Windows Phone 7 developers fear platform flop - Page 5

Originally Posted by Masterz1337

So far It's worked fine outside, maybe it's a SAMOLD or whatever samsungs are?

Originally Posted by tyrnight

Wait, Microsoft Has a mobile platform?

Originally Posted by DocNo42

Not in my organization. I was pretty intimately involved with our recent mail migration and at least 60% of the current BB users were pretty PO'd they couldn't get support for the iPhone yet. It's coming the first quarter of this year - I expect a mass exodus (including me!) as soon as that happens. Sure, there will be some holdouts, but they will be the vast minority.

And the iPad - oy! Thanks to the iPad we are going to have an Enterprise Apple hardware contract for the first time. I never thought I would live to see that!

The halo effect - it's what's for breakfast.

Originally Posted by Hellacool

Man, three pages of bashing. Anyway I just took the plunge and bought a WP7. I had a 3G for almost 2.5 years and was ready for a change.

Originally Posted by ljocampo

I guarantee if the sales numbers were good, everybody would know them. MS wouldn't keep it quite. The fact that they gagging the media and developers can only mean the numbers are bad!

Originally Posted by melgross

No. That's been stated elsewhere. AI doesn't make things up. Sometimes the writers give their opinions on how they feel about something, but no deliberate falsehoods.

Originally Posted by melgross

No. That's been stated elsewhere. AI doesn't make things up. Sometimes the writers give their opinions on how they feel about something, but no deliberate falsehoods.

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

"Microsoft is reportedly also withholding any payments to its app developers through February 2011."

If this is true, this is just absolutely f****d.

Originally Posted by bettieblue

Tie them in a not?

Originally Posted by Firefly7475

I'm not surprised. AI is great for breaking stories and finding new information about Apple products, which is the reason I'm a regular.

When it comes to competitors though AI may as well make stories up for all the credibility they have.





EDIT********************************************** *****

This is a warning, any insults will result in a demerit.



How many apps have you ever installed on your phone? Stats for the App Store show a majority of downloads are from the top few percent of the apps in the store.

Any App Store only needs a few thousand "AAA" quality applications. The rest is just marketing bullshit.




Ballmer did mention something about that in an interview. I can't quite remember the specifics. The man rambles on about unrelated stuff like a lunatic.

Originally Posted by Firefly7475

You have to understand the confusion though, right?

I would suggest a majority of readers view the news feed on AI as news, not a collection of opinion pieces. It's no surprise either as the articles are purposefully written as news. I searched through the last couple of days of articles and didn't come across the words "I" or "my" as in "my opinion" or "I think" or "it is my belief".

If AI is truly is a collection of opinion pieces then how, as a reader, am I suppose to tell the difference between the opinion and the fact if it is all written as fact?

Let's assume for a moment that AI is a collection of opinion pieces.

The article states "Microsoft is reportedly also withholding any payments to its app developers through February 2011".

Where was it reported that Microsoft are withholding payments? Did the writer simply forget to quote this?

The developer, Justin James, blogged that "there will be no payouts from App Hub until February 2011". He didn't report that Microsoft were "withholding payments", he just stated the fact that payments wouldn't be received from Microsoft until February 2011. As it turns out Microsoft stated prior to WP7 release that app payments wouldn't be available until February 2011.

There are a couple of possible scenarios I can see. One is that Microsoft could have the entire system up and running, have received all payments from customers and be ready to send them out to developers but decided in October to hold onto them for whatever reason. The second is that Microsoft simply didn't have the payment and reporting capabilities ready for release, they realized this in October and set the release date for this functionality at February 2011.

Personally I think it is more likely they simply didn't have the system ready by launch. I think we can assume the writer believes there is something more nefarious behind the delay.

So why say it was reported that Microsoft are withholding payments? If nothing is made up then was it the writers opinion that there would be a report somewhere that stated the same opinion as the writer?

Again, you have to understand the confusion in this.

The title of the article states "Windows Phone 7 developers fear platform flop" yet the writer makes no attempt to justify the title.

Two developer blogs are quoted. Justin James blogged about his disappointing experience publishing an application through Microsoft's App Hub. He concludes that Microsoft need to fix up the App Hub before it can be seen by developers as a source of revenue.

Nowhere does he state he fears the platform will flop.

The other developer, Nicholas Yu, has since posted a scathing response to the "journalists" (his emphasis, not mine) that misrepresented his original post. Again, nowhere did he state that he fears the platform will flop.


