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Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

blog.cubeofm.com

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Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#31

Post by colinplamondon »

buster wrote: post #19

This blog post is sooo bad and uninformed, it's hard to believe he is making money with mobile software. So, to his points: Google does not care about me. Google does not give me any mode of getting in contact with them. With both Apple and Microsoft, I have access to their developers Mh, what? Freenode irc channels, google code open issue trackers? a LOT of forums and blogposts to learn from? Official "support" on s…

All that support stuff is great for hobbyists, but completely unacceptable for businesses. With Apple and Microsoft you get incident support. If something comes up, you email them your project, they dig into the source, and they tell you what's going on at the code level. The iPhone Developer Program gives you two code-level incident supports, and the ones after that are absurdly cheap. Microsoft also gives you a phone option.

This is how real business support works, not forums and mailing lists. The latter is cool, but you also need the latter to have a serious platform.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#32

Post by mlinsey »

ErrantX wrote: post #5
swombat wrote: post #3

Interesting but risky point. What if the new Windows Mobile flops due to critical problems much like the other Windows Mobiles? Android at least is already gathering momentum, despite all its issues. It's nice that Microsoft cares, but you won't get rich selling to the 3 people who decided to buy a Microsoft phone. You say "They care about how polished the outside looks, how thin it is, and how smooth and fast the us…

People also care about how easy it is to do whatever they're trying to do. And this combination, smooth, fast, and easy, is really hard to achieve. I'm not entirely convinced Microsoft is still up to it, though I'll be glad to be surprised. I think Microsoft may stand an outside chance; they are already going in the right direction with recent UI/UX changes in Windows. They've always got that it should be slick but u…

The most serious problem with previous versions of Windows Mobile isn't the myriad UI issues (which are collectively definitely a close second), it's the stability of the core OS. Every last person I know who has owned a WinMo phone (which is admittedly still not very many people, so sample size warning!) has complained about how frequently they have to reboot their phone. This is particularly egregious when the phone crashes as it sits idly in your pocket, causing you to miss incoming calls until you take out your phone and realize what has happened.

In order for Windows Phone 7 to succeed where Windows Mobile failed, they need to revamp the internals of the OS just as drastically as they have revamped their UI. It's definitely possible that they have done it; clearly Microsoft cares a lot about this release and clearly some major parts of the underlying OS are changing. But I personally would not bet months of development time on it until someone outside MS gets the chance to use the phones in a non-demo environment.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#33

Post by felixmar »

sadiq wrote: post #30
felixmar wrote: post #20

The downside of Windows Phone 7 is that it is the most limiting and sandboxed development platform of all mobile operating systems. No native code execution like Android, no multitasking, no direct access to the camera, no sockets support and more. Even Silverlight has less restrictions.

Android has native code execution via the NDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html

My mistake, i meant to write "No native code execution support like Android has".

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#34

Post by felixmar »

allenbrunson wrote: post #29
felixmar wrote: post #20

The downside of Windows Phone 7 is that it is the most limiting and sandboxed development platform of all mobile operating systems. No native code execution like Android, no multitasking, no direct access to the camera, no sockets support and more. Even Silverlight has less restrictions.

no sockets support? sounds like a dealbreaker. does it have something similar to take up the slack, like a web access framework or something?

Only HTTP is supported unlike Silverlight which also supports TCP sockets and even multicast UDP with Silverlight 4.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#35

Post by tremendo »

Completely agree that nerd appeal matters not one bit to end-users. But while yes, they pay attention to the polish, what they are really after is being cool. And no cool person I know is going to get caught carrying Microsoft around while there are iPhones in the world. The Droid is show-off-worthy and cool too. Microsoft has a steep climb out of its uncool-ness, and I for one, would not bank on it. But I've been wrong before.

Found it interesting how Android is dissed as something that appeals only to nerds, which in my mind I kept equating with "developers" and the reasoning this is bad, while Microsoft's strategy is good is that they focus on developers, developers, developers.

