6 ms·

This makes me sad. I've played with Windows Phone a few times and it felt buttery smooth (even my Nexus 6P it still pauses occasionally; granted the pausing on

This makes me sad. I've played with Windows Phone a few times and it felt buttery smooth (even my Nexus 6P it still pauses occasionally; granted the pausing on Android gets less and less with each version but I'm still a tiny bit disappointed it still pauses unlike my past iPhones and Windows phone). Their idea for a unified OS across devices is an awesome goal as well. It's really cool to see the latest Windows Phones and watch them plug into a keyboard, mouse and monitor and bam you have the FULL version of Microsoft Office apps and a Windows 10 like desktop. But in today's market you have to have the apps to succeed. They never really got the apps. It's really disappointing in my opinion.

rchaud 11y ago
>It's really cool to see the latest Windows Phones and watch them plug into a keyboard, mouse and monitor and bam you have the FULL version of Microsoft Office apps and a Windows 10 like desktop. Cool maybe, but what would be the use case for this? If people think they'll need full Office on the go, chances are they'll take a laptop or Surface-like device with them. Right now they will need their Windows phone as well as a MS display dock, keyboard and mouse, and it will still all be useless unless they are able to find a monitor to plug into. Every workplace or airport lounge I've been to with a PC monitor has VGA/HDMI cables locked in place, and unremovable without a key or without cutting plastic ties.
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  > Cool maybe, but what would be the use case for this? Less stuff to carry around. Since it's brand new there isn't a lot of utility there just yet. Honestly, even though Windows Phone may be dead, I really think this is the future of computing. I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? You could go to an airport, plug your phone in and use it like a desktop at one of their tables. Get on the plane and plug it into a screen. Ultimately I could even see the phone part disappearing and it's a small object you keep on your person that can then connect to various types of devices maybe even wirelessly. This is a great use-case for, in 80 years or however long it takes, when we have computing devices embedded into our bodies. Then we simply touch a screen and we can visualize the data we're carrying. I stay awake a night thinking about how cool this could be :) (seriously, I even started sketching how to create this type of universality myself but it's such an undertaking and difficult to succeed that I never actually wrote code for this idea but it's certainly one of my favorites)
  - krisdol 11y ago
    > I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? You have to hope that those different things are always there to be plugged in to. If not, you have to carry them with you, at which point I'd rather have one bigger device ~~and~~ (correction: ) THAN two pieces to assemble into a smaller device.
    - varelse 11y ago
      That's a future I think we could have had, but IMO it doesn't look like it's actually coming anytime soon thanks to market fragmentation. And even if it did, in my experience, working on a machine with remote storage and computation resources in the cloud is anywhere from annoying to nightmarish depending on local latency and bandwidth. Good luck getting the HW/OS/Cloud vendors to come up with a mutually agreeable standard for this. So I achieve my approximation of that future for myself by carrying around a beefy linux GPU laptop, a trac-ball, and keyboard wherever I go. I'd love to just use my desktop sitting at home as my cloud storage and computation server, but I gave up on that some time ago.
    - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
      I disagree; what you're talking about would be an issue in today's world but if someone were to come out with a way to re-use a personal computing device (phone today, maybe something else in the future) so that you could have multiple visualizations with it to the point that you would never need to buy another dedicated device again, I think you'd eventually finding that picking up enough traction that it would be everywhere. I mean, why not? Similar to wifi which is pretty much everywhere now. Ultimately I don't know if it'll be the phone that powers this or if it just simply takes so long that it'll be something else but I would be shocked and supremely disappointed if, by the time I pass, there isn't a way to quickly and easily view your digital information on any screen with or without keyboards in multiple layouts that best fit the screen and purpose.
  - nathanasmith 11y ago
    > I really think this is the future of computing. I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? And when you need to make or receive a call? Pull out the bluetooth earpiece (yet another fiddly thing to carry around)? I'd rather just have a tablet and a phone and I think most people would agree.
- Aleman360 11y ago
  Developing markets where the only computer you have is a phone.
  - nathanasmith 11y ago
    I'm picturing myself in a developing country with a phone in hand, thinking about how to go about getting a "computer". Let's see, with this phone, I can go and buy a compatible keyboard and dock, then find a screen that is advanced enough to be compatible with the dock's interface. Or for almost certainly less, I can buy some no-name tablet or basic chromebook or laptop. I would probably go with the tablet/laptop.
- jimbobimbo 11y ago
  A company I work for, has pretty strict security policies. I have to subject my phone to these, because of calendar and email, but I wouldn't want to subject my personal laptop to these requirements. I can totally see myself hooking up the phone to some dock in order to do things remotely, if necessary.
davidgerard 11y ago