So we have to assume the title is the writers opinion as well. Unfortunately this time the opinion is not backed by any solid facts, and if an opinion is not based on any actual facts then how far is this away from simply being "made up"?

At this point I have to ask, why bother writing these stories at all? If opinion is getting mingled with news, and those opinions may be constructed from thin air giving them no more authority than any other comments on these forums.

Like I said, you have to understand the confusion in this. Where do we stand as readers in what we should believe and what we shouldn't?

It's not like I don't think opinion has a place on the site.

Firstly my preference would be to see a complete separation of the Apple insider news feed (which I love) with other tech news (which I generally find unhelpful at best). However I understand this site is funded by clicks, so that may not be practical.

What I do believe you should have is news articles followed by an opinion piece. The news article should come first and be based on actual facts instead of opinions.

You then have another section under the article with a title like "John's take on this..." where the writer would state their own opinion on the news story, hopefully based on some solid tech background.

Originally Posted by Postulant

"In the UK, an Orange launch event opened to a line of just two people."
Wow! I bet one was DaHarder....

Originally Posted by bettieblue

Dont like my snarky tones? Really the whole article is snarky.

"I can't stand Microsoft, or any of their products"

As I am wrapping up my vacation in San Francisco on a perfect day, I found a couple of comments waiting for approval in my inbox. To my surprise, none of these comments were GoVoice questions, which was what this blog was set up for. Instead, they were trackbacks of blogs and reports twisting what I said on my previous entry. After reading a few articles, I found none of those trackbacks are actually loyal to what I have said, and there is a need to clarify.

First of all, I will never express opinions on the blog regarding anything other than GoVoice. The blog is never meant to be used as a commentary about Microsoft or Windows Phone. The only reason this blog existed was for me to provide support for my customers. So if you want to quote this blog for anything else, you are misrepresenting my words.

Secondly, I acknowledge that currently reporting is not available until January/February of 2011. However, that information was announce on the Windows Phone Developer Blog back in October. I am not surprised for not getting a paycheck now, and I will not starve to death before February. I dont know if anybody should be worried unless you are one of those reporters who would do anything for a story. I also know that there are third-party solutions available like PreEmptive and Silverlight Analytic Framework. I didnt use them in the first release simply because I ran out of time. In 1.6 I used my own solution because I was setting up a server anyway. I never thought this would be interpreted as me complaining that Windows Phone marketplace being useless.

Lastly, (and please dont quote me out of context,) GoVoice was born because it was one app missing that prevented me from migrating to Windows Phone. I developed the app because there was no other way to make long distance calls to the significant other. I figured solving my own problem would mean others could benefit too. Its very simple like that. If no one had bought that app, it would have been worthwhile because I needed it.

If it still isnt clear to those journalists, here is my opinion: I enjoy submitting my apps to the marketplace. It has its bugs for sure, they always reliably and professionally test my app within 2 business days with a detailed of explanation if it fails. Its much better than waiting for 9 months for a black-box to study it just like what happened to GV Mobile.

That report also noted that the new WP7 models "are by and large generic phones from well known manufacturers, and in most cases an almost identical model is available from the same manufacturer with Android, and given the choice people seem to be picking Android."

A UK supplier claims that Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 7 is not doing very well against Android. Writing in his blog, Ben Pusey, of Mobiles Please said that Windows Phone 7 has got off to a sluggish start as far as his punters are concerned.

Only three per cent of smartphone sales and a little under two per cent of overall sales through MobilesPlease.co.uk have been using the Windows Mobile 7 OS. The 800,000 people who visit these mobile channels a month are enough to show that the initial public reaction to Windows Phone 7 is luke warm at best, he said.

Even Symbian 3 handsets outsold Windows 7 Phones by three to one, which is a little embarrising. The Symbian 3 sales were almost entirely made up of one handset, the Nokia N8, Pusey said. With Windows Phone 7 Microsoft have genuinely made an effort to differentiate, however they have arrived very late to the market and catching up with the other players will be a Herculean task, he added.

Other retailers have said that demand for iPhone, Blackberry and HTC handsets were strong in the smartphone sector.Some retailers were not even bothering displaying Windows Phone 7 machines, Pusey claimed. He said that with no killer handsets, and the stuffy, suit and tie image that Microsoft have tried so hard to shed still lingering, Microsoft need to pull something impressive out of the bag soon if they are going to compete in the mobile phone market.

