Comments on: What Windows Phone Needs To Survive

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:18:00 +0000

Well now we are at differing opinions of quality. We have your opinion, and my opinion. My opinion stands without change. I won’t weigh any impression of your opinion. Let’s let the market decide.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:08:00 +0000

I never said the Xbox was a runaway success, but they’re building toward one. Unless there are some drastic price cuts on these current systems, then console growth is shot. We’ve seen persistent y-o-y declines in video game purchases which means two things: the barrier to entry is still too high (remember Sony touted that they sold most of their original PlayStations once the hardware went to $150?) or we’re looking for better value at a higher price point. I expect a new generation of consoles (yes, even the Wii U, I suppose) within the next two holidays.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:59:00 +0000

“Neither of us is a fan of Metro”

Then you and your wife have suckass taste if you like the awful Android and not Metro, which wipes the frickin’ floor with Android. Android is a pile of shit. I know because it was the first phone I owned.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:37:00 +0000

N. Apparently we’ve reached the maximum depth of this comment system, so I have to post this inline.

Yes, XBOX is doing the best it ever has — which is not the same thing as saying it’s a runaway success. Unfortunately a new generation of console is due.

Let’s surmise about the next gen when we at least see some specs. We’re a long way from that. Currently we’re in denial that a next gen is even needed and so two relations far from speculation of what it might need to be.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:28:00 +0000

The Xbox brand is better off than it ever has been. Yes, they’re still underwater, but they’ve made great strides and their dominance this year on hardware sold is going to help them in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if next gen they offer a machine that will make money from the get-go and allow them to finally be profitable. Xbox has always been at least a twenty year plan for Microsoft, so them tossing out $500m out front to promote the brand then lose on most everything else for the first six years is just part of building the brand. That’s not a gamble they were going to make with Zune against the iPod, it is one they’re going to need against iOS and Android.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:14:00 +0000

I actually have the HTC HD7 with WP7. Well, actually my wife does. Every time I show her a cool new app on my Samsung Galaxy S Epic with Android she demands I get it on her phone. Unfortunately the answer is usually “your phone does not have that app”. I got her an Android tablet to make it up to her, and now she uses the phone for talk and text and the Android tablet for stuff she might use a smartphone for.

It is a nice enough phone – bright and responsive, good talk and text, slim as you could hope for and good battery life. I hear it is a benchmark WP7 phone. Neither of us is a fan of Metro, but that is irrelevant. It does not have the cool apps. It is her last Windows Phone.

Eventually we will get her an Android phone and I will find a way to put Android on this thing, making it a toy for the kids, a music and video player for me. Until then it may as well be a feature phone.

But yeah, last Christmas I did see Windows Phones on shelves at the mall, in the tech stores I go to – but not the last few months or so. If they’re not on the shelf it’s going to be hard to get people to buy them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Ok, disassociate the marketing pot from the COGS. Reference XBOX, which is still billions of dollars underwater since inception, total. Turn your head from what it’s costing for what they get. You’re in denial, and that’s not the winner here.

Maybe you’re not the best guy to help them find the way forward after all. You sound like the kind of guy now to help them continue to lose ever more money, which is not what they need. They need somebody to dig some profitability out of this mess and apparently you’re not it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:16:00 +0000

Yeah, I’ve never seen a Windows Phone in the wild that wasn’t the Arrive we tested, which is sad. In many ways, store reps are just as far off as consumers are. I remember some of my co-workers dissing the Palm Pre, despite how excellent webOS was, because of the awful build quality. Windows Phone doesn’t have this problem, but they’ve gotta work through it, just like they did on the Xbox.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:14:00 +0000

I don’t consider their marketing pot to be part of their OEM relationship. Yes, they could be giving them away to celebrities, that’d be a great start, but they seems so hesitant about it. Microsoft spent $500m when the original Xbox launched and still lost tons of money on the hardware alone, but that’s part of entrenching yourself. They seem to be in a holding pattern on the whole thing. ‘Awww, gosh, we could do this, but what if it doesn’t work, and we could do this but it won’t work and…’

They still make money on each individual phone by licensing Windows Phone OS (as I understand they still charge $5-7 per phone), but your sell-through is a little low. That 1.4m was for the previous quarter, so they’ve sold a few more than that. Not a terribly huge amount, but more. Until Microsoft does a ‘Nexus’ thing with an OEM, I don’t think any of them are excited about doing more than just porting their Android hardware. Perhaps if they didn’t keep such tight reins on the hardware, OEMs would be more excited about it. I think they could use a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor this year. Wooo.

So yes, we’re agreeing to agree here, I just wish they weren’t so timid about the whole thing.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Nice article, Nick. I have a Windows Phone and I’ve never seen another one in the wild. After Mango, people actually take a positive interest in my phone when they see me using it, but it doesn’t have any mindshare at all. Microsoft is doing nothing to pull the eyes of phone users away from their iPhones and Androids. I really like this phone, but it’s going to suck if this awesome OS tanks because Microsoft can’t figure out how to get it out there.

They need to go after people who haven’t already decided on an iPhone or Android, but the other problem is in-store promotion. I’ve never seen a sales person talk up Windows Phone in the carrier stores. WP7s get completely lost in the avalanche of Androids and iPhones on display. I once asked a T-Mobile sales person about the Windows phone just to see what she’d say. She said, “You don’t want that. I heard they don’t even turn on half the time. Why would you want one of those? You should check out this Android phone over here.”