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Windows Phone 7 |OT|
- Thread starter brotkasten
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VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Rapid recorder gave me an error on playback. I can't recall my evernote password.Klocker said:
StudioTan
Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
I picked up a Samsung Focus with my contract renewal last week for $20. I LOVE this phone, although of course the first thing I did was install Mango so that is my only experience with the phone so far, but even still the interface is beautiful I love it.
Going back to my iPhone 3G after using this for half an hour was such a stark contrast, the 3G was so slow, clunky and ugly by comparison.
My only issue is so many of the features don't work in Canada. I'm hoping that gets remedied by the end of the year.
Going back to my iPhone 3G after using this for half an hour was such a stark contrast, the 3G was so slow, clunky and ugly by comparison.
My only issue is so many of the features don't work in Canada. I'm hoping that gets remedied by the end of the year.
Joel Was Right
If you smell burning, it's probably the generators acting up. Report it anyway.
The lack of devices in retail is the biggest problem. T-Mobile UK are already beginning to recall the Omnia because of poor sales according to two store managers. You barely see a WP7 in store. No one knows about it. It's a shame because I'm confident that if Microsoft sent out a few test devices, rather than models, to each store to give customers a demo they would see a significant improvement; the OS is good enough to counter the cultural appeal of the iPhone
Robobandit
Member
Meus Renaissance said:
For some people, most certainly.
I hope Microsoft puts forth more effort to get working demo devices into stores and making sure that sales associates are trained on the devices.
Before launch, I went to 2 t-mobile stores and 3 at&t stores to see if they had demo units available.. at t-mobile, one of the employees at one of the stores had a HD 7 that could be played with.. at&t didn't have a demo unit until launch day or shortly after..
I'd bet that if I walked into a wireless store tomorrow and tried to buy a WP7 device, I'd have trouble doing it.
antiquegamer
Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
They did but instead we got that shitty "Really!?" ads along with awful launch support not to mention post launch update screw up.
This year really is do or die, but I think they are a bit late ... the market seems to be really entrench with Android or iPhone.
brotkasten
Member
Nokia is going to help Microsoft with the marketing push this fall.
I've never seen Samsung, HTC or LG advertising the Windows Phones.
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/nokia-plans-global-brand-repositioning-campaign-report
I've never seen Samsung, HTC or LG advertising the Windows Phones.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Here are my totally unsolicited thoughts on Mango after using it for two weeks or so exclusively:
-The experience is much faster. This is probably due to the animations being sped up, having a faster browser, and first party app switching. WP7 was already very fluid and responsive, Mango just feels better. The only hiccup here is scrolling seems a bit more jerky than I remember, both in long webpages and in apps that require scrolling. And since scrolling improvements are supposed to be in Mango, I'll just assume its either my device or beta bugs.
-Fast app switching with the image cards works really well in 1st party apps and I'm hoping it'll be just as great once 3rd party apps update. My only concern is that it doesn't feel like it's enough apps. There are 5 or so in addition to the screen you're on, but sometimes you get multiple screens for each app, which really cuts into how far back you can go. For example, if I go to settings to turn on wi-fi, when I do fast app switching, both the wi-fi page AND the main settings page comes up. That leaves just 3 or so apps behind that available for fast app switching. It's just not enough, especially if you are going to have multiple screens in the task switcher for one app.
-IE9 is faster at rendering web pages no doubt. There is also much more compatibility with all kinds of pages thanks to html5. That said, sometimes the rendering is still off, scrolling didn't feel as smooth as the rest of the OS, and many pages simply don't load up like they do on iOS or Android, which may be a user agent deal, I don't know.
-The overhaul to the Me tile and the Groups functionality is the real deal. Seriously, groups is a revelation, having a live tile for family etc. is fantastic. Having the communications history for each person is fantastic. The Me tile having notifications and check in is really great if you're into FB. I didn't even have it pinned to the start screen in No Do, now it's at the top.
-Integrated messaging is also amazing. No complaints there. Being able to switch between communication types is excellent, and having everything in one app is as good as it sounds.
