I'm pretty sure the "spyware" fiasco of windows 10 in general didn't help
They were more than two years late to the party with Windows Phone 7 and it's been a slow gasping death ever since. It was pretty clear that even buying Nokia's consumer handset division was not going to dislodge Android and iOS. Nokia Lumia phones were decent but it was an ecosystem in search of a userbase that was never going to gather in sufficient numbers because they were the late third entry into an established market.
Still sucks for the people that bought in and tried to give Microsoft a chance.
It's a shame they never caught on. They were really cheap and had a nice interface.
[QUOTE=Grandzeit;52762561]It's a shame they never caught on. They were really cheap and had a nice interface.[/QUOTE]
Lack of popular apps kept them from getting popular, and iirc there was a time period where Windows Phone owners had no supported, current OS available. Plus, it sits in a weird position where it's not as locked down as an iPhone, and not as open as an Android, which leaves it in that awkward middle-child area between the two extremes.
It's a real shame, because afaik there's no way to get a UI as good-looking as the Winphone's on Android without doing some rooting and shit. I also recall Winphones having fantastic cameras on them.
[QUOTE=Grandzeit;52762561]It's a shame they never caught on. They were really cheap and had a nice interface.[/QUOTE]
I wonder how difficult it is to hack that into Android.
You can replace [I]almost[/I] any part of the core functions by installing an app.
On that note, the Microsoft launcher for Android is pretty good.
[QUOTE=Daemon White;52762545]I'm pretty sure the "spyware" fiasco of windows 10 in general didn't help[/QUOTE]
Even if it hadn't happened, Windows Phone was always gonna end up dead because nobody was developing apps for it.
We use the Nokia Lumia 640 LTE phones at work and out of the 1000's of phones distributed to the employees I've still yet to find anyone complement Windows phone at all. I've had nothing but trouble dealing with them and I'll never understand how anyone can subjectively like them (I'm being disingenuous for the record). That being said you can put that down to the hardware but it's not like they were slow, just poor usability with technophobes.
Shame that another competitor couldn't join the market but hopefully Microsoft will take another stab in the future.
Google also fucked with Microsoft and refused to make a YouTube app for WPhone while also blocking Microsoft's workarounds.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52762688]Google also fucked with Microsoft and refused to make a YouTube app for WPhone while also blocking Microsoft's workarounds.[/QUOTE]
Could they not bring them to court for that? I mean...that sounds pretty anti-competitive.
I guess because Google owns youtube they are free to refuse licensing to anybody, but god damn it that's fucked up.
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;52762713]Could they not bring them to court for that? I mean...that sounds pretty anti-competitive.
I guess because Google owns youtube they are free to refuse licensing to anybody, but god damn it that's fucked up.[/QUOTE]
Basically what happened was:
Google never made an app. So Microsoft did. And it was actually really good. Too good, actually, because it allowed downloads and ad free viewing. Google sent a cease and desist because it violated their terms of use. Microsoft then redid the app to fix that, and then Google immediately changed their API which broke the app. Microsoft never updated it since, then pulled the app, and replaced with with a shortcut to YouTube in the web browser.
-ninja'd, snip-
Also toss in Snapchats honestly unjustifiable reaction of just refusing to have their app in the platform. They released a big ban wave on 3rd party apps, including Rudy Hyunns 6snap app, which was really good. The developer then contacted Snapchat, and offered the source code for it to be published officially, all the work already being done. Snapchat refused.
[editline]9th October 2017[/editline]
A lot of users liked to say "whatever, Snapchat really isn't that bad." Which unfortunately is false. Snapchat is HUGE, and made a lot of people say "no thanks."
I'm disappointed. I loved the OS. And some of the cameras were the best on the market (see the Luma 1020). Despite not being as open as Android, the core OS was phenomenal, and I greatly prefer it to Android. But the app support just never came.
[QUOTE=LegndNikko;52762763]Basically what happened was:
Google never made an app. So Microsoft did. And it was actually really good. Too good, actually, because it allowed downloads and ad free viewing. Google sent a cease and desist because it violated their terms of use. Microsoft then redid the app to fix that, and then Google immediately changed their API which broke the app. Microsoft never updated it since, then pulled the app, and replaced with with a shortcut to YouTube in the web browser.[/QUOTE]
I miss the Windows Phone third-party YouTube clients. They were genuinely great. No adverts, seemed to stream better, downloads among other things.
