I loved my Nokia 1020. I know many didn't like Windows Mobile but I loved it.
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Microsoft Suggests Windows 10 Mobile Users Switch to iOS or Android as Support Winds Down
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I had a Windows phone for a short while. The phone itself was pretty good, so was the OS, the real issue was there was no apps for it. At all.
I feel like the real thing that doomed Windows Phone to fail was that it came out way after iOS and Android were already well established and it was hard to convince people to switch. It might have gone better if MS had reached out to the companies making some of the big apps for iOS/Droid and got versions made for Windows Phone at launch. But from what I remember, there was no Facebook, or YouTube, or any other content consumption or social media app, so outside of doing things on the web browser there wasn't a lot the phone could do.
Its a shame really, because the OS was good, and I thought the UI was functional while being unique compared to iOS/Droid.
I feel like the real thing that doomed Windows Phone to fail was that it came out way after iOS and Android were already well established and it was hard to convince people to switch. It might have gone better if MS had reached out to the companies making some of the big apps for iOS/Droid and got versions made for Windows Phone at launch. But from what I remember, there was no Facebook, or YouTube, or any other content consumption or social media app, so outside of doing things on the web browser there wasn't a lot the phone could do.
Its a shame really, because the OS was good, and I thought the UI was functional while being unique compared to iOS/Droid.
My mom had the same! I always liked it and found it bearable and smooth. If only it had more apps...
They could have released an Android phone that looks just like Windows phone, and called it Surface. That would have made sense to keep people in the "Microsoft" camp.
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Ironic, eh? So many Windows fans used to say "there's no apps for Macs, you need to get Windows to have the widest selection". The problem with that statement has always been the lack of a "quality" qualifier. Quantity and Quality are always going to be two separate things to balance when making a decision.
If it’s wearables that will succeed the smartphone, then Microsoft might not be in a better position either.
Thing is - Apple won the smartphone market (in terms of profits), and as such, has a much better chance of succeeding in any market whose success is inexorably linked to mobile. Eg: wearables.
Conversely, while Microsoft has the undisputed lead in desktop computing, it has been having extremely difficulty leveraging on this dominant position to break into other markets. This might simply be as far as it goes.
Well there's a lot of rumors Microsoft is working with Google to bring in tighter integration of Android use and handoff in a W10 environment, and since W10 is ever evolving, especially for fast-ring testers such as myself (total hobby of mine), then it makes sense and seems plausible.
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This was true over 10 years ago. Over 10 years ago there were poor choices in Windows for professionals apps. Now most if not all major professional use software is available on both operating systems and have feature parity. OSX/macOS still have exclusive software, but it's incredibly niche in a niche that already offers software for both operating systems.
It kinda rings true still though, at least in my experience, theres more software for niche applications on Windows than there is Mac. And the game selection is better too.
That's a myth that is spread, but the reality is much different. Apple made a pre-IPO deal with Xerox that included demonstrating some technology to Apple at PARC, including their GUI. Bill Atkinson had been pushing a graphical interface and pushed Jobs to see what PARC had done with that type of interface. Xerox wasn't worried about Apple using any of the ideas they showed them, because they were getting a great stock deal and they had no intention of commercializing it and never did anything with it. Seeing the basic GUI in action at PARC, Jobs realized what Xerox didn't, i.e., that Atkinson was right and that the GUI would be a foundational element of using personal computers. That's called vision.
To be fair a lot of people were laughing at the iPhone at the time. Until the X it was a joke.
It really is a shame that Windows Phone didn’t catch on and Microsoft left it to die. The UI/design language, the awesome Nokia hardware. By the time Windows 10 Mobile rolled out it was too late. It also didn’t help that it was a downgrade over 8.1 in many ways.
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As an Apple fan I HATE to see MS out of the mobile OS game. We need AT LEAST 3 healthy products competing against each other. Android/Google to me is literally...evil. I would NEVER go that route. But I would have considered MS if they were in the game.
Microsoft deserved to be the main competitor to Apple's iOS far more than Google/Android does. Google is a morally corrupt company, with zero ideas other than trying to insidiously manipulate the fabric of society for monetary purposes and dubious ideological motives ( along with Facebook) .
At least Microsoft believed in smartphones and tablets early on, and while their execution of the concept was very inferior to Apple's much better reinvention and implementation later on, they would have deserved to be in the position where Google is in now.
