Nokia with WP7 is out, just not in U.S.

[EightySix Four]

They're not equivalent. Dropbox works with EVERYTHING. Sky Drive is just another iCloud: a worthless ecosystem lock-in.

You can't complain about it not having a client on the phone and then say it works with "EVERYTHING."

I'm not sure what the problem with skydrive is, if the device has a browser, it works. The integration with Office is fantastic as well.

 

[cronos]

I probably should take a closer look at SkyDrive. I have tried other, similar programs (box.net = bleh), but it's really tough to beat the ease and convenience of Dropbox after you got used to it.

 

[MrX8503]

Again, though, two years ago 70,000 was enough to say you had an app for, and I quote, "just about everything". Are you saying that wasn't the case?

That point doesn't apply today because 70k on the iPhone was ages ago. Its now almost 2012 and 70k doesn't cut it.

50,000-100,000 apps that are actually good?

Do you have 50,000-100,000 apps on your iPhone/Android phone at the moment? No. Then you don't need a marketplace of that size.

When there are stores of 300,000+ apps, the vast majority of them are going to be very pointless and single-purpose. I absolutely refuse to believe that there are more than 40,000 unique tasks that you perform on a regular basis.

If WP7's marketplace had 100 apps it would be perfectly fine if those 100 apps covered everything that needed to be done.

I think you're missing the point. If there are more apps, there's a higher chance that there's a quality app for your needs. I'm in no way suggesting that there needs to be 40k quality apps.

If WP7 has 40k apps, then I can conclude that it has very few quality apps. If WP7 only had 100 apps, whats the likelihood of those apps being high quality or meeting your needs? Very very slim.

Not sure if this has already been said, but the reason why a high volume of applications is important has to do with percentages.

Assuming that 10% of apps/developers are innovative/well-coded and worth buying, having 500,000 total apps means 50,000 quality apps. Having 50,000 total apps means 5,000 quality apps.

Exactly, which is a point a lot of people seem to miss.

 

[Red Storm]

Not sure if this has already been said, but the reason why a high volume of applications is important has to do with percentages.

When it comes to innovative ideas, there is no reason why programmers developing for one platform are inherently more innovative/talented than those developing for another. Especially considering that today's app/market model means programmers can instantly/digitally publish their applications directly to a platform.

Assuming that 10% of apps/developers are innovative/well-coded and worth buying, having 500,000 total apps means 50,000 quality apps. Having 50,000 total apps means 5,000 quality apps.

A larger volume of quality apps also means more quality apps per category. More quality games, more quality RSS readers, more quality financial apps, etc.

It also means a higher probability of a "must-have" app presenting itself. Angry Birds is one example of a game that sold phones, but we also have apps like Siri...overlooked/underrated, but now considered a game-changer.

That is assuming the percentage is the same across all platforms, which it won't be. You're more likely to find poor developers on the most popular platform than one that is much less popular.

And Siri is anything but underrated. No matter how useful it actually is, it is not the holy grail of applications as Apple and many of their fans would like everyone else to believe.

 

[pantsaregood]

That point doesn't apply today because 70k on the iPhone was ages ago. Its now almost 2012 and 70k doesn't cut it.



I think you're missing the point. If there are more apps, there's a higher chance that there's a quality app for your needs. I'm in no way suggesting that there needs to be 40k quality apps.

If WP7 has 40k apps, then I can conclude that it has very few quality apps. If WP7 only had 100 apps, whats the likelihood of those apps being high quality or meeting your needs? Very very slim.



Exactly, which is a point a lot of people seem to miss.

Do you have a formula that tells you the percentage of apps that will be of good quality?

You're assuming that you can compare the three marketplaces directly. Such an assumption is extremely poor. Android's market is generally of far lower quality than Apple's. WP7's market is, like Apple's, very heavily moderated. Not to mention the majority of "big name" apps have a presence on WP7.

You can only make a fart machine so many ways.

 

[Sheep]

If WP7 has 40k apps, then I can conclude that it has very few quality apps. If WP7 only had 100 apps, whats the likelihood of those apps being high quality or meeting your needs? Very very slim.

