Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

venturebeat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 99 posts

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#51

Post by spongle »

zyb09 wrote: post #27

This must be bullshit. Not that I have scientific evidence, but as a app developer I got quite good at identifying a device type just by having a quick glance at it and that's what I usually do to keep me busy in public transport and other places. What I see is about 50% iPhones, the majority being iPhone 4, not so many 4S, but also quite a few iPhone 5. Next up are Samsung phones of all kinds, with the prevalent bei…

Your average Starbucks in London, UK over the last month seems to have the following market share: couple of ipads, single iphone, couple of Samsung android handsets and a lot of windows phones, all Lumia. To be honest I'm quite surprised myself even as a WP user. You see chromebooks a lot as well. Not seen a single surface (yet).

As a side point, I get a lot of people ask me what to buy after they threw £450 on a 4S and broke it (I'm the local informal tech advice guy for the school my kids go to's population of parents). The iphone doesn't have a great reputation in the UK after the first purchase from experience: it's expensive, unreliable (icloud is a piece of crap) and breaks easily and every repair place is dodgy including the apple stores here. This makes it a really bad investment. I don't suggest a solution in particular but people come back with Lumia handsets over new iPhones as they are much cheaper and are functionally equivalent. Either that or they buy a shit android and hate it.

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#52

Post by spongle »

preemrust wrote: post #46
spongle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't spout the "fewer apps" rubbish. Debian has fewer apps. Ubuntu has fewer apps. Does this mean anything? No. I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device.

Yes it means something when phone is the only device you use and you don't have the app for your banks or airlines or insurance company. A lot of whats there on the windows app store is also shoddy.

You have heard of a web browser haven't you?

Everything that there isn't an app for you can do on the damn browser which is good as its the same as full desktop IE10.

This is a poor excuse and justification.

As for shoddy apps, Google Play has its fair share as well don't forget.

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#53

Post by spongle »

acchow wrote: post #49
spongle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't spout the "fewer apps" rubbish. Debian has fewer apps. Ubuntu has fewer apps. Does this mean anything? No. I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device.

It does have fewer apps. No instagram, vine, youtube, dropbox, G+ hangouts (really important for a lot of software engineers), tripadvisor offline city guides, starbucks app, airline check-in from many carriers (United surprisingly does have)... That was just going through the main homescreens on my Android. > I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device. I'm not sure what you're trying to s…

Seriously? As i said below there is a web browser too.

None of those have any real value for me personally so I can understand where Android might be more suitable but I really don't need an app for any of those.

As for trip advisor city guides, Nokia Here Maps does the same stuff offline (and a load more!)

The only missing point from above is that YouTube works fine in the browser. The press are full of shit about interoperability there. Not only that there are a multitude of quality youtube apps but you don't need them.

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#54

Post by acchow »

zyb09 wrote: post #27

This must be bullshit. Not that I have scientific evidence, but as a app developer I got quite good at identifying a device type just by having a quick glance at it and that's what I usually do to keep me busy in public transport and other places. What I see is about 50% iPhones, the majority being iPhone 4, not so many 4S, but also quite a few iPhone 5. Next up are Samsung phones of all kinds, with the prevalent bei…

How can you differentiate a 4s from a 4 just by glancing at it?

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#55

Post by Spearchucker »

superails wrote: post #26
acchow wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"more of a sham than marketing would lead you to believe" In what sense? Some very reliable reviewers (e.g. Brian Klug) say the camera truly is incredible...

5MP downsample, resolution falls well short of what a 38MP camera should (theoretically) be capable of, runs windows phone 8 (fewer apps), phone has awkward shape not shown in commercials, low screen resolution, and as the following review puts it: http://www.everyjoe.com/2013/07/13/technology/nokia-lumia-10... "You might think that despite all of these negatives, at least the Lumia 1020 blows all other phones out of…

Image quality is not about mega pixels.

The 1020 uses silicon and software to compensate for the physical limitations of a short focal length and small aperture. Instead, a huge sensor captures many more pixels than you need, and then software algorithms distil this down to a five-megapixel image of great richness and detail.

The sensor is 41 megapixels, creating as a first step a 34 megapixel image; the other pixels being put to good use interpolating the image. For a technical explanation, see [1]. The phone actually keeps a master copy of the image at full resolution, and presents the five-megapixel image to you right away for editing and sharing.

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/15/nokia_lumia_1020_tec...

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#56

Post by infinite_snoop »

acchow wrote: post #49
spongle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't spout the "fewer apps" rubbish. Debian has fewer apps. Ubuntu has fewer apps. Does this mean anything? No. I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device.

It does have fewer apps. No instagram, vine, youtube, dropbox, G+ hangouts (really important for a lot of software engineers), tripadvisor offline city guides, starbucks app, airline check-in from many carriers (United surprisingly does have)... That was just going through the main homescreens on my Android. > I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device. I'm not sure what you're trying to s…

I have a Win 8 tablet and the app store is a complete joke. I don't think the "use the browser" argument really holds any water. Lots of UX features are only really available when you go the native route, i.e the new "picture in picture" feature in the Android Youtube app.

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#57

Post by [deleted] »

spongle wrote: post #52
preemrust wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it means something when phone is the only device you use and you don't have the app for your banks or airlines or insurance company. A lot of whats there on the windows app store is also shoddy.

You have heard of a web browser haven't you? Everything that there isn't an app for you can do on the damn browser which is good as its the same as full desktop IE10. This is a poor excuse and justification. As for shoddy apps, Google Play has its fair share as well don't forget.

[deleted]

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#58

Post by sz4kerto »

zyb09 wrote: post #27

This must be bullshit. Not that I have scientific evidence, but as a app developer I got quite good at identifying a device type just by having a quick glance at it and that's what I usually do to keep me busy in public transport and other places. What I see is about 50% iPhones, the majority being iPhone 4, not so many 4S, but also quite a few iPhone 5. Next up are Samsung phones of all kinds, with the prevalent bei…

All of my friends have yachts, so everyone in the world must have one or two. All statistics are bullshit, personal experiences are always valid though.

Re: Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany

#60

Post by JonoW »

spongle wrote: post #51
zyb09 wrote: post #27

This must be bullshit. Not that I have scientific evidence, but as a app developer I got quite good at identifying a device type just by having a quick glance at it and that's what I usually do to keep me busy in public transport and other places. What I see is about 50% iPhones, the majority being iPhone 4, not so many 4S, but also quite a few iPhone 5. Next up are Samsung phones of all kinds, with the prevalent bei…

Your average Starbucks in London, UK over the last month seems to have the following market share: couple of ipads, single iphone, couple of Samsung android handsets and a lot of windows phones, all Lumia. To be honest I'm quite surprised myself even as a WP user. You see chromebooks a lot as well. Not seen a single surface (yet). As a side point, I get a lot of people ask me what to buy after they threw £450 on a 4S…

Yeah I'm in London too, have seen a noticeable uptick in the number of Lumia's recently.
Post reply on HN