Is the End Near for Windows Phone?
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I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 that I picked up the Summer of 2013. About 8 months ago it really started having issues, so I had to back up everything, (moving Google Authenticator is a HUGE pain) and wipe it. It was good again for around 4 months and I've been just dealing with it since then.
I probably have around 30 non standard apps installed, mostly airline apps, a few store apps (like Starbucks) and it just in general seems to suck. I'm working if I overheated it by running it hard one day and now it is bad in some way..
Not to mention that under normal use I get around 8 hours of battery life right now, and if I'm traveling, I get way less - constantly find myself looking for a wall outlet.
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It's a shame that the store sucked and poisoned the well so to speak.
There is great potential here for MS to make an amazing product that integrates with exchange and does SO MANY NEAT THINGS. I want them to not screw this up but I think that ship has sailed.
My hope now is that as the Windows core improves and we see smaller x86 CPU's that eventually it'll just be a port of the core OS running on Intel chippery. Wintel all over again. -
I'm clinging to my Lumia ICON. I've had iPhone and Android and by far, Windows Phone has been the best experience for me. Didn't like the static ICONS of the iPhone and every Android I've owned would always end up crashing over time, like rebooting in the middle of doing something on the phone. And tired of the slow push for Android updates.
My ICON takes dazzling pictures and it is one of the reasons I am holding on to it.
Is the end near? Hard to say when it is doing well in other countries. And they are focused on the low end market right now though. If there was another flagship available right now, I'd take it and stay with Windows Phone. If I was forced to choose another, I'd go with iPhone.
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Is it doing well in other countries? I've not heard that before. Is the marketshare numbers only for the US market?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Is it doing well in other countries? I've not heard that before. Is the marketshare numbers only for the US market?
Yes, that Marketshare is US only...I follow Windows Central on Feedly and there are a lot of stories on how well it is doing overseas, especially low end.
I'm holding out hope it will survive as I do like the tiles and Cortana. Will see how it all comes together with Windows 10.
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Looks like the numbers are global, not US. Looks like it is dying very fast, lost a huge portion of its market in just three months.
http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp
http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-ms-img/chart-ww-smartphone-os-market-share.png
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@scottalanmiller said:
Looks like the numbers are global, not US. Looks like it is dying very fast, lost a huge portion of its market in just three months.
http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp
http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-ms-img/chart-ww-smartphone-os-market-share.png
Windows Central has some "splaning" to do...this could also be why we are seeing major pushes for Microsoft cross platform...
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@garak0410 said:
Windows Central has some "splaning" to do...this could also be why we are seeing major pushes for Microsoft cross platform...
Yes, their focus on iOS and Android is genuine. If they focused on the Windows Phone, no one would notice.
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I'll be the Charlton Heston of Windows Phone it would seem...can't stand the idea of another platform right now but I will graciously go to one when the time comes...
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My first "Windows Phone" arrived today. It was a black friday special on the Lumia 635. It's a low end phone, but it was only $40 and I wanted to try it.
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@Dashrender said:
My first "Windows Phone" arrived today. It was a black friday special on the Lumia 635. It's a low end phone, but it was only $40 and I wanted to try it.
Let us know what you think
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@Dashrender said:
My first "Windows Phone" arrived today. It was a black friday special on the Lumia 635. It's a low end phone, but it was only $40 and I wanted to try it.
For low end, it isn't bad...if you have any questions, let me know...
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@garak0410 said:
For low end, it isn't bad...if you have any questions, let me know...
Lots of reports of the app store being full of malware, wondering if you can confirm?
General thoughts on useability / UI ?
Pros / Cons?
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@MattSpeller I can confirm, I have a Windows phone right here. Try to find something like "Chrome" or other obvious app in there and you'll find hundreds of fake apps designed to trick you. Microsoft doesn't make a way to confirm the publisher or the app name and the search brings up random results.
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We have a few of these at work.
@MattSpeller said:
@garak0410 said:
For low end, it isn't bad...if you have any questions, let me know...
Lots of reports of the app store being full of malware, wondering if you can confirm?
Yes
General thoughts on useability / UI ?
UI is very different. Live tiles are not for everyone. I like them.
Very usable and easy to find stuff.
If it wasn't for the app store, I'd highly recommend it.Pros / Cons?
Pro:
- decent hardware for your money
- Office built into the phone
- tops one drive integration
- feels solid in your hand
- 4G
Cons:
- App store
- No flash for the camera
- No secondary camera (this makes no sense as MS are heavily pushing Skype)
- No physical camera button
Edit: Full specs here http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_635-6254.php
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@nadnerB I'm a "live tiles were a negative" person. It uses battery life and processing power and what I found was that the icons were annoyingly large and they would change which made the interface slower to use. Not a big deal and not one of the reasons that I moved off of the Windows Phone, but I didn't find them to be a feature like they are touted but found them to be a general annoyance. I like the Apple semi-static icons better. They update enough to get me the info that I need and not so much that I am not sure what icon is what.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@nadnerB I'm a "live tiles were a negative" person. It uses battery life and processing power and what I found was that the icons were annoyingly large and they would change which made the interface slower to use. Not a big deal and not one of the reasons that I moved off of the Windows Phone, but I didn't find them to be a feature like they are touted but found them to be a general annoyance. I like the Apple semi-static icons better. They update enough to get me the info that I need and not so much that I am not sure what icon is what.
No, you just hate them because there is no uniformity
Compared to the uniformity of iPhone icons, Windows Phone lives tiles look like pure entropy.lol, sorry. I couldn't resist.
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@nadnerB that too. It makes for a messy interface.
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@MattSpeller said:
@garak0410 said:
For low end, it isn't bad...if you have any questions, let me know...
Lots of reports of the app store being full of malware, wondering if you can confirm?
General thoughts on useability / UI ?
Pros / Cons?
There are a lot of "fake" apps out there and Microsoft is working on purging those. Just make sure the publisher is who actually makes the popular app.
I totally love and use the live tiles. Very helpful. I also use the FAMILY ROOM or general ROOMS feature and it is fantastic in keeping groups of family members with Windows Phone in touch. Love, LOVE this feature but you for sure need other members of the family on Windows Phone.
The settings screen is long and drawn out and could use some work.
Cortana rocks if you really use it like it should be used.
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@garak0410 said:
There are a lot of "fake" apps out there and Microsoft is working on purging those. Just make sure the publisher is who actually makes the popular app.
Very hard to verify and this requires you to know the publisher and many publishers are fake too. Microsoft allowed so much malware in there that they should start over. When I was looking for apps, it was often nothing but malware. Real apps were definitely in the 5% of less range with no means of positively identifying them.