-The Zune app is a mixed bag. Having the play controls at the top of the screen is annoying, having a play all option at the bottom when you enter the app is well thought out. Having history and new scroll downwards is also more intuitive and saves swipes when you're just trying to get across. There is a bit of confusion for me in terms of podcasts because you can subscribe on the phone and you can subscribe on the Zune client separately and I'm not sure how that affects the subscription on either end or if it just duplicates everything. I just keep my subscriptions on the client and sync to the phone. There is also a nasty bug that deletes all the podcasts. Overall the app is better, and the beautiful touches like the lock screen artist view is better than anything out there in terms of looks. More information on the drop down controls when out of the app help, but there is a lot of wasted space in the drop down now, which I just find too big.
-Live tiles work. They work much more consistently, and they animate more quickly.
-The pictures hub has gotten underrated improvements including the addition of favorites, which gets its own section AND determines which photos cycle through the live tile. Having cycling pics in the live tile and the ability to control which pictures show up there make it infinitely better. The feed of pictures from FB also seems quicker and more stable to load up.
-The addition of linked inboxes and threaded email are welcome, but that's been done on other platforms. Obviously the Xbox app and the Office app are all better as well, but I'll end my impressions here.
-The experience is much faster. This is probably due to the animations being sped up, having a faster browser, and first party app switching. WP7 was already very fluid and responsive, Mango just feels better. The only hiccup here is scrolling seems a bit more jerky than I remember, both in long webpages and in apps that require scrolling. And since scrolling improvements are supposed to be in Mango, I'll just assume its either my device or beta bugs.
-Fast app switching with the image cards works really well in 1st party apps and I'm hoping it'll be just as great once 3rd party apps update. My only concern is that it doesn't feel like it's enough apps. There are 5 or so in addition to the screen you're on, but sometimes you get multiple screens for each app, which really cuts into how far back you can go. For example, if I go to settings to turn on wi-fi, when I do fast app switching, both the wi-fi page AND the main settings page comes up. That leaves just 3 or so apps behind that available for fast app switching. It's just not enough, especially if you are going to have multiple screens in the task switcher for one app.
-IE9 is faster at rendering web pages no doubt. There is also much more compatibility with all kinds of pages thanks to html5. That said, sometimes the rendering is still off, scrolling didn't feel as smooth as the rest of the OS, and many pages simply don't load up like they do on iOS or Android, which may be a user agent deal, I don't know.
-The overhaul to the Me tile and the Groups functionality is the real deal. Seriously, groups is a revelation, having a live tile for family etc. is fantastic. Having the communications history for each person is fantastic. The Me tile having notifications and check in is really great if you're into FB. I didn't even have it pinned to the start screen in No Do, now it's at the top.
-Integrated messaging is also amazing. No complaints there. Being able to switch between communication types is excellent, and having everything in one app is as good as it sounds.
-The Zune app is a mixed bag. Having the play controls at the top of the screen is annoying, having a play all option at the bottom when you enter the app is well thought out. Having history and new scroll downwards is also more intuitive and saves swipes when you're just trying to get across. There is a bit of confusion for me in terms of podcasts because you can subscribe on the phone and you can subscribe on the Zune client separately and I'm not sure how that affects the subscription on either end or if it just duplicates everything. I just keep my subscriptions on the client and sync to the phone. There is also a nasty bug that deletes all the podcasts. Overall the app is better, and the beautiful touches like the lock screen artist view is better than anything out there in terms of looks. More information on the drop down controls when out of the app help, but there is a lot of wasted space in the drop down now, which I just find too big.
-Live tiles work. They work much more consistently, and they animate more quickly.
-The pictures hub has gotten underrated improvements including the addition of favorites, which gets its own section AND determines which photos cycle through the live tile. Having cycling pics in the live tile and the ability to control which pictures show up there make it infinitely better. The feed of pictures from FB also seems quicker and more stable to load up.
