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The Deal That Makes No Sense

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Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#81

Post by [deleted] »

throwawaykf02 wrote: post #49
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand that reasoning. Why would a phone maker choose Windows Phone over Android? – Android is cheaper than Windows Phone (many phone makers pay Microsoft to be able to use patents used in Android, but even then, Android is cheaper than Windows Phone) – Android has lower system requirements than Windows Phone – Android has a thriving app market, Windows Phone doesn’t Windows Phone low-end phones will only…

Android certainly does not have lower system requirements than Windows Phone. I mean, it could run on lower spec hardware... for some definition of "run". Mine are both last-gen devices, but my Lumia has half the cores and RAM as my Galaxy and runs twice as smoothly. I hear later versions of Android did get smoother on flagship phones, but I don't know how or if that translates to lower-end devices.

[deleted]

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#82

Post by [deleted] »

throwawaykf02 wrote: post #49
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand that reasoning. Why would a phone maker choose Windows Phone over Android? – Android is cheaper than Windows Phone (many phone makers pay Microsoft to be able to use patents used in Android, but even then, Android is cheaper than Windows Phone) – Android has lower system requirements than Windows Phone – Android has a thriving app market, Windows Phone doesn’t Windows Phone low-end phones will only…

Android certainly does not have lower system requirements than Windows Phone. I mean, it could run on lower spec hardware... for some definition of "run". Mine are both last-gen devices, but my Lumia has half the cores and RAM as my Galaxy and runs twice as smoothly. I hear later versions of Android did get smoother on flagship phones, but I don't know how or if that translates to lower-end devices.

[deleted]

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#83

Post by corresation »

Nokia's most recent quarterly had them sitting on $4 billion EUR of cash ($5.2 billion), with barely any burn. I don't think the company was poised to go bankrupt anytime soon.

Either Microsoft is completing a long planned purchase, or Nokia threatened to dabble in Android. Other than that the purchase is irrational.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#84

Post by GFischer »

andrewfong wrote: post #30
shangaslammi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the effect of ecosystem lock-down is huge compared to 5-6 years ago. It's not about who makes the best phones or phone-OS anymore. People are invested in their respective app ecosystems and all their photos, contacts, documents etc. are in Apple's or Google's cloud. I'm not saying that Microsoft doesn't have a chance at all but I think the odds are against Windows phones ever reaching a significant market sh…

Six years ago, most smartphone users were heavily invested in their Windows Mobile or Symbian app ecosystems, or in Blackberry's messaging ecosystem. That said, to pull off an iPhone- and Android-style upset though, Microsoft would need a correspondingly huge difference in user experience though. The UI on Windows Phone is nifty, but it's not enough of a game changer for most people. It'd really have to be something…

The user experience is significantly worse for some cases, where Microsoft could have grabbed market share (though I don't know if it would have been worth it strategically).

I've posted several times about the awful experience:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6012362

I had some very ugly experiences setting up one for my cousin (I stupidly didn't lie and registered her as being from Uruguay and under 18), which made the phone behave like a brick ("sorry, no apps available in your country", "sorry, you have to be over 18 under laws from another country to use most of the features of this phone").

Changing the Live account did not work, I had to reset the phone and create another account for her, lying about her age and country so the phone could work properly (she wanted to use Skype and WhatsApp, not exactly the most demanding use case).

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#85

Post by 300bps »

7952 wrote: post #52
300bps wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for a funny anecdote, an Android user at.my work asked me what virus scanning software I used on my Windows Phone 8. I laughed because I thought he was making fun of Windows Phone. Turned out he was serious - his Galaxy had gotten two different viruses and he was running virus scan on it. I told him that ironically Microsoft's market share wasn't high enough for malware authors to target.

And Android is complicated enough that it doesn't feel secure when it gets bloated. It is easy for someone used to windows to imagine that slowness or crashing are caused by a virus.

The person that asked me the question was a very experienced Android user that legitimately got two viruses on their phone that were causing link hijacking and popup advertisements.

He just assumed that Windows Phone would have the same virus issues as Android.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#86

Post by joshstrange »

harrytuttle wrote: post #23
shangaslammi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the effect of ecosystem lock-down is huge compared to 5-6 years ago. It's not about who makes the best phones or phone-OS anymore. People are invested in their respective app ecosystems and all their photos, contacts, documents etc. are in Apple's or Google's cloud. I'm not saying that Microsoft doesn't have a chance at all but I think the odds are against Windows phones ever reaching a significant market sh…

I don't agree. Most of the general users I know forget their email password every time they fuck up their phone and just buy all the apps again. This is the norm. The only thing people give a shit about is their data (and that is usually when it's way to late and they're about to lose it), not the apps.

