6 ms·

I know many people that loved Nokia phones, but I don't know a single person that wanted a Windows phone. Windows is a toxic anti-brand associated with viruses,

by swebs 6y ago

I know many people that loved Nokia phones, but I don't know a single person that wanted a Windows phone. Windows is a toxic anti-brand associated with viruses, instability, bloat, and forced restarts. Meanwhile iPhone is seen as the hip brand, and Android was marketing itself as the choice for user freedom.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
> a toxic anti-brand associated with viruses, instability, bloat, and forced restarts This is Android based on my eight years with them. I won't argue with you on iPhone, it's a great "I just want it to work" option. And since there's no other alternative, it's what I carry today. But Windows Mobile was a breath of competency in a market of basically all bad Google phones.
- sellyme 6y ago
  > But Windows Mobile was a breath of competency in a market of basically all bad Google phones. The first modern Windows Mobile phone launched in November 2015. The market of Google phones at that point in time was the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6. Now I'm not a huge fan of the Nexus 6 (though I certainly wouldn't call it "bad"), but the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 are still to this date the best value smartphones ever released.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    I think you misunderstand: All Android phones are Google phones. You had two options to avoid Google's terrible software, iPhone and Windows Mobile. Everything else outside of the Chinese market has Google Play Services with root access to the system and as controlled by Google's MADA agreement with manufacturers which has already been found illegal in multiple jurisdictions across the globe.
    - sellyme 6y ago
      > All Android phones are Google phones. Convention dictates that "Google phones" specifically means e.g., Nexus/Pixel devices. Fortunately, if you're unwilling to distinguish between hardware and software, there's already a very convenient and unambiguous term for mobile devices that run Google's OS. In fact, you just used it in the same sentence!
  - macintux 6y ago
    2015 is when Windows 10 Mobile phones arrived, but Windows Mobile devices were around for a long time before that.
    - sellyme 6y ago
      Hence the "modern". I thought it was a fairly safe bet that no-one was talking about the Pocket PC.
      - skinnymuch 6y ago
        Windows Phone 7 and 8 should count as modern. That’s far before 2015.
1996 6y ago
In 2020, WP8 still is the pinnacle of smartphone usability - with WP10 a close second.
- ciabattabread 6y ago
  What good is usability when there’s no support?
  - 1996 6y ago
    Well, you need no one to support you in the first place :) I like not having apps pester me for updates or pollute my notifications, when all I care about is email, websites and phonecalls (oh and offline maps, I almost forgot) I guess I am a very boring person!
neogodless 6y ago
Owned and loved several Windows Phones, 7, 8 and 10. Nokia 920 was my favorite. No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts. That's the problem with anecdotes... they only represent your very narrow window of experience while ignoring literally every other person on the planet.
- Miraste 6y ago
  For marketing purposes, it doesn’t matter if the phone actually has those problems, just whether people associate the brand with them.
- varvar 6y ago
  That's the problem with anecdotes... they only represent your very narrow window of experience while ignoring literally every other person on the planet.
  - neogodless 6y ago
    For those that need it, I'll point out the comment I disagreed with: > but I don't know a single person that wanted a Windows phone I only represent a single person, and I make no claims about anyone else!
- swebs 6y ago
  >No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts >That's the problem with anecdotes I'm not saying those problems affected Windows phone, but that's the association customers have with Windows as a brand due to decades of facing those problems with desktop Windows.
- sangnoir 6y ago
  > No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts ...no apps. Windows Mobile just couldn't attract quality developers to its platform. After witnessing that - I fully understood why Android went with Java (the language): there was already a deep pool of seasoned Java developers.
  - 6y ago
megablast 6y ago
Plenty of ms fanboys swear by windows phone. Unfortunately they are not enough.
sn41 6y ago
Windows phone had the most sensible mobile UI I have used. Not all decisions made by a losing brand are wrong. I comparison, Android UI seems ill-thought out.
pjmlp 6y ago
Former Nokia employee, I had two Lumias, still use my 650 as travel phone. On its heyday (approaching 10% in Europe), Windows Phones were seen as the alternative for those that wanted an Android alternative and didn't care about iPhone.
achow 6y ago
Microsoft’s control over the hardware specs and the behavior of the software allowed it to run smooth as silk on older, single-core processors. I’ve always thought that Windows Phone looked particularly good (as mobile platforms go) at lower pixel densities.. With each new generation of Windows Phone, Microsoft not only closes the gap with iOS and Android in important ways, but it also differentiates in important ways WINDOWS PHONE 8 REVIEW https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570494/windows-phone-8-review https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570494/windows-phone-8-...
hakfoo 6y ago
I did. I got a Lumia 1020 because it made a clear setting point other than "it's 5% faster" with the insane camera design. I think it replaced a Galaxy SII LTE variant which was a quivering mess software wise. I then got a 635 when the screen broke and it was too costly to repair locally, and a 640 when they were selling them for like 30 bucks on Black Friday one year. I appreciated the consistency in design and that even the cheap devices like the 635 felt quite snappy. They also seemed a bit more coherent with update support. Yes, the no WP7->8 update path was a huge mistake, but I think by the end they were updating the OS for all WP devices (capable of being updated) centrally, rather than relying on the OEMs; the WP10 update betas I tried seemed competent enough but there was a growing sense their heart wasn't in it.
rvschuilenburg 6y ago
I had a non-nokia windows phone; the HTC 8X. It was a blast to use the windows phone UI. Everything just felt "right". In addition, even compared to phones today, the HTC 8X was a beauty in my opinion. What killed the experience, was the ongoing app revolution. And apps weren't being released on Windows Phone.
MarkusWandel 6y ago
I had a Lumia 520 running WP8 for several years. If there's one word for this OS, it's "disciplined". It was easy on battery, it was totally stable (in my experience anyway) and it was absolutely miserly with mobile data. For example the email client still used ActiveSync, a protocol which was designed when every byte still counted, and there was virtually no unexplained "operating system" mobile data usage. The discipline also extended to heavy sandboxing of the apps so a lot of functionality was simply unimplemetable, such as reminders for missed notifications. But the phone worked, the UI was intiutive and responsive, and the only reason to move on, other than general phone obsolescence like the 5MP camera, was the lack of mainstream apps. We had a brief experience with WP10 on another phone, and it seemed spiffier but less stable. WP8 was the high point.