[QUOTE=LegndNikko;52762774]Also toss in Snapchats honestly unjustifiable reaction of just refusing to have their app in the platform. They released a big ban wave on 3rd party apps, including Rudy Hyunns 6snap app, which was really good. The developer then contacted Snapchat, and offered the source code for it to be published officially, all the work already being done. Snapchat refused.
[editline]9th October 2017[/editline]
A lot of users liked to say "whatever, Snapchat really isn't that bad." Which unfortunately is false. Snapchat is HUGE, and made a lot of people say "no thanks."
I'm disappointed. I loved the OS. And some of the cameras were the best on the market (see the Luma 1020). Despite not being as open as Android, the core OS was phenomenal, and I greatly prefer it to Android. But the app support just never came.[/QUOTE]
Snapchat is also inferior on Android. They really only care about iOS development.
[QUOTE=Levelog;52763076]Snapchat is also inferior on Android. They really only care about iOS development.[/QUOTE]
Snapchat is relatively awful on Android in my experience. It drains battery so hard for no reason at times, it crashes (not a lot, but enough times where it gets annoying), and it's pretty damn buggy as well.
[QUOTE=benbb;52762866][b]No adverts[/b], seemed to stream better, [b]downloads among other things[/b].[/QUOTE]
Wow I wonder why Google blocked them. :thinking:
[QUOTE=1/4 Life;52763238]Wow I wonder why Google blocked them. :thinking:[/QUOTE]
This was after the Microsoft YouTube app went down. From my knowledge they still work. I can still download MyTube (one of the best) which I purchased on my old Lumia 735 on my Windows 10 desktop as it's UWP now. Still works well and it's still being updated.
[t]https://a.pomf.cat/xaqnci.PNG[/t]
Nobody used it because there were no apps, nobody developed apps because there were no users.
It's not easy to break into the mobile OS game. Hopefully this means more work put into proper back and forth integration of Windows 10 and iOS/Android
[QUOTE=LegndNikko;52762763]Basically what happened was:
Google never made an app. So Microsoft did. And it was actually really good. Too good, actually, because it allowed downloads and ad free viewing. Google sent a cease and desist because it violated their terms of use. Microsoft then redid the app to fix that, and then Google immediately changed their API which broke the app. Microsoft never updated it since, then pulled the app, and replaced with with a shortcut to YouTube in the web browser.[/QUOTE]
Maybe I remember it wrong, but the second attempt was something about the app being written in the wrong language or some shit (Google wanted HTML5 or something, it was weird). Some people might call it Microsoft getting a taste of their own 90's medicine, but what google did there was blatantly use their monopoly on video streaming to keep a different platform down.
[QUOTE=Omilinon;52763139]Snapchat is relatively awful on Android in my experience. It drains battery so hard for no reason at times, it crashes (not a lot, but enough times where it gets annoying), and it's pretty damn buggy as well.[/QUOTE]
Probably because it runs both the front and rear camera simultaneous and runs in the background as well.
The OS honestly lived and died by Nokia, from 2012 to 2014 we saw Nokia push WP heavily and it resulted in mild success in a few european companies, because they had great phones for the time (like the Lumia 920, 930, 1020 and 520, the last one blew every budget phone at the time).
Then MS bought Nokia D&S, gutted them and the OS died a slow painful death.
As someone who had a WP7 device. I am still pissed that when WP8 was released and announced, us WP7 users were tossed in the trash and told that we'd have a barebones WP7.8 version which would do nothing but bring cosmetic changes because the update "was too big to deploy on devices made for CE" which is fucking rubbish.
Windows Phone was amazing and it had a great UI, it was amazingly optimised and I am a lover of Metro (esp 2011 metro) but what I am not a fan of is MS giving up on older devices when they're like a year old, Microsoft's incompetence with WP10 and App developers being right cunts to Windows Phone users treating them like 2nd class citizens
[QUOTE=Psyke89;52764047]The OS honestly lived and died by Nokia, from 2012 to 2014 we saw Nokia push WP heavily and it resulted in mild success in a few european companies, because they had great phones for the time (like the Lumia 920, 930, 1020 and 520, the last one blew every budget phone at the time).
