80% of Windows Phone's US users have left the platform in the last two years - Polidicks

I liked my windows phone but it broke and Nokia makes it impossible to fix yourself. Also, though I don't use a lot of apps, there are a handful of apps that I had on android that aren't on windows phone which makes me sad

[QUOTE=EpikEnvy2.0;48456739]As much as I love my Lumia 920 the "no apps" thing is painfully obvious. As much as Android allows customization and having an app for literally everything under the sun, the WPs are a sharp, sharp contrast with having next to none on both departments. Still, it's fairly enjoyable.[/QUOTE] That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Funny little story: It seems Windows phones are ideal for the elderly! My grandfather, who didn't have a clue how to use a PC and had given up on iOS and Android phones was given a Lumia a few weeks ago. Big fat Whatsapp icon on his home screen, and with a little instruction he was off and has been discovering all the nooks and crannies of the platform. We were worried he would have trouble typing; he's already using emoticons. We were worried he wouldn't remember to charge it; he's so dependent on it now he bought a battery pack. We thought his 1GB dataplan would be enough; he runs out in a week since he's using Youtube so much. I don't know how or why, but unlike the other big two platforms, WP just "clicked" for him.

[QUOTE=FlandersNed;48455865]Hopefully Windows 10 fixes this...[/QUOTE] The user base has been saying this when it went from 7 to 8, and again when it went from 8 to 8.1. Nothing has changed.

[QUOTE=BusinessRed;48455859]The reason: no apps[/QUOTE] It's not just because the lack of apps, the experience is shit. For example even with Win10 Mobile in order to sync music you have to copy and paste manually the songs in Explorer because there's no way to do so. It used to be there in WP7 and Zune Software but they discontinued that with WP8 introduced some replacement syncing software that stripped half the metadata and album art. There has also been constant feature regression throughout the development of Windows Phone. Even if it had all the apps that Android and iOS did, it would still be a shit platform. Which is why here I'm going to be a part of that 80% and never look back.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;48455918]Actually really true, there's next to no official app support. Even when the apps exist, they're super out of date. No official apps for Snapchat, Tinder, Google Maps, Gmail, Pandora, or Airbnb. Instagram hasn't been updated since 2014 - it's still in Beta. YouTube hasn't been updated since 2013. LinkedIn since 2013. Hulu Plus hasn't been updated in over a year. Vine hasn't since 2013. There's no support for FitBit or almost any other fitness tracker. No apps to support a lot of Internet of Things devices like Nest or lightswitches or things like that. Chase Bank pulled their app. Pinterest pulled theirs. Yahoo Mail pulled theirs, too. Windows Phone was DOA and it'll probably never recover. It doesn't have any support from app developers.[/QUOTE] There [I]is[/I] an official [URL="https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/store/apps/Pandora/9WZDNCRFJ46V"]Pandora app[/URL], and it's satisfactory, albeit hasn't been updated since January, but as it stands now, it doesn't [I]need[/I] and update, yet. A well known third-party dev, Rudy Huyn (who developed a third-party Dropbox app and then was tasked to make the official app) had a very good app for Snapchat, but Snapchat buckled down on third-party apps and blocked all accounts that used them. Even when Huyn contacted Snapchat and was prepared to give them the code for the app on a silver platter, where all they had to do was just publish it, he was ignored. [URL="https://blog.fitbit.com/fitbit-now-available-on-windows-phone-platform/"]FitBit added an app a couple of weeks ago.[/URL] [URL="http://blog.vine.co/post/115392106656/an-update-to-vine-for-windows-phone"]Vine was updated back in April 2015.[/URL] And there is no YouTube app. The first YouTube "app" that Microsoft put out was only a bookmark to youtube.com in Internet Explorer. Eventually, they made a proper app, that was damn good, too. However, Google told them it violated their ToU, since it didn't support ads and allowed downloading videos for offline use. Microsoft obliged, reworked the app, added ads, removed offline videos, put it back up, aaand... Google switched up how YouTube's API is handled (I believe it was related to HTML5? Not too sure), which then crippled the app. Microsoft then reverted it back to the Internet Explorer bookmark. Why they didn't just shrug it off and fix the app for the new API like all the third-party devs did? I... don't know. And I personally don't count Google Maps or Gmail, because I feel if you're on a certain platform, trying to maintain use of services outside of that ecosystem is silly. I'm not going to keep fighting to keep Groove Music and Outlook on iOS, if I chose to switch (ignoring that Microsoft does support other platforms for their services), so I feel if you're stuck with Google's services, Windows Phone flat out is not for you. HERE Maps and Outlook are fine, imo. Anyway, there are a good number of third-party apps to pick up the slack. MyTube, MetroTube, TubeCast, 6tin, Timber, 6tag, et cetera. I do always say, though, that you simply cannot sell a platform on third-party apps. [editline]14th August 2015[/editline] I do have one small reason too think "maybe Windows 10 will be the one!" is how they're aiming for a universal platform. Windows Phone apps were restricted to Windows Phone, and had to be developed just for that Platform, with the target audience being the minority that is Windows Phone users. With Microsoft going gung-ho with pushing Windows 10, now a multitude of PC users are running Windows 10, which is the same set up that Windows 10 Mobile will soon be. Thus, a much larger user base. You always think back to "why would people use Windows apps on a desktop," and you're right, I don't know if that might change (probably not). But with how Microsoft is even handing app development on a silver platter to devs, making it incredibly simple to port apps over (to the point with a bit of tinkering, Windows 10 Mobile is able to run Android .apk's), it's now up to developers to actually put their apps on there. [editline]14th August 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Krahn;48456831]That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Funny little story: It seems Windows phones are ideal for the elderly! My grandfather, who didn't have a clue how to use a PC and had given up on iOS and Android phones was given a Lumia a few weeks ago. Big fat Whatsapp icon on his home screen, and with a little instruction he was off and has been discovering all the nooks and crannies of the platform. We were worried he would have trouble typing; he's already using emoticons. We were worried he wouldn't remember to charge it; he's so dependent on it now he bought a battery pack. We thought his 1GB dataplan would be enough; he runs out in a week since he's using Youtube so much. I don't know how or why, but unlike the other big two platforms, WP just "clicked" for him.[/QUOTE] Honestly, it really is. Everything is intuitive, basic, the app you need being the big icon right in your face. The downsides of WP don't hinder them, since they most likely go "I don't need this stinkin feature, I just want to watch YouTube."

