How well is Win Phone 7 actually doing?

[finbarqs]

Mango added the long list selector to your app list - you can get to just about any app on the phone with 3 taps. Touch a letter header to bring up the alphabet, touch the letter of the app you want to jump to that portion of the list, touch the app to open it. Same interface they had for selecting artists/songs in the ZuneHD (and those are MUCH longer lists). It works really well.

Frankly, Metro was designed for the average person, not the power user. My mom can barely find her away around a computer (she still uses AOL even though she has broadband because she refuses to learn how to use a normal browser), and she just got the Samsung Focus Flash - she loves it, and figured out how to use it no problem.

my mom doesn't know her way around her home theater remote controls, nor her computer, yet she needs one to write on everyday. She has an HD7. only uses text messaging and calling. couldn't figure out how to get to voicemails, which resulted in me showing her every time i visit.

 

[RedRooster]

yeah, but scrolling through a long list is much more tedious than scrolling through a huge long list.

I have unfoldered apps on my iphone, and scrolling left and right isn't bad. But I think you're one of the "power users" who understands a thing or 2 about electronics. (To be honest, it's all logical, but modern people don't like to "think")

I personally like the Metro UI, but I can definitely say it's not for the lay-person!

I should say that I only have 12 tiles on my homescreen though. :biggrin:
Like mentioned, swipe right, hit a letter, hit T, and open theChive. I'm in business. hehe

 

[QueBert]

You think they will go from 2% to 10% market share in 12 months?
That's one hell of a prediction.

For them to do that, RIM would virtually have to be dead.
The following are facts: They certainly won't steal much of any market share from iOS or Android.
That leaves them the current 10% market share of RIM, 3% WM, 1% Symbian, and 1% Palm OS to squabble over. They would need to get 8% out of the remaining 15%, and that's only if iOS and Android don't gain any additional market share.

If your prediction happens, great.
But I have my doubts. :hmm:

If good enough hand sets get released I could see a huge jump, as it stands I'd estimate 80% of the people I know who have an Android phone don't even know it's running Android, or even really know what Android is. My neighbor has a Galaxy not a Droid (as he tells it) I explained it to him but he was still sort of confused. Android by itself doesn't have recognition like the iPhone does so a lot of the phones bought aren't due to people wanting an Android device. They just like the phone on demo at the Verizon or AT&T store. MS could gain some ground here when a dude like my neighbor goes into the Verizon store to get a new phone and knows absolutely nothing about nothing. He'll end up buying whichever one looks the best to him.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

and yet, it's still IS the BIGGEST selling iPhone. If Apple can turn crap to gold... then why can't MS do something with WP7?

Anyways, people with "dumbphones" are less likely to adopt WP7 and more likely to adopt iPhone/Android - because of it's simplistic 'grid o' icons' nature. The metro UI is very intimidating and has a learning curve (albeit steep for none power users) and will most likely turn to a grid of icons. This is the "Show me the app" mentality!

WP7 has interesting and fun right now because it's new (to me at least). But if all 3 OS's came out at the same time, Grid of icons will beat live tiles every time -- especially for new users.

Because Microsoft isn't Apple, they don't have a loyal following or millions of people already invested in their ecosystem. Besides despite all the hate it received the 4s is still technically sound and more powerful than any Windows Phone that will be released in the next year or so.

I didn't find the Metro UI complicated so much as I did ugly, the matte single colored squares over solid backgrounds look like something from the DOS era and lives tiles are far less attractive and functional than widgets.

 

[finbarqs]

Because Microsoft isn't Apple, they don't have a loyal following or millions of people already invested in their ecosystem. Besides despite all the hate it received the 4s is still technically sound and more powerful than any Windows Phone that will be released in the next year or so.

I didn't find the Metro UI complicated so much as I did ugly, the matte single colored squares over solid backgrounds look like something from the DOS era and lives tiles are far less attractive and functional than widgets.

you just spelled out the reason why Microsoft Mobile Division needs to stop. They don't matter anymore...

 

[N4g4rok]

I didn't find the Metro UI complicated so much as I did ugly, the matte single colored squares over solid backgrounds look like something from the DOS era and lives tiles are far less attractive and functional than widgets.