This is the complaint I've heard. Of the few people I know with Windows phones, they loved the phone ... but lamented the utter lack of apps. So: great interface, but no traction as a platform. (I've never used it myself. I went from a Blackberry to a Samsung S3mini and now S4mini, and I'm still in "this is so much better than Blackberry" mode.)
- scholia 11y ago
  The main point of Windows 10 phones is to have Universal apps that run on the phone, desktop and laptop PCs and games consoles. If Microsoft gets a billion or so Windows 10 users, it could become a very large ecosystem.....
  - wvenable 11y ago
    Except Universal apps are entirely new for Windows 10 -- so it's an empty and new platform that sits alongside regular Windows applications. Developers have to go out of their way to develop for this separate platform in a platform and, from what I've seen, they aren't. I'm still running Windows 8.1 on my devices so I can't even run these universal apps.
    - scholia 11y ago
      Sure. You have to start somewhere.
- hotcool 11y ago
  Have you tried the Blackberry Passport?: http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_CA/pd/productID.307766800 http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_CA/pd/produ... As a former iPhone and Windows Lumia owner, the Passport is a huge upgrade. Great to read on. It's like using a Kindle or Kobo.
  - tacoman 11y ago
    The Passport running BB10 is best computerphone I've ever used. Hopefully BlackBerry continues to at least put out security updates until the hardware is close to obsolete.
ams6110 11y ago
in today's market you have to have the apps to succeed I'm not sure how true this is. You need some apps, to be sure. But I own an Android phone had have installed less than half-a-dozen apps that it did not come with out of the box. I use gmail, maps, messenger, calendar, contacts, and web browser (chrome). That's 95% of my phone usage. I wonder how many users there are that don't play games or use a lot of social media apps. I'd guess a fair number in the 30+ age group. But maybe most of them have stayed with feature phones.
- st3v3r 11y ago
  You don't use apps, but most people do. Instagram, Snapchat, Lyft/Uber to name a few.
  - eamann 11y ago
    Instagram and Uber are already on Windows and work just fine ...
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  I think your usage is atypical. If you look at, say, the nielsen stats for app usage[1] the average amount of apps used per user just continues to go up and up and is over 26 apps at this point. Good integration always provides the best user experience and you need an app to best integrate into someone's phone to provide push notifications, use quick reply type, etc; really to make sure of a phone in the most efficient way possible right now it just has to be an app and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But look at the apps you mention that you do use: "gmail, maps, messenger, calendar, contacts, and web browser (chrome)" Windows Phone doesn't have Google Maps so the navigation and overall map experience isn't as good. It doesn't have Chrome so you can't share your bookmarks between all your devices. Without dedicated Google apps it's harder to take full advantage of Google services. [1] http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/so-many-apps-so-much-more-time-for-entertainment.html http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/so-many-apps...
  - valeriob 11y ago
zamalek 11y ago
It saddens me to agree with you. I'm not looking forward to the day when I get a new phone. Android and iOS are attention seekers, they ring and ding just so that you don't forget that you need them. Windows just sits in your pocket ready to do real work when it grabs your attention. It's so liberating; what phones used to be and have become nothing but.
- doodpants 11y ago
  > Android and iOS are attention seekers, they ring and ding just so that you don't forget that you need them. Er, what? If my iPhone makes a noise, it's only due to: a) a reminder that I've explicitly set, or b) a phone call or text message from someone I'm not aware of any attention-grabbers that aren't from third party apps and can't be disabled. Could you elaborate?
zeveb 11y ago
> Their idea for a unified OS across devices is an awesome goal as well. I have a unified OS across all my devices: Linux. Granted, I don't have a unified UI across all my devices… I'd love to be able to plug my phone into a keyboard, mouse & monitor and have something like stumpwm available (i.e., something which actually takes advantage of having more than tap, three buttons, volume and power inputs).
- edent 11y ago
  If you're using an Android, get yourself an inexpensive USB-OTG cable. They're usually under £1. You can then plug in a keyboard & mouse (and anything else) to your Android phone. If you have an MHL compatible device, you can also plug in an HDMI cable and use a bigger screen. Something like http://amzn.to/1SgkguB http://amzn.to/1SgkguB will do the job. Of course, you might need to VNC into something to get the UI you want!
wvenable 11y ago
Microsoft, however, is almost entirely to blame for the lack of apps. They hit the reset button on their platform more times than I can count. They bungled the app store itself. They threw money indiscriminately at developers and filled their store with crap. They could have been the one company that really cares about their store experience but instead they made it worse than all the others.
- dragontamer 11y ago
  7 and 8 were an utter disaster from the mobile front. They're doing everything correct with 10. Sideloading is possible for free now. Universal apps are truly universal (XAML / C++ compiles into ARM, x86, and x64 simultaneously. C# and Javascript apps run on a VM). They needed to hit that reset button for 10. It was a mistake to hit the reset button on 7 and 8 however.
KaterKarlo_02 11y ago
Don't be sad. It's not over. The article is a bit dramatic. But I think Microsoft really needs to change the project lead.
- wvenable 11y ago
  Really the last thing Microsoft needs with their phone strategy is more change. It seems like the one product line they aren't willing to slowly refine -- they throw out almost everything every 2 years.