The odds are extremely high you'll have dozens of every type of app whether you have 40,000 or 100,000 apps available. 40,000 vs. 100,000 vs. 1,000,000,000 apps simply isn't as big a difference as 100 vs. 1,000 vs. 10,000 since you're dealing with very high numbers and it's highly unlikely some app you need/want won't be represented well in that list.

 

[TheStu]

I probably should take a closer look at SkyDrive. I have tried other, similar programs (box.net = bleh), but it's really tough to beat the ease and convenience of Dropbox after you got used to it.

25GB of free storage, photos can be uploaded automatically after you take them (though last i heard they were not full quality backups for some reason). Browser access, integrates with Windows 7, there is a lot to like.

 

[Munky]

If WP7 has 40k apps, then I can conclude that it has very few quality apps. If WP7 only had 100 apps, whats the likelihood of those apps being high quality or meeting your needs? Very very slim.

I disagree. Back when apps for Nokia were only available by browsing forums, before the Ovi store, the majority of them were quality apps/games made by knowledgeable people to serve a useful purpose. When making and distributing apps became easy, that's when every Jane, Dick and Harry decided that there needs to be more farting machines and fake caller apps. The higher number of apps guarantees that more and more of them exist to make a quick buck for the author rather than do anything useful.

 

[Deeko]

That point doesn't apply today because 70k on the iPhone was ages ago. Its now almost 2012 and 70k doesn't cut it.

"Doesn't cut it" for what? For fanboys to kick and scream about on the internet, or to actually make the device useful? As I already pointed out, and as the old Apple commercials agreed, at that app level, there's an app for "pretty much everything".

If WP7 has 40k apps, then I can conclude that it has very few quality apps.

No offense, but that's a very foolish conclusion to come to with no actual experience with the marketplace. Try as you might, but there is no magical formula that deduces how many quality apps there are vs total apps.

 

[Deeko]

I disagree. Back when apps for Nokia were only available by browsing forums, before the Ovi store, the majority of them were quality apps/games made by knowledgeable people to serve a useful purpose. When making and distributing apps became easy, that's when every Jane, Dick and Harry decided that there needs to be more farting machines and fake caller apps. The higher number of apps guarantees that more and more of them exist to make a quick buck for the author rather than do anything useful.

Yea, back when I had the Nokia N95, when the official source for apps was Nokia's beta labs website, literally every app was quality. You can't just take the raw number of available apps and apply some percentage to it.

 

[EightySix Four]

Just wanted to say the most recent deekfit is fantastic.

 

[Deeko]

Just wanted to say the most recent deekfit is fantastic.

Thank you sir. Next version should be submitted by the end of the week if all goes well.

See fellas - there's at least one quality app

 

[EightySix Four]

Thank you sir. Next version should be submitted by the end of the week if all goes well.

See fellas - there's at least one quality app

The interface is much better than before all the way around. Have you tried getting WPCentral to review it yet?

 

[MrX8503]

There's no secret formula for quality apps vs the total number of apps so I guess I should rephrase.

What I'm saying is that with 40k apps, a very high percentage of those apps would have to be high quality for the marketplace to be competitive to either Android/iOS. All I'm saying is that for the consumer to find the device appealing, it has to have A LOT of high quality apps. If WP7 can get away with that with 40k, then great.

Right now WP7 isn't on my radar because of the apps alone, even though I prefer the OS over Android. If it has more A+ apps than Android, then I would consider it over Android.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Did anyone find the Lumia 800 underwhelming. 3.7" 854x480 Pentile AMOLED screen, 1.4ghz Snapdragon, 16gb storage and apparently no microSD or front facing camera. Basically it sounds like a great competitor to the Galaxy S or iPhone 4 but very outclassed against the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s.

 

[notposting]

Did anyone find the Lumia 800 underwhelming. 3.7" 854x480 Pentile AMOLED screen, 1.4ghz Snapdragon, 16gb storage and apparently no microSD or front facing camera. Basically it sounds like a great competitor to the Galaxy S or iPhone 4 but very outclassed against the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s.

Very. Immediate deal breaker was no FFC. And that's an 800x480 screen, the stock WP7 resolution. Low storage, at least a couple options would have been nice (32GB at least), the rest is kind of limited by the WP7 platform....bumping the screen a little bit would have been preferred (4"???).

Oh yeah, lets blow off the holiday shopping season in the States as well.

I mean...this thing really offers nothing over the Trophy I already have. I'm just hoping I get something better on Verizon soon.