I like how Max likes being the contrarian, much ala Giles Bowkett, and get tons of traffic and us commenting on his articles. He's output a good number just this year and about all of these have made it into HN's home page. He knows how to get nerds talking, that's for sure.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#36

Post by whalesalad »

minouye wrote: post #25

As an Android user for the past several months there is not a single app that would compel me to stay on the platform. I've been patiently waiting for the Android Market to start filling up with polished apps, fun games, and tools to help me at work. Unfortunately, I'm several months in and the best-selling games are Bejeweled knock-offs, and a $3.99 version of Doodle Jump. I didn't make my choice of phone platform b…

YES.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#37

Post by tremendo »

tremendo wrote: post #35

Completely agree that nerd appeal matters not one bit to end-users. But while yes, they pay attention to the polish, what they are really after is being cool. And no cool person I know is going to get caught carrying Microsoft around while there are iPhones in the world. The Droid is show-off-worthy and cool too. Microsoft has a steep climb out of its uncool-ness, and I for one, would not bank on it. But I've been wr…

Man, got carried away talking about cool that forgot about my other thought. Any iPhone-competing device will need manufacturers and the carriers to push it. Android has that going already. Surely Microsoft will get plenty phones out there in time, but will it be soon enough and at a competitive price point? we'll see I guess.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#38

Post by Tichy »

colinplamondon wrote: post #31
buster wrote: post #19

This blog post is sooo bad and uninformed, it's hard to believe he is making money with mobile software. So, to his points: Google does not care about me. Google does not give me any mode of getting in contact with them. With both Apple and Microsoft, I have access to their developers Mh, what? Freenode irc channels, google code open issue trackers? a LOT of forums and blogposts to learn from? Official "support" on s…

All that support stuff is great for hobbyists, but completely unacceptable for businesses. With Apple and Microsoft you get incident support. If something comes up, you email them your project, they dig into the source, and they tell you what's going on at the code level. The iPhone Developer Program gives you two code-level incident supports, and the ones after that are absurdly cheap. Microsoft also gives you a pho…

Yeah, we have all heard the stories about the great support iPhone developers get, if their app is rejected for the app store.

If that is professional business, I prefer to stay independent. Actually, all the pain just might be a deliberate barrier to entry for "small fish". Companies are used to dealing with pain, individuals less so.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#39

Post by Tichy »

minouye wrote: post #25

As an Android user for the past several months there is not a single app that would compel me to stay on the platform. I've been patiently waiting for the Android Market to start filling up with polished apps, fun games, and tools to help me at work. Unfortunately, I'm several months in and the best-selling games are Bejeweled knock-offs, and a $3.99 version of Doodle Jump. I didn't make my choice of phone platform b…

I agree there are not many nice games. Didn't miss many other things, but I am not much of an app collector.

However, the lack of quality apps is motivating me as a developer. How am I supposed to compete on the iPhone, if there are a gazillion apps that are polished bordering on cheesiness? Seems to me on Android there are more opportunities for me.

Re: Why I'm investing in Windows Phone and skipping Android

#40

Post by Quarrelsome »

colinplamondon wrote: post #31
buster wrote: post #19

This blog post is sooo bad and uninformed, it's hard to believe he is making money with mobile software. So, to his points: Google does not care about me. Google does not give me any mode of getting in contact with them. With both Apple and Microsoft, I have access to their developers Mh, what? Freenode irc channels, google code open issue trackers? a LOT of forums and blogposts to learn from? Official "support" on s…

All that support stuff is great for hobbyists, but completely unacceptable for businesses. With Apple and Microsoft you get incident support. If something comes up, you email them your project, they dig into the source, and they tell you what's going on at the code level. The iPhone Developer Program gives you two code-level incident supports, and the ones after that are absurdly cheap. Microsoft also gives you a pho…

I appreciate the benefits of incident support.... but tbh i've never hit a use case where i've needed it. Most issues you can work through yourself and if there is a serious fundamental flaw in the base code you can always find people in the right places to report it to.

With my experience with working with Windows Mobile: EXPECT NO SUPPORT. Most of the problems are due to the OEMs and some of the major ones I worked with (Symbol, Intermec, Datalogic) had support that was hilariously bad / non existent.

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