rchaud 11y ago

>It's really cool to see the latest Windows Phones and watch them plug into a keyboard, mouse and monitor and bam you have the FULL version of Microsoft Office apps and a Windows 10 like desktop. Cool maybe, but what would be the use case for this? If people think they'll need full Office on the go, chances are they'll take a laptop or Surface-like device with them. Right now they will need their Windows phone as well as a MS display dock, keyboard and mouse, and it will still all be useless unless they are able to find a monitor to plug into. Every workplace or airport lounge I've been to with a PC monitor has VGA/HDMI cables locked in place, and unremovable without a key or without cutting plastic ties.

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
> Cool maybe, but what would be the use case for this? Less stuff to carry around. Since it's brand new there isn't a lot of utility there just yet. Honestly, even though Windows Phone may be dead, I really think this is the future of computing. I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? You could go to an airport, plug your phone in and use it like a desktop at one of their tables. Get on the plane and plug it into a screen. Ultimately I could even see the phone part disappearing and it's a small object you keep on your person that can then connect to various types of devices maybe even wirelessly. This is a great use-case for, in 80 years or however long it takes, when we have computing devices embedded into our bodies. Then we simply touch a screen and we can visualize the data we're carrying. I stay awake a night thinking about how cool this could be :) (seriously, I even started sketching how to create this type of universality myself but it's such an undertaking and difficult to succeed that I never actually wrote code for this idea but it's certainly one of my favorites)
- krisdol 11y ago
  > I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? You have to hope that those different things are always there to be plugged in to. If not, you have to carry them with you, at which point I'd rather have one bigger device ~~and~~ (correction: ) THAN two pieces to assemble into a smaller device.
  - varelse 11y ago
    That's a future I think we could have had, but IMO it doesn't look like it's actually coming anytime soon thanks to market fragmentation. And even if it did, in my experience, working on a machine with remote storage and computation resources in the cloud is anywhere from annoying to nightmarish depending on local latency and bandwidth. Good luck getting the HW/OS/Cloud vendors to come up with a mutually agreeable standard for this. So I achieve my approximation of that future for myself by carrying around a beefy linux GPU laptop, a trac-ball, and keyboard wherever I go. I'd love to just use my desktop sitting at home as my cloud storage and computation server, but I gave up on that some time ago.
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    I disagree; what you're talking about would be an issue in today's world but if someone were to come out with a way to re-use a personal computing device (phone today, maybe something else in the future) so that you could have multiple visualizations with it to the point that you would never need to buy another dedicated device again, I think you'd eventually finding that picking up enough traction that it would be everywhere. I mean, why not? Similar to wifi which is pretty much everywhere now. Ultimately I don't know if it'll be the phone that powers this or if it just simply takes so long that it'll be something else but I would be shocked and supremely disappointed if, by the time I pass, there isn't a way to quickly and easily view your digital information on any screen with or without keyboards in multiple layouts that best fit the screen and purpose.
- nathanasmith 11y ago
  > I really think this is the future of computing. I mean why bother having a desktop or laptop if you can use your personal device, plug it into different things and get the full experience as if you had a laptop or desktop? And when you need to make or receive a call? Pull out the bluetooth earpiece (yet another fiddly thing to carry around)? I'd rather just have a tablet and a phone and I think most people would agree.
Aleman360 11y ago
Developing markets where the only computer you have is a phone.
- nathanasmith 11y ago
  I'm picturing myself in a developing country with a phone in hand, thinking about how to go about getting a "computer". Let's see, with this phone, I can go and buy a compatible keyboard and dock, then find a screen that is advanced enough to be compatible with the dock's interface. Or for almost certainly less, I can buy some no-name tablet or basic chromebook or laptop. I would probably go with the tablet/laptop.
jimbobimbo 11y ago
A company I work for, has pretty strict security policies. I have to subject my phone to these, because of calendar and email, but I wouldn't want to subject my personal laptop to these requirements. I can totally see myself hooking up the phone to some dock in order to do things remotely, if necessary.

davidgerard 11y ago

This is the complaint I've heard. Of the few people I know with Windows phones, they loved the phone ... but lamented the utter lack of apps. So: great interface, but no traction as a platform. (I've never used it myself. I went from a Blackberry to a Samsung S3mini and now S4mini, and I'm still in "this is so much better than Blackberry" mode.)