Then MS bought Nokia D&S, gutted them and the OS died a slow painful death.[/QUOTE]
Honestly some of the phones released post-Nokia were pretty phenomenal, [I]arguably[/I] the best in the line up. Some like the 1020 or the 1520 a lot more, but the Lumia 950/950XL were great phones, with very good cameras. I still would love to get my 950 fixed, it was such a good phone, even if Windows.
And honestly? Lumia 640 is the best budget phone I've experienced. Does what it says on the box, and does it [I]well.[/I] I got mine as part of a Black Friday deal (albeit locked to AT&T, and I had to wait about a week for it to unlock), and spent only [I]$30.[/I] My only regret is not buying a second to be a back up. Full price I've seen go for no more than $100. It lasted me until I jumped ship into buying a Pixel, but it was great.
I had my parents get it, and it was the best decision. A smartphone for people who don't care about "smartphones." No care for Snapchat or zippy Facebook, just calls, texts, occasional use of Cortana, incredibly simple UI, and even Candy Crush for my mother every now and then. I'd [I]still[/I] recommend it, if you don't care about apps.
Reminds me of Symbian OS died out when Android took over.
Slightly different starting points but once Android was suddenly popular nobody cared much about Symbian anymore, apps didn't get updates anymore, new stuff wasn't even made to begin with.
I had my Nokia N97 with Symbian back in 2009-2010 still, when Android took over it was very noticeable and quite the big change when I finally got an Android phone a year later.
Quite the shame WP didn't pick up, but software availability dominates what will become popular or not, no matter how nice the OS is.
I'm really bummed about this but it's understandable.
I tried multiple times to get into developing apps for UWP but it just doesn't get into my brain in a way I understand it. I'm sure I'm not the only one either.
I was going to hold onto my 650 in anticipation for the "surface phone" which was apparently in the works, but it looks like I'd be going Android or iOS.
[QUOTE=dx9er;52765022]When I owned a Windows Phone I noticed a mile away that the way you can do apps on it is very limited. Totally understandable why it never became a thing, didn't have many apps that for example Android users had etc.[/QUOTE]
The reason why it didn't have many users is because it doesn't have a lot of apps. It doesn't have a lot of apps because it doesn't have that many users.
If not for the lack of supported apps, Windows Phone is my favourite mobile OS. And it's phones are still my favourite, even without apps.
A Nokia Lumia 800 despite being so old, as a basic handset it's hands down great. The downfalls are IE9 (I think that's the version), lack of everything but as a no frills phone (esp for young kids) it's everything they need
The only chance MS would have to have some sort of foothold in the mobile OS scene is if they basically just put full Windows 10 on a phone with a mobile friendly interface while in mobile. And by full Windows 10, I mean actual Windows 10. None of these RT or ARM builds, but full on x86 based Windows 10 that can run win32 apps.
Continuum was a step in the right direction, but it didn't really do enough for most to bridge the gap between Windows 10 Mobile and full on Windows 10. Even then though, the most I could see this appealing to are enterprises and power users (which is better than almost nothing I guess).
The main problem with Windows Mobile during all these years was that it was late to the party and closed off to boot. If it was as open to mess with as a standard Windows install from the get go, it probably would've gained a decent amount of traction and we might have been in a sort of 3-way race. The only problem I could see with taking this approach from the onset would be things like malware, but people were making malware for iOS and Android anyway.
RIP, WIndows Phone - I loved your limited functionality ass. :cry: You've gotten me out of so much "it's voluntary, but not really" app "testing" at my old company because they couldn't be arsed to compile a version for Windows Phone which meant my phone remained unmolested by the company's shitty game programming. :v:
That having been said, I use a free iPhone 5C I got as a hand me down from my aunt but I miss the tiles from Windows Phone. Holy shit it was so nice to see all that information at a glance and never really need to open apps up. Not to mention the fact that phone camera was kicking ass at a time when other manufacturers were making cameras which were potato by comparison. I still use my Lumia 1520 as a camera because it does a fantastic job and I feel sad that Windows Mobile is dead, because it had so much potential - like other posters have said, they should've gone the unification route so much earlier than they did and also, fuck Google for deliberately hamstringing the OS to fuck Microsoft over. Don't be evil, my ass.
[URL="https://imgur.com/a/3B874"]Here's an album of all the pictures I've ever taken with my trusty Lumia 1520[/URL] - the fact that the 950 [I]still[/I] gets featured in phone camera shootouts is a testament to the hardware this OS was paired with and the sheer potential it could've had. :cry:
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