 

[MrX8503]

Did anyone find the Lumia 800 underwhelming. 3.7" 854x480 Pentile AMOLED screen, 1.4ghz Snapdragon, 16gb storage and apparently no microSD or front facing camera. Basically it sounds like a great competitor to the Galaxy S or iPhone 4 but very outclassed against the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s.

I thought it was very underwhelming. This isn't going to get WP7 off its feet.

 

[finbarqs]

do you think microsoft will abandon this platform? it's not gaining any traction... or are they about to make the biggest mistake of their lives with Windows 8? Nobody likes MS. MS is still, in many eyes, the enemy...

 

[acx]

do you think microsoft will abandon this platform? it's not gaining any traction... or are they about to make the biggest mistake of their lives with Windows 8? Nobody likes MS. MS is still, in many eyes, the enemy...

Do they have a choice? It's either make Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 work or watch from the sidelines of the new multi-billion dollar smartphone industry.

 

[finbarqs]

it seems it always gets negative press, but yet I think it's pretty slick and awesome. Even on Anandtech, (or dailytech) any news of WP7 is always met with negative criticism from the comments!

 

[s44]

Are you serious? I've actually recommended WP7 to people. It's definitely got a niche, but I don't see how the Nokia devices help MS get what WP7 what it desperately needs: buzz outside the tech press that actually desperately wants it to succeed.

 

[smartpatrol]

Supposedly Stephen Elop said that Nokia Windows Phones would enter the US with a bang in early 2012, and it would NOT be with the Lumia phones.

Anyway, Nokia has said they want to release 12 new Windows smartphones over the next year. Yeah, their first WP is a retooled N9 because that's the fastest thing they could produce. I'm sure we will see a lot more in the coming months.

 

[TheStu]

it seems it always gets negative press, but yet I think it's pretty slick and awesome. Even on Anandtech, (or dailytech) any news of WP7 is always met with negative criticism from the comments!

The biggest negative criticism (as always) comes from those that don't use it. They see the large tiles and the black bar along the right side of the home screen as a HUGE problem that would be solved by WinMoPho just copying everyone else's aproach (let's grid some icons, yea!). They see cut off and truncated words and assume that it is sloppy, and not a clear design choice. They have never used it, they don't understand it, therefore they hate it. I don't think that it is for everyone, and I can get that people would call it ugly, aesthetic is a personal thing.

 

[Red Storm]

The biggest negative criticism (as always) comes from those that don't use it. They see the large tiles and the black bar along the right side of the home screen as a HUGE problem that would be solved by WinMoPho just copying everyone else's aproach (let's grid some icons, yea!). They see cut off and truncated words and assume that it is sloppy, and not a clear design choice. They have never used it, they don't understand it, therefore they hate it. I don't think that it is for everyone, and I can get that people would call it ugly, aesthetic is a personal thing.

That right there is one of the reasons why I didn't stick with WP7. The live tiles are cool, but just not what I wanted my home screen to look like.

 

[elitejp]

I think once dual core wp7's or 8's start coming out people will begin to pay more attention to it. Every time I read after an owner of the wp7 platform they all say its fantastic and super quick. I think with all the earlier releases the windows phone was seemingly exactly the same despite different company brands written across the top (or wherever). For me i didnt see any real variety. As it stands though Im still eying the samsung focus as the price keeps dropping down, and since I pay full price on phones (dont live in the US) 600 dollar galaxy s2 or $1000 iphone 4s just doesnt interest me. I really dont care if someones phone is rooted and is .0005 sec faster than my phone, as long as my phone does what a phone should do then im good to go.

And just another thought. I too was a little worried about not being able to have quality apps for the windows platform since they have the least but then I thought about it this way. Even if wp7 only has a few thousand apps I would bet that they would be the most popular across every brand (ios android etc). Since developers are trying to make a little money if they see that a certain app is a huge success on the iphone then they will quickly move to put it onto the android platform and then windows. If the app is stupid and kinda sucks then it will probably get written for the iphone first as thats the biggest market. Sort of like a trial run. If it doesnt fly there then they probably wont bother writing it for other platforms. Hence you get apple with a billion apps, some awesome some sucky. Its cool to say that you have the most apps but really how many do people actually use and like.