scholia 11y ago
The main point of Windows 10 phones is to have Universal apps that run on the phone, desktop and laptop PCs and games consoles. If Microsoft gets a billion or so Windows 10 users, it could become a very large ecosystem.....
- wvenable 11y ago
  Except Universal apps are entirely new for Windows 10 -- so it's an empty and new platform that sits alongside regular Windows applications. Developers have to go out of their way to develop for this separate platform in a platform and, from what I've seen, they aren't. I'm still running Windows 8.1 on my devices so I can't even run these universal apps.
  - scholia 11y ago
    Sure. You have to start somewhere.
hotcool 11y ago
Have you tried the Blackberry Passport?: http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_CA/pd/productID.307766800 http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_CA/pd/produ... As a former iPhone and Windows Lumia owner, the Passport is a huge upgrade. Great to read on. It's like using a Kindle or Kobo.
- tacoman 11y ago
  The Passport running BB10 is best computerphone I've ever used. Hopefully BlackBerry continues to at least put out security updates until the hardware is close to obsolete.

ams6110 11y ago

in today's market you have to have the apps to succeed I'm not sure how true this is. You need some apps, to be sure. But I own an Android phone had have installed less than half-a-dozen apps that it did not come with out of the box. I use gmail, maps, messenger, calendar, contacts, and web browser (chrome). That's 95% of my phone usage. I wonder how many users there are that don't play games or use a lot of social media apps. I'd guess a fair number in the 30+ age group. But maybe most of them have stayed with feature phones.

st3v3r 11y ago
You don't use apps, but most people do. Instagram, Snapchat, Lyft/Uber to name a few.
- eamann 11y ago
  Instagram and Uber are already on Windows and work just fine ...
BinaryIdiot 11y ago
I think your usage is atypical. If you look at, say, the nielsen stats for app usage[1] the average amount of apps used per user just continues to go up and up and is over 26 apps at this point. Good integration always provides the best user experience and you need an app to best integrate into someone's phone to provide push notifications, use quick reply type, etc; really to make sure of a phone in the most efficient way possible right now it just has to be an app and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But look at the apps you mention that you do use: "gmail, maps, messenger, calendar, contacts, and web browser (chrome)" Windows Phone doesn't have Google Maps so the navigation and overall map experience isn't as good. It doesn't have Chrome so you can't share your bookmarks between all your devices. Without dedicated Google apps it's harder to take full advantage of Google services. [1] http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/so-many-apps-so-much-more-time-for-entertainment.html http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/so-many-apps...
- valeriob 11y ago

zamalek 11y ago

It saddens me to agree with you. I'm not looking forward to the day when I get a new phone. Android and iOS are attention seekers, they ring and ding just so that you don't forget that you need them. Windows just sits in your pocket ready to do real work when it grabs your attention. It's so liberating; what phones used to be and have become nothing but.

doodpants 11y ago
> Android and iOS are attention seekers, they ring and ding just so that you don't forget that you need them. Er, what? If my iPhone makes a noise, it's only due to: a) a reminder that I've explicitly set, or b) a phone call or text message from someone I'm not aware of any attention-grabbers that aren't from third party apps and can't be disabled. Could you elaborate?

zeveb 11y ago

> Their idea for a unified OS across devices is an awesome goal as well. I have a unified OS across all my devices: Linux. Granted, I don't have a unified UI across all my devices… I'd love to be able to plug my phone into a keyboard, mouse & monitor and have something like stumpwm available (i.e., something which actually takes advantage of having more than tap, three buttons, volume and power inputs).

edent 11y ago
If you're using an Android, get yourself an inexpensive USB-OTG cable. They're usually under £1. You can then plug in a keyboard & mouse (and anything else) to your Android phone. If you have an MHL compatible device, you can also plug in an HDMI cable and use a bigger screen. Something like http://amzn.to/1SgkguB http://amzn.to/1SgkguB will do the job. Of course, you might need to VNC into something to get the UI you want!

wvenable 11y ago

Microsoft, however, is almost entirely to blame for the lack of apps. They hit the reset button on their platform more times than I can count. They bungled the app store itself. They threw money indiscriminately at developers and filled their store with crap. They could have been the one company that really cares about their store experience but instead they made it worse than all the others.

dragontamer 11y ago
7 and 8 were an utter disaster from the mobile front. They're doing everything correct with 10. Sideloading is possible for free now. Universal apps are truly universal (XAML / C++ compiles into ARM, x86, and x64 simultaneously. C# and Javascript apps run on a VM). They needed to hit that reset button for 10. It was a mistake to hit the reset button on 7 and 8 however.

KaterKarlo_02 11y ago

Don't be sad. It's not over. The article is a bit dramatic. But I think Microsoft really needs to change the project lead.

wvenable 11y ago
Really the last thing Microsoft needs with their phone strategy is more change. It seems like the one product line they aren't willing to slowly refine -- they throw out almost everything every 2 years.