Personally, i appreciate the way that the tiles give the UI a clean look. And as of now, it's true that most of the tiles are not as useful as widgets on other platforms, but they're getting significantly better. Especially after Mango came out. As developers keep writing more applications for WP7, i think we will see the live tile feature get put to good use.

My only real issue with the way WP7 gets viewed in the market is how several potential users are immediately turned away because of lower specs than other phones. I don't think every mobile OS has the same standards for hardware requirements, so i find that argument a little tough to agree with. A Tegra 3 makes sense in an Android phone because some of them get bogged down easily by several background-running apps and fragmentation issues over time. With the exception of some games, i don't think WP7 needs much more that a single core Snapdragon to get the job done.

 

[Fox5]

Personally, i appreciate the way that the tiles give the UI a clean look. And as of now, it's true that most of the tiles are not as useful as widgets on other platforms, but they're getting significantly better. Especially after Mango came out. As developers keep writing more applications for WP7, i think we will see the live tile feature get put to good use.

My only real issue with the way WP7 gets viewed in the market is how several potential users are immediately turned away because of lower specs than other phones. I don't think every mobile OS has the same standards for hardware requirements, so i find that argument a little tough to agree with. A Tegra 3 makes sense in an Android phone because some of them get bogged down easily by several background-running apps and fragmentation issues over time. With the exception of some games, i don't think WP7 needs much more that a single core Snapdragon to get the job done.

WP7 has the slowest web browser of the major platforms. That probably applies to the email client as well.

 

[N4g4rok]

WP7 has the slowest web browser of the major platforms. That probably applies to the email client as well.

I was hoping that Opera Mini would be released for WP7, but i'm starting to think that won't happen. IE mobile has not been much of a problem and the mail clients seem to work just fine.

 

[Deeko]

WP7 has the slowest web browser of the major platforms. That probably applies to the email client as well.

Its not really that slow in page load tests. IE-based browsers are notoriously bad at Sunspider, and the gadget community is under the impression that Sunspider is completely indicitive of browser performance - its not. In practice, Mango is plenty snappy at page loading.

I'm not sure what your comment about the email client refers to, unless you mean loading an HTML-based email? When people say that the browser in WP7 is "slow", they're refering to page load speeds...when it comes to UI responsiveness, WP7 is pretty much universally praised for being one of the fastest and smoothest platforms.

 

[Red Storm]

I don't recall page load speeds being all that bad in WP7 (and I've only tried it pre-Mango).

Though with how fast the Nexus and 4S are now, maybe it's noticeable.

 

[shortylickens]

I just used what is supposedly a powerful Symbian Anna phone and it stunk for page loads. My HD7 was considerably faster.
Though its definitely inferior to Dolphin HD.

 

[kubani1]

I didn't find the Metro UI complicated so much as I did ugly, the matte single colored squares over solid backgrounds look like something from the DOS era and lives tiles are far less attractive and functional than widgets.

I couldn't agree more, there is something rather disturbingly ugly about WP7, and that is the only reason I won't go near it, I don't like to look at it.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I should say that I only have 12 tiles on my homescreen though. :biggrin:
Like mentioned, swipe right, hit a letter, hit T, and open theChive. I'm in business. hehe

The problem is when you sort of remember the app but not precisely.

For example, if you had an app called "Woods" but you only recall it had something to do with trees then tapping the letter won't work. However, scrolling icons and quickly glancing at them to find the icon is a faster process than scrolling a long text list (even if there's icons for that).

 

[ultimatebob]

After seeing how quickly Microsoft killed the Kin and discontinued support for Windows Mobile 6.x, I'd be afraid to commit to a two year contract on a Windows Mobile phone.

I'd be worried that Microsoft will give up and discontinue support for the platform before my contract is up.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I heard an interesting comment on a podcast iirc, they said: "If you took an iPhone, an Android phone, and a WM phone back to to 5 years ago and asked them to pick the one that would dominate the market, they'd be hard pressed to pick the phone/OS that was dominating 5 years later."

 

[shortylickens]

I heard an interesting comment on a podcast iirc, they said: "If you took an iPhone, an Android phone, and a WM phone back to to 5 years ago and asked them to pick the one that would dominate the market, they'd be hard pressed to pick the phone/OS that was dominating 5 years later."

no cuz 5, 10 years ago we knew igadgets dominated the market.