Microsoft is rumoured to be readying a major Windows Phone 7 update. While it might seem a bit odd to update a relatively fresh OS, it appears that WP7 simply isnt doing too well against Android and iOS devices.
The update should include some form of multitasking, as well as copy/paste support. One might say that these crucial features should have been included from the get-go, but then again its a clear case of better late than never.

In addition, the update should include Bing turn-by-turn directions and other improvements, as well as custom ringer support.

Despite this WP7 seems destined to face an uphill struggle against Google and Apple offerings. It obviously wont flop like the Kin, but there is already too much skepticism surrounding Microsofts new mobile platform.

More here.

Originally Posted by JakeBarnes

You're assuming that getting a few thousand good to great apps for a store means having a few thousand to offer.

Originally Posted by JakeBarnes

To have a few thousand great apps you need hundreds of thousands in your store.

Originally Posted by JakeBarnes

Android is picking up the Apple haters and the clueless. Where does that leave MS?

Originally Posted by JakeBarnes

Let me make it simple, Firefly. Windows Phone 7 is failing miserably. That factual enough for ya, buddy?

Originally Posted by TNSF

Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R

Microsoft is rumoured to be readying a major Windows Phone 7 update. While it might seem a bit odd to update a relatively fresh OS, it appears that WP7 simply isnt doing too well against Android and iOS devices.
The update should include some form of multitasking, as well as copy/paste support. One might say that these crucial features should have been included from the get-go, but then again its a clear case of better late than never.

In addition, the update should include Bing turn-by-turn directions and other improvements, as well as custom ringer support.

Originally Posted by chronster

Their "do more with less clicks" sales pitch is an appealing one. This seems to be what your average person cares most about when it comes to smart phones. The learning curve on even an iphone can confuse, frustrate, and infuriate some customers. I know it seems silly, but some people really don't get along with technology very well, and it's these people that the sales pitch is working with.

I don't think anyone expected long lines and high demand for the first WP7 devices. The whole thing has potential though and won't just die off like kin did.

Originally Posted by chronster

Their "do more with less clicks" sales pitch is an appealing one. This seems to be what your average person cares most about when it comes to smart phones. The learning curve on even an iphone can confuse, frustrate, and infuriate some customers. I know it seems silly, but some people really don't get along with technology very well, and it's these people that the sales pitch is working with.

I don't think anyone expected long lines and high demand for the first WP7 devices. The whole thing has potential though and won't just die off like kin did.

Originally Posted by kotatsu

Stating the obvious too but MS have the pockets to keep pushing this for as long as it takes.

Originally Posted by SevenInchHeels

Heh. I saw someone with an Apple computer the other day (Starbucks) and I thought to myself. Wait, Apple makes computer? If you have a job, you just don't see Apple computers. They've pretty much been banished from the enterprise. Xserve sales are booming though!

Originally Posted by Carniphage

I am sure they will.

But if you are a developer. And you have some vague interest in paying your mortgage / bar-bill.

What *exactly* would motivate you to invest time and money in creating apps for the WP7 platform.

C.

way too early to make any judgement on the success or failure of Windows Phone.

Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R

WP will fail until MS gives it away for free

Originally Posted by mbmcavoy

Actually, a dispassionate review isn't extremely anything. It's "meh." \

Originally Posted by DocNo42

I don't care, and I sincerely doubt, Apple cares about capping anyones growth.

Steve has repeatedly said this, and all their actions clearly demonstrate that Apple believes this: If you build the best products in the world, people will seek them out and things like profit and market share will take care of themselves.

I think this is refreshing and directly applicable to Apple's success. They aren't worried about their competitors, they are worried about their customers.

Many companies and posters in forums like this could do well to understand the difference.

Sure they take pot shots at competitors from time to time. Who says work has to always be boring But to infer from the occasional pot shot that Jobs obsesses about Android "eating their lunch" is just insane. If it helps you sleep at night, run with it - but there are far more interesting things to fantasize about

Originally Posted by Firefly7475

I have to call BS on that. You're talking about features that took Apple 3 years to implement... and they control the hardware as well as software.

The impression I get is that Microsoft are throwing a lot of man hours at WP7, and from that they have an accelerated development cycle compared to other Microsoft products... but all of those features in just a few months of development... I just don't think it's possible. Certainly not when they need to test across multiple devices.

I think they will do Copy+Paste early next year (Jan/Feb) then stick to their 12 month release cycles.

Originally Posted by melgross

You really should look things up before saying what you think the meaning is. It's easy enough.

Originally Posted by Mister Snitch

One word:

Zune.

Originally Posted by kotatsu

... It's way, way too early to make any judgement on the success or failure of Windows Phone.