Could Windows Phone 7 Come Out at a Better Time?
July 20, 2010 12:35 AM Subscribe
Microsoft made a mockery of cell phone sales with the Kin, but the Windows Phone 7 is starting to get lukewarm positive reviews. Most reviews aren't stellar, but with the iPhone antenna debacle and the failure of the Nexus One, does their upcoming release stand a chance of being strong? We'll see.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Probably best as a comment in your previous post. -- vacapinta
They canceled the Kin? How am I supposed to know if my Facebook friend ?uestlove is playing an impromptu show in the park now?
posted by Rhaomi at 12:49 AM on July 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 12:49 AM on July 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
Microsoft is showing up pretty late to the modern smartphone party. I get the sense that they're bringing a really cool knife, razor sharp and with really nice intricate engraving on the hilt, designed by an expert team of world-class knifemakers, to a gunfight.
posted by mullingitover at 12:52 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by mullingitover at 12:52 AM on July 20, 2010
Again, the Nexus One was not a "failure".
There's no question that the N1 was a great specced phone with a great OS that put the chink into the then invincible iPhone's armor.
But as was stated in the other thread, Google's only method of support is scripting in Python.
posted by Talez at 12:58 AM on July 20, 2010
There's no question that the N1 was a great specced phone with a great OS that put the chink into the then invincible iPhone's armor.
But as was stated in the other thread, Google's only method of support is scripting in Python.
posted by Talez at 12:58 AM on July 20, 2010
Jeez how many misconceptions can you get into one post?
Nexus One wasn't a failure. Google don't want to be in the hardware business, they just put this phone together to give the Android market and its handset makers a bit of a kick in the ass. Witness the new life it breathed into the Android world, with the Droid models being the prime beneficiary.
The iPhone antenna crisis is pretty much over, after Jobs masterful maneuver last week.
This fucking Zune phone has no chance at all.
posted by w0mbat at 12:59 AM on July 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
Nexus One wasn't a failure. Google don't want to be in the hardware business, they just put this phone together to give the Android market and its handset makers a bit of a kick in the ass. Witness the new life it breathed into the Android world, with the Droid models being the prime beneficiary.
The iPhone antenna crisis is pretty much over, after Jobs masterful maneuver last week.
This fucking Zune phone has no chance at all.
posted by w0mbat at 12:59 AM on July 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
Almost completely in agreement with w0mbat. This post is thin as it is but what's there is mostly wrong.
The purpose of the Nexus One was to create a sort of reference handset for the public to view what Android was about. It was to put a high-powered and relatively sleek phone out there to become attached to what people were looking at as a "Google Phone". It was made by the leading Android handset maker, HTC and was fairly successful for what it was. The Nexus One served its purpose but was limited by the fact that it was only on T-Mobile (with their non-standard 3G bands) and was soon superseded by other HTC handsets on the CDMA carriers in the form of the Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, etc.
The KIN story was more complex failure that was telling of the internal corporate politics of Microsoft as discussed in this MetaFilter thread from two weeks ago.
posted by cgomez at 1:05 AM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
The purpose of the Nexus One was to create a sort of reference handset for the public to view what Android was about. It was to put a high-powered and relatively sleek phone out there to become attached to what people were looking at as a "Google Phone". It was made by the leading Android handset maker, HTC and was fairly successful for what it was. The Nexus One served its purpose but was limited by the fact that it was only on T-Mobile (with their non-standard 3G bands) and was soon superseded by other HTC handsets on the CDMA carriers in the form of the Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, etc.
The KIN story was more complex failure that was telling of the internal corporate politics of Microsoft as discussed in this MetaFilter thread from two weeks ago.
posted by cgomez at 1:05 AM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
The iPhone antenna issue was hardly a debacle if half of one percent of users are returning phones because of it. But it was a good week for angry bloggers and their click-through rates, that's for sure.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:08 AM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:08 AM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Jeez how many misconceptions can you get into one post?
Apparently, 3.
Still, I would contend that any phone that gets canceled so quickly is a failure.
The link about the iPhone shows that "Two-thirds of current iPhone owners plan to delay buying new model" because they're "spooked" so I wouldn't say that the "antenna crisis is pretty much over."
The Zune phone having no chance - you're probably right, but any time Microsoft, Yahoo, or AOL do anything semi-right, I have to give them kudos.
posted by Hasai at 1:09 AM on July 20, 2010
Apparently, 3.
Still, I would contend that any phone that gets canceled so quickly is a failure.
The link about the iPhone shows that "Two-thirds of current iPhone owners plan to delay buying new model" because they're "spooked" so I wouldn't say that the "antenna crisis is pretty much over."
