The Metro UI is really good, but it's too little, too late, or at least that's what sales numbers are showing: WP7 can't make a dent in the market, which BTW Android is zerg-rushing.
Untitled topic
71–80 of 136 posts
Re: undefined
#72I don't know why the other comment's been killed, but this is blogspam. Original story here, from the ones that actually interviewed Wozniak: http://anewdomain.net/2012/04/26/apple-founder-inventor-stev...
In a world of short attention spans, I don't want to listen to a podcast, and I doubt the podcast would have skyrocketed up the HN page. Increasingly, smaller articles about other articles get much more traffic than the original source. One such example is the well-researched NYT article about how companies learn your secrets, and then the Forbes article that cut the crap and got to the real shocker of the story and…
In a world of short attention spans I particularly want to listen to a podcast of the "Woz" because this is not the normal corporate gibberish that strongly contributed to the "short attention span".
The occasions they let the Woz out are rare enough.
Or as they say - listen and learn ;-) (and thanks for all the links)
Re: undefined
#73webOS was more beautiful and intuitive than iOS, too. It still didn't end up too well for it.
webOS is good on paper: I got one and while the UI is perfect there are far too many bugs and slowdowns.
Re: undefined
#74This doesn't surprise me too much. I just got a Nokia Lumia 900 (I'm using it right now in fact) and from a design and usability standpoint it really impresses me. Everything's so smooth and fluid, and the interface is so clean and consistent that it's just fun to use. It's so good that I could care less that the screen doesn't have some super high pixel density, that there's not that many good apps, or even that the camera performs poorly in low light situations.
Re: undefined
#75I have played around a bit with a Lumia some weeks ago (it was available earlier in Europe), and I have to say I was quite disappointed. Microsoft waited too long with screen resolution upgrades, and its low resolution makes it feel like an Android from 2 years ago. That makes it hard to trump modern Androids like the Galaxy Nexus UI-beauty-wise. The navigation paradigma Microsoft uses is not for me, I prefer Apple's…
IMHO, if you used Android phones 2 years ago (I have, they sucked), you'd be killing to have a Lumia. I find the overall experience stunning despite the relatively low resolution (which is still plenty usable); their attention to detail should have Apple quaking. ICS is just now catching up in terms of polish; and they still have ways to go. I'm using the Galaxy Nexus now, but I was impressed with the Lumia enough that I'm likely switching to WP full-time when Apollo phones hit
Re: undefined
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a world of short attention spans, I don't want to listen to a podcast, and I doubt the podcast would have skyrocketed up the HN page. Increasingly, smaller articles about other articles get much more traffic than the original source. One such example is the well-researched NYT article about how companies learn your secrets, and then the Forbes article that cut the crap and got to the real shocker of the story and…
In a world of short attention spans I particularly want to listen to a podcast of the "Woz" because this is not the normal corporate gibberish that strongly contributed to the "short attention span". The occasions they let the Woz out are rare enough. Or as they say - listen and learn ;-) (and thanks for all the links)
In a world of short attention spans, listening to Woz talk while I dick around on the Internet is actually pretty appealing to my ritalin-deprived self.
Re: undefined
#77I have played around a bit with a Lumia some weeks ago (it was available earlier in Europe), and I have to say I was quite disappointed. Microsoft waited too long with screen resolution upgrades, and its low resolution makes it feel like an Android from 2 years ago. That makes it hard to trump modern Androids like the Galaxy Nexus UI-beauty-wise. The navigation paradigma Microsoft uses is not for me, I prefer Apple's…
I want to say "Woz is the most handsome man in tech business." just to emphasize that beauty is subjective. But I am curious, a lot of praise comes to windows mobile from iphone fans (I am not talking about Woz but many others). Would there be a lot of Apple fans really switching to Lumias or are they simply telling it just to criticize Android?
The latter, I suspect. In Apple-worshipping circles, they bought the "Android is a stolen product" bit hook, line and sinker, conveniently ignoring the fact that the iPhone's interface was just an iteration on everything else that had come before. They look at the Windows phones and say, "see? You didn't have to copy the iPhone!"
They would never use it, but it's necessary to praise it in order to validate their indignation that Android is more successful and widespread (which feeds into their sense of superiority as being among the select few who see the light).
