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Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

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Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#21
post #8

I am the only one that finds Metro to be ugly (hate the color choices and block-y design) and cluttered? This does not strike me as something I want to see on my home screen: http://d35lb3dl296zwu.cloudfront.net/uploads/photo/image/769... Regardless, I'm wondering if the average consumer feels the same way as well. WP7 is not selling well, and WP8 (and the new Lumias) don't really differentiate themselves that much f…

TBH it doesn't ever really look that messy. That's just a marketing photo. Most of the time, it's pretty clean looking and intuitive. A few applications abuse that but they are usually not worth keeping anyway.

You really have to use it for an hour or two to get a feel for how nice it really is.

For reference, WP7 devices are still selling like hot cakes in the UK at least. We've had around 50 people (33% of our workforce) switch to WP recently and I'm watching a lot of them appear in users' hands.

I think it might suck more in the US unfortunately.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#23
post #9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the experience of WP7 is anything to go by, you're going to be exchanging a nightmare between the carriers and Google with a nightmare between the carriers and Microsoft. AT&T flat out refused to release an update for my phone, I had to do the WP equivalent of rooting it and manually patching myself.

Ah, that's rough. I was pretty upset that Sprint didn't release more WP7 phones but now I see why they held off. Unfortunately, it seems WP7 was a transition/beta device. But, I think it will be different this time with the huge bet they're making with Windows 8 across lots of different devices now.

WP7 was the beta/transition, then it was WP7.5 that was the transition, now it'll be WP8.

I don't see a lot changing - I've used a couple of WP7.5 devices, they nice, but they're not significantly better, or cheaper than an iPhone, Galaxy S3, HTC One, etc, so they're going to struggle.

Microsoft's best chance of marketshare seems to be the implosion of RIM, but that's limited to what, 10% of the market?

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#24
post #8

I am the only one that finds Metro to be ugly (hate the color choices and block-y design) and cluttered? This does not strike me as something I want to see on my home screen: http://d35lb3dl296zwu.cloudfront.net/uploads/photo/image/769... Regardless, I'm wondering if the average consumer feels the same way as well. WP7 is not selling well, and WP8 (and the new Lumias) don't really differentiate themselves that much f…

No, you are not the only one. Their choice of color is abysmal. Have you seen Server Manager in Server 2012? Awful, just awful. At least the icons fit the home screen properly this time.

You do realise that you can change the colour?

Server Manager 2012 - agree. That's just horrible.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#25
post #22

Wow, no prices or dates? Fail. (Guess they just wanted to announce/show off the devices before the iPhone5 announcement ... but without prices or dates, the hype is going to fade into non-existence).

I am now convinced that they organized this event hastily once they knew the date for the iPhone 5 event... kind of like what they did with surface to front-run the Nexus 7 announcement.

Smacks of desperation if you ask me.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#26
post #25
post #22

Wow, no prices or dates? Fail. (Guess they just wanted to announce/show off the devices before the iPhone5 announcement ... but without prices or dates, the hype is going to fade into non-existence).

I am now convinced that they organized this event hastily once they knew the date for the iPhone 5 event... kind of like what they did with surface to front-run the Nexus 7 announcement. Smacks of desperation if you ask me.

It will fail, this is the last chance for Nokia, I expect them to go out of the smart phone business very quickly.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#27
post #16
post #4

Nokia's new phones look fantastic. But their last ones looked fantastic, too. PureView camera? Awesome. But all my friends share photos through Instagram. No Instagram on WP8 = me not being able to share photos with my friends. So right now, this former WP7 user is sticking with Android. I really, really want to like Windows Phone- the UI is better than anything else out there. But it needs more support from third pa…

It seems Nokia's misleading "PureView" marketing has succeed as even tech savvy people can get confused into thinking this camera is the basically the same as the one in the PureView 808 smartphone. It's absolutely 100% not . It doesn't have a high resolution for pixel binning to make those images ultra clear, and it doesn't have pixel binning at all . Also it doesn't have that super large sensor to capture much more…

Nokia has said that PureView is the new kind of optical image stabilization, not the megapixels on the sensor. It's not misleading, you're just not understanding it correctly. The high MP count was part of the 808 PureView, but it wasn't what defined it as a PureView. The optical image stabilization was. The 41-MP sensor was just Nokia showing off.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3293041/nokia-lumia-920-pur...

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#28
post #26
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am now convinced that they organized this event hastily once they knew the date for the iPhone 5 event... kind of like what they did with surface to front-run the Nexus 7 announcement. Smacks of desperation if you ask me.

It will fail, this is the last chance for Nokia, I expect them to go out of the smart phone business very quickly.

This is really scary.

If Nokia goes out of business and its patent portfolio ends up in the hands of a patent troll, there will be an effective entry barrier in the smartphone market (because every current smartphone maker probably has a cross-licensing agreement in place, only new players will be affected).

My bet is Microsoft will acquire what's left of Nokia and use patents offensively against competitors where the CLA's don't cover them, but, even if they decide not to do so, life will get a lot more dangerous in this space.

If that's the case, I hope Google acquires them. The peace of mind not to have that IP in Microsoft's hands is worth a lot of money.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#29
post #8

I am the only one that finds Metro to be ugly (hate the color choices and block-y design) and cluttered? This does not strike me as something I want to see on my home screen: http://d35lb3dl296zwu.cloudfront.net/uploads/photo/image/769... Regardless, I'm wondering if the average consumer feels the same way as well. WP7 is not selling well, and WP8 (and the new Lumias) don't really differentiate themselves that much f…

I don't know, actually using the phones, it's very easy and quick to scan through the screens and actually use the interface. The screens are usually very simple and light. If you don't have the blocks you have a simple list, or a screen with very little chrome held together by typography and whitespace. So blockiness can be good. Web site usability books are always saying people scan sites, they don't read them.

I do think it is kind of ugly actually, but it's so damn usable I like it anyway. Before Windows 8 I'd always turn off all the special effects like Aero and have a dull gray bar that just worked snappy on my Desktop. Finally with Windows 8 I can tolerate the defaults.

And the scrolling is so buttery smooth, even on the phones since 7, that Android didn't catch up until JellyBean.

Re: Live From Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Press Conference

#30
Reading a lot of anti WP sentiment, and much of it directed at WP8 (surprising, because Microsft hasn't really revealed anything about it yet). That said, the Lumia 920 is without a doubt my next phone. Granted, I'm in a position where price means nothing to me, so the deciding factors are wireless charging, NFC, offline maps (not the pseudo-variety Google offers), PureView (even if it's only a 5Mp camera I'm betting it'll still outdo anything else in a smart phone).

I accept that no two people share the same view.

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