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

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

#61

Post by MartinMcGirk »

superails wrote: post #23
acchow wrote: post #11

This is share of sales in the last 3 months, not share of devices in the wild. It's no surprise that iPhone's sales share plummeted the last quarter before the 5S release.

I think it is the Nokia Lumia 1020/EOS, which I've heard is more of a sham than marketing would lead you to believe. I have to admit when I've seen the commercials, I wanted one also.

I actually switched from my iPhone 4 and bought a Lumia 1020 to give Windows Phone a try. I can't speak to the technical camera jargon as I'm not much of a camera nerd (yet), but what I can tell you is that the camera is phenomenal compared to what I've used previously.

Of the two pics it takes, the 5MP oversampled pics look great, but still look like cameraphone pics. The 34MP pictures though are a different beast. I took a picture of some work colleagues in the office the other day and was able to zoom in and read the place names on a map pinned to the wall a few feet behind them. I took a picture of a crowd that was gathered across the street and was able to zoom in later and crop out some decent (slightly grainy - but not awful) looking photos of people chatting as if I were stood a few feet away. The detail really is amazing compared to anything (phone based) that I've seen before.

I have no idea what half the options on my 1020's camera do, but having the option of a manual focus slider is great too. The 1020 isn't a DSLR or even probably a decent point and shoot, but it's definitely not a sham. I wouldn't carry a dedicated camera around with me, and in my experience having the 1020's camera has been great so far (I've only had it a week).

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

#62

Post by codeulike »

JonoW wrote: post #60
spongle wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, can confirm too. Those bright coloured Nokias are easy to spot and I saw a lot more of them over the summer.

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

#63

Post by OrwellianChild »

pedalpete wrote: post #8
Gustomaximus wrote: post #2

Windows Mobile market share is a long way off 8.8% according to Statcounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-DE-monthly-201209-20130... That said I could believe the sales growth as Nokia are know for making great quality low end devices so there could be traction gained here as the allure of flagship phones is not as appealing/affordable for all as base technology improves. IMO the best thing WM could do is cre…

There may be something funky with Statcounter, when looking at North America, they show Blackberry as doubling it's growth since May, doesn't seem like the most reliable source. http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-na-monthly-201209-20130... Also, its Windows Phone, or WP, not Windows Mobile.

This is consistent with product launches... Blackberry released the Z10 smartphone in May 2013. The Statcounter data tracks usage, which would plausibly go up quite a bit with new users on a phone with more fully-featured internet access. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Z10

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

#64

Post by hrvbr »

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…

Not in France. I don't have a car so I take the bus and the regional train a lot. Most people there have either a dumb phone or an old & cheap Android or Blackberry. At my driver's license courses, I was surprised that at least 3 people had a Windows Phone (the cheaper models). iPhones are for rich people.

In countries where people buy their phone without a contract attached, there is a real market for a <100€ device. The cheaper the better.

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

#65

Post by nightski »

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…

Excellent alternatives exist for all but maybe one of those apps. This is coming from someone who owns and uses a Lumia 1020 daily.

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

#66

Post by Maarten88 »

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…

My WP homescreen has several Nokia HERE apps: Drive, Commute, Transit, Maps, City Lens. You'll have a hard time finding anything that good on iOS or Android.

Then there are clone apps for allmost all the apps you mention (Instagram, Vine, Youtube, Dropbox, Starbucks, Hangouts). Probably not as good [1], but they work and often there's a native way to accomplish the same thing, making an app redundant (i.e. install Filters and share from the Pictures Hub instead of using Instagram).

[1] http://pocketnow.com/2013/08/14/missing-apps-on-windows-phon...

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

#67

Post by eropple »

acchow wrote: post #54
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?

The 4S lacks the seam at the top.

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

#69

Post by bcoates »

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…

I've been playing around with a 1020 for a few days, that article is really lame.

That first picture is showing it with the weird camera case accessory, you wouldn't normally carry the phone around with that attached. It looks just like it does in the ads in person. It fits my pocket fine (less awkward than the 'chin' on some Androids) and the weight and balance are comfortable for reading and making phone calls. I never got on the "shitty screens with crazy high DPI" bandwagon so I'm satisfied with 330ppi OLED. I'm not gonna give up OLED to get another 200ppi.

The slow cycle time is annoying but I've gotten used to it as a standard issue with cameraphones, it's not much worse than others I've used. There's a burst mode app so the lag doesn't affect your ability to do action photos. The 5MP downsample is a feature, you wouldn't normally use a photo bigger than that for small-screen display, and the non-downsampled image is still saved for printing or crops (there is a nice in-camera crop tool that adjusts the area the image is cropped from).

Honestly the biggest issue I had was that there isn't a light meter or exposure preview so it's hard to do manual exposure control when taking flash-less photos in very dark settings that have lights in the background. The multiple camera apps are an odd choice but not actually an issue in practice.

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

#70

Post by mercer »

ohwp wrote: post #47

I've got the feeling the iPhone lost its cool here in the Netherlands. Suddenly the buzz is all about Nokia and HTC while Samsung and Apple are becoming less popular. And I think I can understand why. The Nokia 520 is a great device for under € 170. And the HTC has a great screen, stereo sound and a very smooth designed Android version.

I'm thinking that perhaps the temporary (but lengthy) period in which the iPhone was the most popular phone was, for the most part, an aberration.

Apple generally just does it's thing where it doesn't go for the largest market share, but because they were unusually innovative/lucky with the iPhone, they had a period of popularity. The fact that the iPhone 5C isn't the cheap phone we expected seems to confirm this.

It seems quite possible that things are 'normalizing' again, and Apple will end up comfortably occupying a big chunk of the high-end space. Maybe they're trying to come up with another killer product category to dominate in, but I wouldn't be surprised if internally this isn't and hasn't ever been their goal.

Now, investors might feel different, of course, and I find that interesting to observe.

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