-The addition of linked inboxes and threaded email are welcome, but that's been done on other platforms. Obviously the Xbox app and the Office app are all better as well, but I'll end my impressions here.
brotkasten
Member
VanMardigan said:
IE9 in the Mango beta still sends out the IE NoDo UA string. That will be fixed in the RTM.
E: It's either that, or the new UA string is not recognized by the new sites. I've heard both.
brotkasten
Member
WPC 2011, day 2. Andy Lees, VP of the phone business is presenting.
http://www.digitalwpc.com/#fbid=b59h8EDkuQy
http://www.digitalwpc.com/#fbid=b59h8EDkuQy
It's a Mango feature and no, the Zune player doesn't have an EQ.Aasir Osu said:
Cj70 said:Only found out yesterday that you can have the lock screen display album art of the currently playing artist. Really nice touch
I do not know why that feature is turned off by default.... its a really cool touch.
VanMardigan said:
I do agree its an odd placement but it makes sense when you see the lock screen.... the reason its at the top is so it can be in the same place "everywhere" on the phone.
I still don't understand the podcast stuff.... they do seem to be completely separate right now and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why they would be like that. Hopefully this will be fixed in the final mango release because the phone should just know what podcasts you have subscribed to on the zune software and transfer those over to the phone.
Meus Renaissance said:
Completely agree on points made here. Although WMPoweruser posted something interesting yesterday:
WMPoweruser said:In UK, Windows Phone holds steady while iPhone plummets in market share
Share in UK
Mobile OS May-10 Jun-10 Mar-11 May-11 Jun-11
Android 9.8 10.7 38.0 44.9 45.2
iPhone 32.9 30.6 23.0 19.6 18.3
Blackberry 18.6 19.4 24.5 20.9 22.3
Windows Phone 6.2 5.6 2.0 2.8 2.8
Symbian 31.0 32.7 11.4 10.6 10.7
Other 1.5 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.7
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech has released its monthly smartphone sales market share numbers for the 12-week period ending 12 June.
The data shows the now routine ascendency of Android and the low profile of Windows Phone in the UK. More interesting however is the plummeting market share of iPhone in UK, reminiscent of what Blackberry OS in USA. Also of note is that Windows Phone has managed to hang on to its (small) market share during the same assault by Android.
The numbers however hide another interesting fact. Apparently iPhone sales have been steady, but eclipsed by the rapid growth of the smartphone market in UK. Given that Windows Phone 7 market share has remained constant it suggests, unlike the iPhone, Windows Phone sales have managed to grow at the same rate as the market and are increasing in actual number of handsets sold.
...
Interesting here, is that if iPhone sale's are steady by count, then the market has grown ~7% from May to June in 2011. This is think is quite promising given the luke warm effort by networks to push WP7 and the relatively stale hardware.
I think a second push with Mango, Nokia and Galaxy SII level hardware will have the momentum required to build some serious market share....maybe even 10%. But that is all speculation.
sweetvar26
Member
Cj70 said:Only found out yesterday that you can have the lock screen display album art of the currently playing artist. Really nice touch
How do you get to choose that option? I tried the settings for Music + Video and can't seem to find any.
brotkasten
Member
Yeah, I'll be honest. I don't think that Nokia will help that much. People don't buy less Nokia phones, because they don't like the OS.Copernicus said:
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
sweetvar26 said:
Go into Settings, then Lock + Wallpaper and you'll see the option there (Mango only).
So why is it then?
As speculated when the deal was struck, where Nokia will help WP7 most is world wide saturation and probably bringing the OS to lower end (cheaper, yet solid) hardware. Millions and millions of units WW.
as for NA and UK etc...yea, there needs to be better support from carriers and manufacturers like HTC Samsung who currently churn out Android phone after Android phone
as for NA and UK etc...yea, there needs to be better support from carriers and manufacturers like HTC Samsung who currently churn out Android phone after Android phone
brotkasten
Member
VanMardigan said:
I'm sure it's a mix of different factors.