At least Microsoft believed in smartphones and tablets early on, and while their execution of the concept was very inferior to Apple's much better reinvention and implementation later on, they would have deserved to be in the position where Google is in now.
Can't agree more on Sharepoint! They claimed it as end user computing collaboration tool but ended up more and more developer centric tool and with complicated & expensive licensing model. I couldn't follow this beyond SP 2013, hopefully their Office 365 which is more a cloud based offering makes life easier for big corporations. It supposed to reduce or eliminate emails ending up sending tons of alerts...MS sold tons of licenses at exorbitant license cost which many big corporations in certain regions have no clue how to utilize without engaging expensive consultants and with lots of operational complexities
It's too bad that Microsoft and Google couldn't patch up their differences. I think Windows 10 Mobile would still be very viable in 2019 if we had official versions of Chrome, Google Mail, Google Maps, Waze, YouTube and a few other Google Apps in the Windows 10 Mobile Web Store.
I also had a Nokia 1020. It was an amazing phone. It's the last phone I was really excited about. Windows mobile was awesome. Too bad they never got developer support.
It's pretty absurd how one of the world's biggest tech companies, with decades of leading tech experience, primarily in operating systems, simply failed to create an operating system for the most popular kind of device in use today. How come? I think competition would be healthy, and since Apple locks people into their platform, the only open platform left is Android, so there isn't much choice left.
Afaik they are not killing off Edge, they are just not going to waste time building their own browser engine anymore.
Instead they are building on top of Chromium but with additional functionality, like with the Vivaldi browser.
I have a 4 year old Windows phone (Samsung Ativ S Neo) - it still works, but I don't use it since MS stopped really supporting it at least 2 years ago. MS was tardy getting into the mobile phone OS market, and never marketed it seriously. As a result, both hardware and application developers stayed away from it as a serious mobile OS. Overall, I'm sorry the Windows phone was discontinued, as it provided a third alternative to Apple and Google. It is especially too bad for non- iPhone users, as they're forced into the Android tent, with its lack of security and infrequent updates. It would be nice if an open source Linux phone could take off, but the very nature of open source software and its non-profit foundations cripple such a phone being adequately marketed for good hardware support by vendors. My primary wish for Apple to continue being successful in the mobile phone arena is that its failure would leave us with nothing but Android as an alternative. If they'd just put out one device with a headphone jack and touch id, and at a reasonable sub- $1000 price, I'd go back to buying iPhones. Like with my old MBP (long ago vintaged by Apple), I'll keep my Windows phone around until its battery finally gives out - just for nostalgia.
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As much as people bad mouth Bill Gates, most all of Microsoft's blunders took place after he retired. He was a consummate business/tech CEO, and I think it was his success that provided a huge impetus for Steve Jobs to take MS on competitively. That competition was good for consumers, and is very much missed right now.
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Of the companies you list, I'd say Amazon has been amazingly innovative. Their very diversity in marketing online business transactions seems unmatched.
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I would be thrilled if I could tolerate Windows 10 because of the ability to build my own PC. I was on Windows 10 for a few weeks doing print design and PowerPoint work. Too many things I hate about the OS. For example, just switching between apps is a bigger chore in Windows. You switch between every window, not apps. I prefer the OS X method of CMND TAB goes between apps, not windows, and it automatically brings up the document that I was working on last time I was in that app.
Lots and lots of nice things in OS X like that make me a lot more productive. Photoshop is Photoshop, of course, but the Finder vs Explorer and the open/save dialogues are all just better, for me.
If I was forced to work on Windows 10 full time, I'd have to hack it quite a bit to try to be as productive, like having recent places in the open/save dialogue.
My last company was one of those and my boss went on to become one of those expensive consultants after he became a Sharepoint MVP. It’s a racket. The concept of sharepoint is great but horribly implemented.
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You’re correct but that, to me, is cutting their losses on developing a new browser variant.
Shame really, it was a nice interface. There are similar launchers for Android but it's just not the same...
They were just way too late to the party
They were just way too late to the party
JFYI neither Apple or Jobs created the first mouse or GUI. They did not invent them either.
[doublepost=1547943672][/doublepost]As for Windows Mobile. I gave up on it when MS was about to stop supporting Windows Mobile 8. It was a fun OS to use on the phone, everything worked as it should and to this day remains my favorite smartphone OS, as a user.
But I have long lost any trust on MS supporting their products. For me, they can't be trusted for this. Not even going into the big brother BS they are doing.