Who in their right mind would do something like this? Even the most technologically illiterate person I know understands how their Apple ID/Google Account works and that their purchases are tied to it. As for forgetting one's password, this is why just about every login form on the internet has a "Forgot Password" link/button.

This is NOT the norm.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#87

Post by singlow »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #58
Alphasite_ wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. People may forget, but they don't rebuy things repeatadly.

Somebody gave one of my students a fairly (< 1yr old) new laptop the other day because they got it loaded up with viruses, (virii?) There is a market segment with more money than brains, it is large.

Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri. The double i would only occur if the stem already ends in i, such as radius: radi- + -us.

http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/WORDS.EXE?virus

In English the plural is viruses.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#88

Post by NotAnEngineer »

bad_user wrote: post #40
bodyfour wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Plus it's a prize Microsoft probably feels it can't afford to lose. If Android magically evaporated tomorrow Google would be just fine -- the core of their business (ad sales) doesn't fundamentally require that they control the mobile platform, although it certainly makes things easier. Microsoft, on the other hand, had for decades been the platform company. They've historically tried to grow by pushing out…

> If Android magically evaporated tomorrow Google would be just fine -- the core of their business (ad sales) doesn't fundamentally require that they control the mobile platform I do not agree. They don't necessarily need to control the mobile platform, but they do need access to the distribution channels. Witness how Apple replaced Google Maps with their own solution, even before their solution was good enough, as i…

> At some point not so long ago, they also threatened to replace Google's search engine with Bing by default.

In iOS 7, Siri (the only search interface Apple cares about) will search Bing by default. Source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/10/a-wiser-siri-snubs...

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#89

Post by 300bps »

lttlrck wrote: post #69
300bps wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Lumia 928. Those are my last four smart phones. I didn't feel locked in at all to the "app ecosystem". Honestly web and email were paramount and everything else is secondary. At some point in the future I believe native apps will be passe in favor of a complete move to web applications making the underlying platform completely personal preference. ...oh.and at one time I was locked int…

Why did you switch if web and email are paramount? I am genuinely interested.

Because Windows Phone does web and email better than iPhone.

The primary way it is better is that the screen is so much bigger. This is easy to dismiss, but it makes a ton of UI hacks done for the iPhone needless. For example, the fact that the address bar isn't on the screen all the time is a hack to compensate for the small screen. Then that leads to a need for the hack where you click the top of the screen in the browser to rapidly scroll to the top. Sometimes that's a nice feature, but only if your screen is so small that they can't always display the address bar unless you've scrolled all the way to the top. Sometimes it's the most annoying thing in the world - like when you've scrolled past 7 pages of information reading in the browser and then accidentally click the rapid scroll-up button. There is no rapid scroll-down button to undo that.

My wife has an iPhone 5 and honestly it feels like a tiny little toy when I use it. The screen is ridiculously small.

Now for the other nice things... I can copy music to it without the iTunes bloatware. I plug my phone in, something pops up and then I just copy music to it. With Windows Phone, I have two copies of my music - my computer and my phone. With iPhone I had three copies - what was on my computer, what was on my phone and what the iTunes library. Keeping three things in sync was a massive pain.

The integration to Skydrive is much better than iCloud as well. My Lumia 928 has 32 GB of storage but with SkyDrive I get an additional 125 GB (of which 25 GB was free). I can seamlessly access pictures, video and music right from it as long as I have a signal.

The Nokia maps are the best maps application I ever used. Much better than either Google Maps or Apple Maps. Speaking of signal - the maps application have online and offline capabilities. So if I have no signal whatsoever there is a local copy of map data on my phone so I can still get directions.

I have three young kids and my Windows Phone has a KidZone. I put certain apps in there and then put it into the KidZone mode and my kids are locked into those apps unless they type my password. No more deleting icons accidentally, no more sending emails on my behalf accidentally, no more doing anything I don't want them to do like they did constantly with my iPhone.

This is long enough - the bottom line is that Windows Phone is superior in every way that matters to me to any iPhone I ever owned.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#90

Post by mkr-hn »

chris_wot wrote: post #59
iaskwhy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20% of the general public in Poland, Mexico and some Eastern European countries don't agree with that claim. People forget how varied is the smartphone market across regions.

Only 20%? This is not a great argument!

As Apple fans are often quick to point out when someone mentions Android's share, market share is not the only (or best) measure of a platform.
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