- Much more competition in the smart phone space, due to the "free" Android OS
- Cheaper smart phones with Android from various manufacturers, outnumbering the Nokia offerings
- Carriers probably favor Android phones, because they can customize more with that OS
- The competition has a lot more apps and WP won't change that (I think the Ovi Store is still bigger than the Marketplace)
- Apple is the more popular brand among teens and tweens.
Did I forget something?
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
brotkasten said:
The only one I can see actually making a difference in terms of consumers NOT selecting Nokia is the first one. The second one is basically the first reason re-stated. The third reason doesn't matter to the consumers, so it's not a reason why someone would NOT pick up a Nokia phone. The fourth one is actually arguing against your original point about why someone would NOT buy a Nokia phone. After all, if they have more apps than WP7, and that's a factor in sales according to you, Nokia would be on an upward trajectory in relation to WP7. The last point is irrelevant considering Android is really the bigger threat. When you're arguing why someone would NOT buy a Nokia phones, those reasons don't seem compelling, aside from the increased competition angle. And if consumers aren't choosing Nokia over Android/iPhone competitors, I don't see how you could dismiss the OS, the software/app ecosystem, as not being the main reason.
Question regarding MMS
Has anyone been experiencing pictures via text messages only incoming about 50% of the time?
I receive a text with the Get Media Content... message, upon clicking it, it changes to Getting Media Content... and half of the time I get a picture, the rest of the time I get nothing.
This is terribly annoying, I had assumed it was an issue with dropping the wifi at the lock screen but I kept the window open and still it didn't work.
Has anyone been experiencing pictures via text messages only incoming about 50% of the time?
I receive a text with the Get Media Content... message, upon clicking it, it changes to Getting Media Content... and half of the time I get a picture, the rest of the time I get nothing.
This is terribly annoying, I had assumed it was an issue with dropping the wifi at the lock screen but I kept the window open and still it didn't work.
VanMardigan said:
Carriers favoring one OS over another is definitely a reason why customers don't by the phone. Possibly the biggest. Carrier employees are trained to push certain devices and at most carriers, those are Android currently. Carriers also determine what phones they provide, so if they don't like Nokia, they don't carry the phones, so customers don't even have a chance to get one.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
JaggedSac said:
Is that a problem in EU or wherever else Nokia is sold? Is that the reason the sales are going down, cause the carriers are refusing to stock them outside of NA? I'm asking genuinely, because outside of the carriers in NA blocking or refusing to stock certain phones, I hadn't heard about that phenomenon elsewhere and I'd NEVER heard that as a reason why Nokia had been declining.
Anton Sugar
Member
Anything new on this stream of Mango at WPC 11? Can't watch at work: http://digitalwpc.com/#fbid=JdKBiAumeuZ
http://digitalwpc.com/#fbid=jP9d8JRR-Iw 2:52 mark
wow, they just showed new phones from samsung, lte, fujitsu, and acer. the samsung looked beautiful, yes, it was a 4.3" galaxy IIs. the fujitsu was a magenta colored, waterproof phone that was said to have an amazing camera.
wow, they just showed new phones from samsung, lte, fujitsu, and acer. the samsung looked beautiful, yes, it was a 4.3" galaxy IIs. the fujitsu was a magenta colored, waterproof phone that was said to have an amazing camera.
Nokia is huge with Europe (at least). People generally have good experiences with Nokia phones in terms of reliability and quality of its main functions (calling and texting).
When you look around and see what feature phones people have got, most of the time it is a Nokia, an old one at that and when these people go to eventually upgrade to a smartphone then they would at least look at a Nokia offering. Of course not all are going to go Nokia, but I would wager a fair few would.
Also it has been constantly said that Nokia will release 1 WP7 device this year. Nokia probably could produce 5 handsets this year for WP7 but I think that they want to get just one stellar handset out there (I doubt it would look like any Nokia handset currently seen e.g. N8 or N9). They would market that one exclusively and extensively...then come out with more next year when more poeple have a positive mindset to Nokia Smartphones powered by Windows Phone 7.1/7.5
With that in mind, and the brand power and marketing spend of Microsoft and Nokia combined this will get very interesting.
