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winklemanJul 2, 2011
Still only a fraction of what is available for Android and Apple... I guess with time that number will grow.
bukowskyJul 2, 2011
in time, yes that number will grow... but I wouldn't buy a Windows phone knowing that I would be limited to what I can do with it, when an iPhone would allow me to do so much more.
phiberbaxJul 2, 2011
Agreed!
elimgarakJul 3, 2011
Umm... What do you mean? The Apple ecosystem is as locked down as the WP7 one is. Are you referring to the number of apps? That you yourself just agreed will grow?
asdafasdfafsadfafadafsasJul 3, 2011
So the iPhone has *500 million apps from which 499 million are crap and you will never use, congrats.
*Greatly exaggerated for effect.
phiberbaxJul 2, 2011
Apple is still light years ahead of Android IMO
charlesp2009Jul 3, 2011
As with the iPhone and Android, the total number of apps is irrelevant, it's the total number of GOOD apps that matter.
romane02Jul 2, 2011
It a start window 7 has many ways to grow the app market. But they do have long ways to catch Apple and Google.
piyushwadhwaJul 2, 2011
Its providing serious competition to android and apple
mredofcourseJul 3, 2011
Huh? It's not even providing any competition to Windows Mobile which continues to outsell WP7. Microsoft makes more money from Android sales than WP7 sales (due to licensing requirements from Android vendors like HTC).
On the other hand, Microsoft does make some really good apps and provides useful services for other mobile platforms. They should give up on the OS, and concentrate on apps and services for other platforms.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
elimgarakJul 3, 2011
MS is following their standard strategy - if they stay long enough in the game and provide fast enough incremental updates, they will catch up to the competition. They shouldn't give up on the OS - they should stay in the game until they "win". I doubt that they can crush Apple and Android any time soon (if ever) but they can provide a viable and powerful alternative, get into the green, and start making money.
Plus look at it this way - if they have a good, powerful, and performant OS available, then they will be able to use it to build more innovative products. For example, everybody loved the Courier concept. Problem was that it would have taken at least a few hundred million and a year, to bring up such a platform from scratch. If they had a good OS, OTOH - like the WP7 system - then that task would have been much simpler.
mredofcourseJul 3, 2011
I see where you're coming from, and I can't definitely argue against it from a business perspective, although, it does seem like Microsoft these days is playing that game on several fronts to the tune of billions of dollars a quarter (see Bing).
It just seems that the mobile platform space is fiercely competitive and doesn't particularly need any more competition to make it better. Google and Apple seem to be driving very hard as HP with Palm, and RIM struggle to get traction (or not lose position).
Android seems to be in a much better position right now wherein it doesn't really matter much Android versus iPhone, Google makes money from services on both.
Microsoft has some really great apps and services already cross-mobile-platform and could be making more money if they focused on that (especially with Skype).
"if they have a good, powerful, and performant OS available, then they will be able to use it to build more innovative products."
That's a very big and expensive IF, one that they dropped the ball several times already.
As for Courier, I'm not sure I follow you on that point. Courier was a platform concept...very "concepty". Really, that should've been shipping at the time, or shortly thereafter had they taken advantage of their lead and resources, but your point loses me because it's like saying Microsoft could've had a platform everyone loved, if they already had the platform everyone loved.
elimgarakJul 3, 2011
About Courier - MS could ship it today, and it would still be awesome. Courier is not just a platform - from the development perspective it is a combination of hardware, OS, apps, and the development platform allowing people to develop more apps.
I am saying that MS did not see the point at the time to start working on a new product, no matter how interesting looking, because they did not have OS, apps, or a development system powerful enough to work for this form factor. At the time they had only WinCE, with all of its problems, which was not a great application development system - certainly not nearly as good as WP7. If they started development back then, then the device would have been ready to ship at at best by holidays of 2011, but would have had a divergent OS from Win8 and probably WP7.
With the WP7/8 OS + ecosystem + development platform they are now in a much better position to develop something like the Courier. Not necessarily that product, but something that requires those parts - e.g. set-top boxes, tablets, e-readers, etc.
MS now has three out of the four components it needed in the beginning of 2010 to even think about developing something - OS, apps, and the development platform (basically Visual Studio + Silverlight + APIs + emulator, all working with and optimized for ARM). The last thing they needed would have been hardware, which is doable, and only takes time and money.
mredofcourseJul 5, 2011
Ok, I see what you mean. It will be interesting to see what happens with Microsoft now fighting on multiple fronts.
netmongerJul 4, 2011
No way.. No Chance..
dmcaudioJul 3, 2011
as far as phones are concerned, Microsoft is irrelevent.
sergiopaganelliJul 2, 2011
cool!
zbeastJul 2, 2011
There's nothing that the window phone does that I can't get on the android phone.
Oh, I don't have xbox live integration.. Oh ah.. who cares.
elimgarakJul 3, 2011
If nothing else, the WP7 is a much better development platform. I tried working on Android - the development environment was painful to use. Eclipse sucks sooooo much! And the emulator is incredibly slow and clunky.
The more mature development system of WP7 (coupled with a much bigger pool of developers familiar with the APIs) should allow developers to create more powerful and interesting applications.
IMHO Android is far superior in its UI and extensibility of that UI. That's something that WP7 still lacks - they made a design choice to go with Metro and only Metro - which gets old pretty quickly. Hopefully WP8 or whatever will allow for more differentiation in terms of the main UI on the phone.
az2zejJul 3, 2011
apple uses iOS and only iOS on its phones. And most android apps and the Android OS is very similar to iOS, i think the Metro UI is more unique than iOS and Android. I would never switch from WP7 to and Android or an iPhone (which i have spent plenty of time with as well)
elimgarakJul 3, 2011
Meh. Metro is neat, but I am getting rather bored with it. Only 10 colors? Plus it's very flat - I get that it's a design and artistic choice, but once various Android phones start coming out with 3d UI, it will start to look even more old and outdated. In the eye candy department WP7 is severely lacking.
I think MS should allow people to create custom shells. The only problem with that some phone companies will create horrible UIs, which may reflect poorly on WP7. OTOH, Android did that just fine.
az2zejJul 3, 2011
Have you seen some android phones?!?! Yes the top of the line phones are great. But if you get say the boost mobile android phone it is about on par with simbian about 5 years or so behind. And with time and effort esspically when Windows Phone 8 or just Windows 8 for mobile or whatever MS is doing with that idea, just like with the jump from the iPhone to the 3G or 3GS WP will make improvements or to stick with android from say the G1 to the original Droid. While WP may never and probably will never be 1 i think that they could become number 2 or make a play for it to be a "big three" in mobile instead of just the "big 2"
phiberbaxJul 2, 2011
Nah, I'll pass. If operating systems are indicative of apps on a cell phone, I'll stick to Mac
grabateJul 3, 2011
It's sad when you have more apps than Windows Phone users.
ivanotorresJul 3, 2011
really want to know how windows phone impact in market with android and iOS...