The Zune phone having no chance - you're probably right, but any time Microsoft, Yahoo, or AOL do anything semi-right, I have to give them kudos.
posted by Hasai at 1:09 AM on July 20, 2010
Hasai, didn't you just post to the blue a second ago about cell phone gadgets? The content of this post seems better written as a comment to the older thread than a entirely new post.
posted by pwnguin at 1:31 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by pwnguin at 1:31 AM on July 20, 2010
Hasai, didn't you just post to the blue a second ago about cell phone gadgets? The content of this post seems better written as a comment to the older thread than a entirely new post.
Perhaps. This is my second post ever to Metafilter, and since it was about a different phone I figured it needed to be a standalone post.
With that said, I don't want to start off by being some kind of phone-fetish-freak. The funny part is, I still have an old G1. I don't own any of the phones mentioned in either post.
posted by Hasai at 1:36 AM on July 20, 2010
Perhaps. This is my second post ever to Metafilter, and since it was about a different phone I figured it needed to be a standalone post.
With that said, I don't want to start off by being some kind of phone-fetish-freak. The funny part is, I still have an old G1. I don't own any of the phones mentioned in either post.
posted by Hasai at 1:36 AM on July 20, 2010
Epic fail?
You have lost the right to use that phrase.
posted by WalterMitty at 1:50 AM on July 20, 2010
You have lost the right to use that phrase.
posted by WalterMitty at 1:50 AM on July 20, 2010
Saying something "doesn't suck" isn't exactly high praise.
You have to have strengths instead of just pointing out shortcomings in competitors.
I giggled when I saw that it lacks copy and paste.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:57 AM on July 20, 2010
You have to have strengths instead of just pointing out shortcomings in competitors.
I giggled when I saw that it lacks copy and paste.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:57 AM on July 20, 2010
The issues I have with the Windows Phone is the lack of multitasking and copy and paste. As I pointed out directly to Microsoft several years ago, if you're going to launch a new phone into the market it needs to be ahead of everything else that will be out there at that time - not on par with everything that was out 2 years ago when you conceived the product roadmap. Mind you, at that time they were still showing the old user interface with the sliding panels, which looks nothing like what they have now.
Having just suffered trying to copy and paste a number from a text message (which contained a space, so wasn't recognised as a number) on my HTC Desire which was scuppered by the fact that HTC "forgot" to include copy functionality into the SMS application and "forgot" to include paste functionality into the dialer - I get the feeling that the lack of this and multitasking will mean that the phone will get mauled by the press. On the other side, the press completely missed that howler when reviewing the Desire so maybe Microsoft will get lucky.
The biggest problem Google have at this moment in time is that a lot of handset manufacturers are taking the (admittedly) not very pretty Google UI and then completely botching it up with their own bastardization (eg. HTC Sense, Motorola Blur, the Samsung one I've completely forgotten the name of). This is shades of the nightmare of Windows Mobile all over again where vendors thought they could do a better job than Microsoft and went off and did their own thing.
Now in some cases they could, but in other cases it just really made things messy. A classic example of this happening on Android: my HTC Desire has two (yes, two) email clients. One integrates well with the phone but not gmail, the other integrates only with gmail but not very well with the rest of the phone.
Madness.
posted by mr_silver at 2:17 AM on July 20, 2010
Having just suffered trying to copy and paste a number from a text message (which contained a space, so wasn't recognised as a number) on my HTC Desire which was scuppered by the fact that HTC "forgot" to include copy functionality into the SMS application and "forgot" to include paste functionality into the dialer - I get the feeling that the lack of this and multitasking will mean that the phone will get mauled by the press. On the other side, the press completely missed that howler when reviewing the Desire so maybe Microsoft will get lucky.
The biggest problem Google have at this moment in time is that a lot of handset manufacturers are taking the (admittedly) not very pretty Google UI and then completely botching it up with their own bastardization (eg. HTC Sense, Motorola Blur, the Samsung one I've completely forgotten the name of). This is shades of the nightmare of Windows Mobile all over again where vendors thought they could do a better job than Microsoft and went off and did their own thing.
Now in some cases they could, but in other cases it just really made things messy. A classic example of this happening on Android: my HTC Desire has two (yes, two) email clients. One integrates well with the phone but not gmail, the other integrates only with gmail but not very well with the rest of the phone.
Madness.
posted by mr_silver at 2:17 AM on July 20, 2010
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posted by mrbill at 12:48 AM on July 20, 2010 [2 favorites]