[QUOTE=Radley;48456051] Especially since I' hear rumors that nokia is thinking about starting again with a new line of their own phones.[/QUOTE] Slimest phones in the world that can take a bullet? do it Nokia!

Went from L520 to S3 and honestly the former was better to use in every way But the lack of apps were the decisive factor

Yeah, WP isn't for me. Had a 928 for a few months as my daily driver, and I've continued to use it on occasion in the hopes that it'll grow on me. It isn't. I can see where it has potential, but I really don't think it's going to go anywhere.

I've got windows phone, I like the phone, it's easy to use and it's really good on battery. But as everyone has said: no apps. Tbf I don't mind except not having snapchat

It's obvious from this thread that the course of action that Microsoft should take is offer some sort of incentive for developers to develop some actual apps for Windows 10 phones.

Why's everyone complaining about auto updates? I have those disabled on my copy of WIN10 and it hasn't bothered me at all. I just manually check every few days.

[QUOTE=LegndNikko;48457637]The user base has been saying this when it went from 7 to 8, and again when it went from 8 to 8.1. Nothing has changed.[/QUOTE] I know this but with Windows 10 comes almost direct app porting from Android and iOS, so it's far easier to make apps for WP. That gives me some hope, even if it's a little.

[QUOTE=FlandersNed;48461326]I know this but with Windows 10 comes almost direct app porting from Android and iOS, so it's far easier to make apps for WP. That gives me some hope, even if it's a little.[/QUOTE] But there's still some effort involved, you have to ask why an Android or iOS developer would still go through the effort of porting their apps to a platform with so few users and virtually no benefit, even if it is much easier.

[QUOTE=Panda X;48461423]But there's still some effort involved, you have to ask why an Android or iOS developer would still go through the effort of porting their apps to a platform with so few users and virtually no benefit, even if it is much easier.[/QUOTE] That I have no answer for. We'll just have to see whether developers are interested...

I bought my friend a windows phone because he needed a damn phone. Turned out to be the most infuriating device ever. Contacts menu is split into multiple parts, requiring significant browsing to find exactly what you're looking for. Apps menu also seems to hide certain important things like Contacts for example. To setup email I had to navigate through settings by swiping down from the top of the phone to get into settings because again App menu doesn't have email... It's a pile of trash with a very, very backwards UI and the counter productive navigation really pisses me off. It was one of the Nokia Lumias for like $200, it used Windows 8.

Whenever people hear that someone has a windows phone everyone starts making fun of them, so there's the actual verbal alienation that goes along with having one bahaha.

[QUOTE=Panda X;48457657]It's not just because the lack of apps, the experience is shit. For example even with Win10 Mobile in order to sync music you have to copy and paste manually the songs in Explorer because there's no way to do so. It used to be there in WP7 and Zune Software but they discontinued that with WP8 introduced some replacement syncing software that stripped half the metadata and album art. There has also been constant feature regression throughout the development of Windows Phone. Even if it had all the apps that Android and iOS did, it would still be a shit platform. Which is why here I'm going to be a part of that 80% and never look back.[/QUOTE] I've got to say I've almost become one of the 80% but everytime I've used android I absolutely got to loathe the system. The fact that I had to turn off stuff off to get a decent usage from the phone was just what the hell. Kinda the reason why I keep sticking to WP despite there being less apps. The stuff I need (like internet banking for my bank) is available so can't complain really. That's probably an advantage of being in Europe, were the user base is sort of okay versus the US. [QUOTE=false prophet;48464506]I bought my friend a windows phone because he needed a damn phone. Turned out to be the most infuriating device ever. Contacts menu is split into multiple parts, requiring significant browsing to find exactly what you're looking for. Apps menu also seems to hide certain important things like Contacts for example. To setup email I had to navigate through settings by swiping down from the top of the phone to get into settings because again App menu doesn't have email... It's a pile of trash with a very, very backwards UI and the counter productive navigation really pisses me off. It was one of the Nokia Lumias for like $200, it used Windows 8.[/QUOTE] Uhm none, but the login to email is true? You just might be confused by different names [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6252145/screens/wp_ss_20150816_0001.png[/t] Oh look the contacts (people) app right in all app menu. [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6252145/screens/wp_ss_20150816_0003.png[/t] Oh look, the email (outlook) app right in the all app menu. Not to mention pretty much everything is incredibly straightforward in WP.