more affordable (or win phones were more expensive) Windows phones would lose half their users. Android has both of them beat in everything since Android took the "smart" in the smartphone to a higher level, opened it's OS to everyone and allowed the phones to be pocket computers, which is one of the main reasons iPhones and Windows phones are failing, that and the fact there are price ranges between 50 and 1000 dollars for Android powered device so anyone can afford them, although the same is applied to windows phones they just aren't as good because they don't have enough software/developers. The only reason apple gets away with the small user base is because they make up for the money lost by overcharging everything and limiting their users, who grow to be clueless when it comes to technology and other devices seem alien to them. Microsoft should just leave mobile phones to Android phone developers and Apple since they're probably losing more money in a month than they gain in a year from their phones.

Ubuntu phone

I used a WP for almost a year. While I really liked the interface just about every app was either severely lacking in features, unpolish or just missing altogether.
Got a good medium range Android phone and never looked back

>but it's not as bad as Stock iOS.
If you have to use stock iOS as your comparison point you really don't have much to brag about. You might as well not bother.

The binding agreement they have was set for 5 years
After that time expires, Nokia has hinted at sarching for new partners
Hope is that they'll still work with microsoft, but will release Android phones too, sort like BlackBerry releases both BlackBerry os and Android phones
>source: google Nokia 5 year agreement

Yup, they got bought up and the smartphone side was completely shut down a couple of months ago. The dumbphone division on the other hand was however sold to a Finnish company (owned and funded by a Korean capital investment firm) who then licensed the name and IP from the part of Nokia that wasn't sold to Microsoft and they're now working on the Nokia Android devices supposedly releasing late this year and early next year. Mind you Nokia's old dumbphone division isn't completely inexperienced in making android devices as they've made their own "de-Googlified" branch of it for a number of their dumbphones.

Then again this could also be like the Nokia branded tablet from not too long ago where they just let Foxconn use the brand and put on a Nokia developed software loader.

My bad, google Nokia microsoft 5 years agreement

You are a joke.

see

They didn't plan long term.

Most people have years long contracts with their phones. so dumping a new one out there and expecting it to fly in only a couple of years was a dumb move.

What is that cancer, is this ironic? Your post is a joke.

Because they're dumbphones in the smartphone age, destined for failure.

i have never used iphone but from your picture it seems similar to windows phone's home screen except that tiles actually can have actual information on them not just counter, so in my opinion windows phone has it better as far as home screen is concerned

A fellow lith-fag with a WP. Nice.
I wouldn't buy a WP again but in a bout a year or so I'll upgrade anyway.

My L1520 is dying due to phone being fucked in my work place, so am getting an Android because need phone now.
PureView Camera is the best fucking thing out there.
Ur mom

Does iOS still not have widgets or something that looks like it was made in the current decade?

hey bro

total transparency looks messy, 8.1 like theme with black background and transparent tiles looks uniquely good though

its MS fault, WP10 sucks and they kill off WP8, also how the fuck does android gets more updates on their office software then their own phone. oh well maybe if react native gets ported to wp10 people will start to do apps on this crap and who knows maybe MS will finally get wp10 out of somethig that should be closed alpha.

microsoft fucked themselves at every angle. windows mobile is a good, relatively lightweight os with a lot of potential, but ms made no effort to push it. like, they actually admitted that they weren't concerned about doing anything with windows mobile this year.

no flagship releases, shit phone releases, no advertising, constantly backtracking on promises to users. low market share means devs aren't interested.

Matter of taste, really. Some people like this

Windows ruined the phone experience early on. Every preceding version was so bad it made the user less productive. That kind of stigma hangs around.

all of these android one's have novice feeling, stock is the best, not defending ios, it's another level of shit

real talk, boys. is it worth sticking with windows mobile? i've been using a shitty htc 8xt for the last two years because sprint doesn't carry windows phones anymore (gg microsoft) and am about to jump ship to att or t-mobile. i've heard the 950s are shit, but there's not much else now that the cheap 640s are gone.

>apple's home screen clusterfuck
iOS' user interface is the most clear, straight-line, shit there is - you literally can't get any more NOT-clusterfuck than that.

950 is shit, sadly.
You could get 1520, if you don't mind GIANT fucking phone and no real way to carry it around.

I use it as my main phone. It's a Lumia 635 and I bought it on amazon. Cheap as fuck right?
This phone is alright for me cuz I only text and call.
But sometimes I search the web or turn on hotspot, and that's when I feel that I am using industrial waste as my main cellular device

You realize this images argues that Android is better because it puts style above usability, right?

I agree there's some candy ricing there for no benefit. But the good thing about Android is you can tailor to your needs somewhat.

I don't know how people can stand the iOS home screen, which is basically just an app list.

tell me how a bunch of tacky skeumorphism icons arranged on grid are clearer than some homogenous coherent resizable live tiles also on grid.

MS were THIS CLOSE to actually make WP a thing. Especially now with W10 having better app compatibility.

It's like they don't want to or something, I don't understand.

>no verizon phones
>no sprint phones
>no t-mobile phones

surely ms has some grand strategy here, right? i mean, you don't just fucking let your market share fall to .5% for no reason.

No. Ballmer was a drunk past his time after 7 and Nadella is a pajeet.

poo in loo ceo is assigned to destroy ms

Every single time I use Android, I have to play around for a bit just to figure out how the interface works - this NEVER happens with iOS. And how the fuck are icons on a grid bad anyway? You see everything at a glance and just tap the app you want to use. I have no desire to change that, even if I could.

