

Ballmer makes the pitch for Windows Phone 8



Source: Reuters

Comments     Threshold


By BabelHuber on 11/5/2012 11:47:05 AM , Rating: 1
Because that's what the stores and TV ads are pushing.

Android has taken off before it was pushed via TV ads.

Because WP essentially doesn't exist yet, and if they have any apps built on Symbian they can't move anyway without redeveloping.

Agrred, a big problem is that WP doesn't have lots of Apps. But Microsoft is only in the mobile OS business since the year 2000, so in 12 years you cannot expect lots of apps.

Doubt it. But if they were corporate devices there's a chance that they have an app or two built that can't port without re-development. Not to mention that WP has been a non-starter until now...and maybe still is a non-starter. Time will tell.

So you think people who use rSAP (a Symbian standard feature) in their car don't recognize that it is gone?

You really think that transmitting files via bluetooth is something special? Ask any average guy how he transmitted the contacts of his old phone to a new phone in the past.

Those who didn't write them on paper and re-entering on the new phone used bluetooth.

So the first thing you do is transmitting your contacts. You will see very quickly that bluetooth file transfer is an important feature, even if you don't know what 'bluetooth file transfer' actually means.

Not likely. The *vast* majority of actual individual phone users haven't got the slightest clue about anything you've been ranting about. And they don't care. Their IT department might tell them that they can't have an Android phone because of some custom Symbian app they built, but the user doesn't give 2 sh1ts about it. They just want to play Angry Birds.

See above.

...have you ever stepped outside? Virtually no one who owns a smartphone has the slightest idea what it's capabilities and/or feature set is in any detail at all. Either it can do Twitter and play games, or it can't. That's about all the attention you're going to get from all but a handful of users.

Bullshit. Most people take features for granted, that's why they can't answer it. Only if a feature they need is missing they will recognize it.

And then they are upset if they had a phone which was capable of doing this before.

Example: As a long time Nokia user you know that the alarm of Nokia phones works even when the phone is completely turned off.

With WP, this feature was removed from the newer Nokia models.

People will learn the hard way that WP doesn't support it when they miss an airplane or an important meeting because of this, and then they will be upset.

No, it's not a coincidence - the marketplace is flooded with them, there's a wide variety of them available at all kinds of different price points, and they're being pushed hard by all the carriers. Coincidence? Hardly. But it's not because of any technical features of the OS itself. If the market was flooded with WebOS devices, and that's what all the carriers were pushing, that's what people would buy.

Bullshit. The Nokia Lumia line had the biggest marketing budget of any phone launch ever, and still people didn't buy them.

Sure I do. Go stand in a mall and ask people as they walk by how often they sideload apps. Or find a need for a file browser. Or...any of the other BS you're ranting about. Essentially no one knows WTF you're talking about, and probably someone would call security on you after a little while when you started foaming at the mouth.

See above. People know when something doesn't work which should.

Overall, you seem to think that most customers are complete idiots.

But most of them had mobile phones in the past. They already had feature phones with a file browser, bluetooth file transfer and even USB-connectivity. They take this for granted and hence don't care about when you ask them.

When you are really good at marketing, you can convince them to do the stuff they always did differently. This is where iOS shines marketing-wise.

But we talk about Windows here. People don't love it like Apple, they don't forgive and they don't forget.

But let's see what you'll say in a year or two, when WP is still a niche OS.