I'm seriously not an Apple hater. I have a MBP and a 3gs. I'll probably get a 5 when it comes out. I love the industrial design of Apple's products. But a good half the people I know who use them have a near-religious attachment to them, and fully buy into the Jobsian reality distortion field. It's kind of like how, as a Canucks fan, I love my team but hate half the fans.
Re: undefined
#78This doesn't surprise me too much. I just got a Nokia Lumia 900 (I'm using it right now in fact) and from a design and usability standpoint it really impresses me. Everything's so smooth and fluid, and the interface is so clean and consistent that it's just fun to use. It's so good that I could care less that the screen doesn't have some super high pixel density, that there's not that many good apps, or even that the…
So the screen sucks, the camera sucks, and there's no apps, but the design is great. Let's see how that works for microsoft.
Re: undefined
#79I have played around a bit with a Lumia some weeks ago (it was available earlier in Europe), and I have to say I was quite disappointed. Microsoft waited too long with screen resolution upgrades, and its low resolution makes it feel like an Android from 2 years ago. That makes it hard to trump modern Androids like the Galaxy Nexus UI-beauty-wise. The navigation paradigma Microsoft uses is not for me, I prefer Apple's…
IMHO, if you used Android phones 2 years ago (I have, they sucked), you'd be killing to have a Lumia. I find the overall experience stunning despite the relatively low resolution (which is still plenty usable); their attention to detail should have Apple quaking. ICS is just now catching up in terms of polish; and they still have ways to go. I'm using the Galaxy Nexus now, but I was impressed with the Lumia enough th…
Quaking? Please. Apple doesn't quake. If it pushes them in terms of innovation, great. But if you think they're quaking, you're clueless.
Re: undefined
#80For years MS genes to arrive late and win worked: Windows after Apple, Word after Word-perfect, Excel after Lotus/Borland, networks after Novel, Xbox after Nintendo. They didn't succeed to change this mode, although it doesn't work anymore (search, Zune, mobile). Future is for leaders or way-fast movers.
Your conclusions are ridiculously wrong. Also you are cherry-picking results to fit them. Microsoft's "arrive late" model didn't always work in the past (see: Money vs Quicken, et al) and while Microsoft has been struggling to reach traction with totally new (to them) products lately, there is no reason to believe this is due to any sort of sea change in the importance of being a first mover, because there are still…
Some of their wins were competitor missteps too. Wordperfect was late to the Windows party, so users who wanted to use a GUI went to Word. That misstep may have very well given MS it's opening.
The XBox did all right, but the 360 has done quite well. I loved my PS2, the XBox wasn't bad. But Sony released a year later and at an insane price point. Combined with the difficulty of developing for the cell relative (relative to 3 identical cores) and MS was able to gain a big chunk of the market.
Apple never made a big mistake with the iPod. Even the 2nd or 3rd gen (which the capacitive buttons) was still a nice player. The "fat" nano was still a nice player. One of the shuffles was a bit of a dud, but that was never a big chunk of their sales anyway. Any downsides were more than made up for by the availability of accessories and the iTunes Music Store.
With the iPhone, I don't think Apple has made any big mistakes either. Maybe the price on the original (which they fixed relatively quickly), and I know many people were unhappy with the AT&T choice, but it seems to have worked out fine. Apple was able to control the experience to keep it from being ruined by the carriers (mostly), and again the accessor market and the App Store have more than made up for that with most consumers. The two biggest complaints I've heard are lock-in/freedom (most people don't seem to care) and the lack of a physical keyboard (preference, and Apple clearly is willing to let keyboard enthusiasts go somewhere else).
I'd say there have been Android missteps. Some carriers ruin the phones, and the updates thing is a big negative in my mind. But Android phones cater to just about everyone (touch screen only or keyboard lover), and come in at all price points. It's clearly good enough for a great many people.
At this point, I don't think there is an opening in the smartphone market. If MS wants to succeed, they're going to have to make an opening... and they haven't done that yet. Combine that with the Window Phone's downsides (update questions, smaller app market due to small market share) and it's not an easy sell.
I'd like to see them succeed here, if only because I like that they're pushing a totally different UI and they provide additional pressure on Apple and Google to keep improving. But the iPhone came out five years ago. Two or three years ago I think they could have had a good chance against Android. They may have waited too long.