>just tap the app you want to use
How do you deal with the lack of widgets? Say, a calendar and a list of events?
That's real comfy to me.

WP7 and WP8 had different app stores, thats why no devs made any app for the platform. Its not like in iOS or Android, where you make app and it works from Gingerbread till Kitkat, or from Jellybean till Android O.

Also, no hardware. When Nokia was alive, they at least had some phones. 520 was one of the best budget phones and people bought them. They were some other companies (HTC M8 with WP, Acer, some smaller OEMs), but now, you have no choice in your device. If you want W10M device, you buy budget phone, nicer looking budget phone, kinda meh highrange phone and ok highrange phone.

And this comes from WP/W10M fan. I hope in 2 years they will get their shit together and I will be able to purchase W10M device again.

I've always hated this about Android. There's a stupid homescreen that I need to tap through before I can reach my app drawer. I haven't found an app that just takes me directly to the app drawer yet.

Android and ios are based on the same interface principles. There is a grid for both unless you're using some backward ass carrier customized ui.

just put the apps that you use on home screen?

not open source

"App drawer"?
If you want a list of all apps, hit the button with 6 dots. If you want to add folders, touch and hold an empty area and add it.

I use almost 200 apps. It will take a long time to add them and I don't know if new apps will be placed in the correct spot alphabetically when ever I install a new one.

That button opens up the app drawer. The problem is that I have to press Android's home button from another app then the app drawer button. I need to go to the app drawer all the time so it has become really fucking annoying.

It had potential but Microsoft being Microsoft they fucked their users hard.

I fell for the meme and bought a first gen windows phone, an HTC Mozart 7.

It was basic, few apps but other than that it werked. Then I waited roughly a year for an update that I produced copy & fucking paste and then it was announced that the first gen windows phone OS would be abandoned.

That's when I lost my shit. They fucked their first adopters so fucking much that they were doomed from the start.

>use almost 200 apps
hard to believe but if it's true search would be superior than any "app drawer"

>I produced
*Introduced

>still use lumia 930
>check out s7 edge
>it lags all over
>even the fucking web browser on the 930 provides a smooter experience
>UI is retarded on the s7
How fucking hard is it to make an android device that doesn't make me feel I'm using a computer from the 90s that was always outdated? The no apps meme is starting to bother me a bit so I'm probably going to buy an android device later this year. Maybe I can install sailfish on it and that reduces the lag.

they are both fucking shit. apple chromatic guidelines seems to be written by some hippie from the 60ies, android is just shit with its lma0 two clocks

>60ies

>first gen windows phone OS would be abandoned
later phones have it better, i use windows 10 on lowest of low end windows phones from 2013 and it works just fine

Is there an app where I can press the home button from another app and it will automatically open up the search bar and keyboard?

>60ies
>sixty ies

I've seen the improvement but that doesn't change the fact that first gen users were fucked so hard it made it almost impossible to persuade them to try another windows phone device.

You can always swap the launcher on Android

KISS launcher, not sure if you don't have to tick a thing in settings though.
Also Blackberry works like that by default. Only apple cucks don't get the search functionality.

which only makes sense on devices that run nearly AOSP software anyways as otherwise you will have a horrific mix of pseudo-AOSP-wahtever-launcher-you-use and the original manufacturers look in eg. the drop down status bar and settings. so essentially a launcher doesnt solve any problem.

those Android screens look awful. Fucking ricers have no taste.

This is really good. Thanks a lot senpai.

Or on devices where you install a custom ROM. On the phones I used the manufacturer didn't fuck up the whole design so I had no problems using other launchers.

They really should have focused on a non-consumer-facing section of the market. If they'd tried to make it the Thinkpad of phones, it could have worked. If they'd made phones that were boxy, but easily fixed, easily managed by IT departments and focused heavily on security, then they'd have something worth buying, but not for the average consumer. Ideally they would have not just gone with Windows phone, but thrown a fuckton of money at Redhat to create a Linux OS for it too, because there's nothing quite like sucking up to the IT department of a large company to get mandatory hardware used by all its employees.

Blackberry's dropped the ball, because they got greedy and wanted into consumer tech. Instead of taking over Blackberry's old market, Nokia went and tried to differentiate their phones with... better cameras?

Google now
Even without the now cards function
Just long press the home button, and google now will open
The search bar works both as an internet search and local search
You can search apps, music and everything

ms killed nokia
wp without nokia is nothing
ms already killed most nokia apps

apple is your last hope from google domination
android without competition will turn shit
kekekke

stfu

fuck off retard

THIS:
These posters know what they're talking about. GJ.

cos no apps

You can search through your apps on ios.

Because Nokia didnt gave in to popular interests before it was too late.
Real mobile phones have died.

disgusting.

No apps. It was an amazing phone tho. Windows phone needs Snapchat and little games like pk go for it to make it. I honestly would go back to winmo if my phone fucks me.

It was closer to a featurephone than a smartphone.

Microsoft and Nokia were the Johnny-Come-Latelys that laughed off smartphones while they still had the edge in desktop PCs and feature phones. Windows phone was pretty much fucked for 4 reasons:

1.) Johnny-Come-Lately last mover disadvantage
2.) The UI reminded people of the horrid Windows 8
3.) Windows is that "industry standard" thing at work you only use because you have to. Microsoft was never "cool", and never will be. Not even ironically with Vaporwave fans.
4.) Proprietary and closed, with no "cool factor" to compensate like with Apple.