When you look around and see what feature phones people have got, most of the time it is a Nokia, an old one at that and when these people go to eventually upgrade to a smartphone then they would at least look at a Nokia offering. Of course not all are going to go Nokia, but I would wager a fair few would.
Also it has been constantly said that Nokia will release 1 WP7 device this year. Nokia probably could produce 5 handsets this year for WP7 but I think that they want to get just one stellar handset out there (I doubt it would look like any Nokia handset currently seen e.g. N8 or N9). They would market that one exclusively and extensively...then come out with more next year when more poeple have a positive mindset to Nokia Smartphones powered by Windows Phone 7.1/7.5
With that in mind, and the brand power and marketing spend of Microsoft and Nokia combined this will get very interesting.
thirty said:
Stream is dead. But I found this pic after searching. Front facing camera on a Samsung.
Short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABO_LyD_SXs&feature=player_embedded
brotkasten
Member
Wow, that Samsung is thin, but uuuuugly. And isn't that the shape of the Galaxy S2? I wonder if Apple will sue them over this one.
e: The rest didn't look hot either. Acer showed their plastic brick at Computex, Fujitsu is only for Japan and ZTE is ... well, ZTE.
Here's some older data:
You can't tell me that's because consumers in Europe suddenly don't like Symbian anymore.
e: The rest didn't look hot either. Acer showed their plastic brick at Computex, Fujitsu is only for Japan and ZTE is ... well, ZTE.
I don't think carriers outright refuse to stock some Nokia phones, but it doesn't help when the sales rep are pushing the iPhone or Andrpid devices. Why wouldn't that happen outside the US? Why wouldn't it be part of the reason why Nokia phones are selling less than before? Nokia is huge in Europe, yes, but Android is growing fast.VanMardigan said:
Here's some older data:
Code:
Western Europe Smartphone System Market Share (IDC data)
FY 2009 9M 2010 3Q 2010
Symbian 51 38 34
iPhone 21 23 24
Blackberry 15 17 14
WiMo 8 4 3
Android 4 16 23You can't tell me that's because consumers in Europe suddenly don't like Symbian anymore.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
brotkasten said:
Yes I can, because Symbian vs. Windows Mobile and RIM is VERY different from the choice consumers face now in OS: Symbian vs. Android vs. Apple. Nokia still makes great hardware, so it's not that, it's the software. The landscape has changed around them. Same thing with RIM. Their phones are the same, but the competition has exposed their software as inadequate.
Also: It is very likely that you guys got a sneak peak at my next phone with the Samsung. I just doubt we'll be getting anything from Nokia with at least a 4" screen. If they don't prove me wrong, and unless HTC pulls out some super device from out of nowhere (and advances the Super LCD tech or goes IPS or something) then the Samsung it shall be.
brotkasten
Member
btw, the keynote had some cool moments.
Andy Lees, president of the Windows Phone division, told everyone that his OS, Windows Phone 7, would suck for a tablet, because Microsoft sees tablets as PCs and thinks that consumers expect the same from a tablet, what they expect from a PC (networking, using USB drives).
They also did yet another HTML5 fish demo with the competition and to no-ones surprise, Windows Phone was faster than the Torch, generic Samsung 4G dual-core phone and the iPhone 4. But here comes the twist! The iPhone 4 ran the iOS5 beta 3! Whoooo! I wonder why they didn't show the speed reading demo from MIX? Hmmm ...
Andy Lees, president of the Windows Phone division, told everyone that his OS, Windows Phone 7, would suck for a tablet, because Microsoft sees tablets as PCs and thinks that consumers expect the same from a tablet, what they expect from a PC (networking, using USB drives).
They also did yet another HTML5 fish demo with the competition and to no-ones surprise, Windows Phone was faster than the Torch, generic Samsung 4G dual-core phone and the iPhone 4. But here comes the twist! The iPhone 4 ran the iOS5 beta 3! Whoooo! I wonder why they didn't show the speed reading demo from MIX? Hmmm ...
Steelyuhas
Member
That new Samsung looks hot! Must have.
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