by swebs 6y ago

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

> a toxic anti-brand associated with viruses, instability, bloat, and forced restarts This is Android based on my eight years with them. I won't argue with you on iPhone, it's a great "I just want it to work" option. And since there's no other alternative, it's what I carry today. But Windows Mobile was a breath of competency in a market of basically all bad Google phones.

sellyme 6y ago
> But Windows Mobile was a breath of competency in a market of basically all bad Google phones. The first modern Windows Mobile phone launched in November 2015. The market of Google phones at that point in time was the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6. Now I'm not a huge fan of the Nexus 6 (though I certainly wouldn't call it "bad"), but the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 are still to this date the best value smartphones ever released.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  I think you misunderstand: All Android phones are Google phones. You had two options to avoid Google's terrible software, iPhone and Windows Mobile. Everything else outside of the Chinese market has Google Play Services with root access to the system and as controlled by Google's MADA agreement with manufacturers which has already been found illegal in multiple jurisdictions across the globe.
  - sellyme 6y ago
    > All Android phones are Google phones. Convention dictates that "Google phones" specifically means e.g., Nexus/Pixel devices. Fortunately, if you're unwilling to distinguish between hardware and software, there's already a very convenient and unambiguous term for mobile devices that run Google's OS. In fact, you just used it in the same sentence!
- macintux 6y ago
  2015 is when Windows 10 Mobile phones arrived, but Windows Mobile devices were around for a long time before that.
  - sellyme 6y ago
    Hence the "modern". I thought it was a fairly safe bet that no-one was talking about the Pocket PC.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      Windows Phone 7 and 8 should count as modern. That’s far before 2015.

1996 6y ago

In 2020, WP8 still is the pinnacle of smartphone usability - with WP10 a close second.

ciabattabread 6y ago
What good is usability when there’s no support?
- 1996 6y ago
  Well, you need no one to support you in the first place :) I like not having apps pester me for updates or pollute my notifications, when all I care about is email, websites and phonecalls (oh and offline maps, I almost forgot) I guess I am a very boring person!

neogodless 6y ago

Owned and loved several Windows Phones, 7, 8 and 10. Nokia 920 was my favorite. No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts. That's the problem with anecdotes... they only represent your very narrow window of experience while ignoring literally every other person on the planet.

Miraste 6y ago
For marketing purposes, it doesn’t matter if the phone actually has those problems, just whether people associate the brand with them.
varvar 6y ago
That's the problem with anecdotes... they only represent your very narrow window of experience while ignoring literally every other person on the planet.
- neogodless 6y ago
  For those that need it, I'll point out the comment I disagreed with: > but I don't know a single person that wanted a Windows phone I only represent a single person, and I make no claims about anyone else!
swebs 6y ago
>No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts >That's the problem with anecdotes I'm not saying those problems affected Windows phone, but that's the association customers have with Windows as a brand due to decades of facing those problems with desktop Windows.
sangnoir 6y ago
> No viruses, no instability, no forced restarts ...no apps. Windows Mobile just couldn't attract quality developers to its platform. After witnessing that - I fully understood why Android went with Java (the language): there was already a deep pool of seasoned Java developers.
- 6y ago

megablast 6y ago

Plenty of ms fanboys swear by windows phone. Unfortunately they are not enough.

sn41 6y ago

Windows phone had the most sensible mobile UI I have used. Not all decisions made by a losing brand are wrong. I comparison, Android UI seems ill-thought out.

pjmlp 6y ago

Former Nokia employee, I had two Lumias, still use my 650 as travel phone. On its heyday (approaching 10% in Europe), Windows Phones were seen as the alternative for those that wanted an Android alternative and didn't care about iPhone.

achow 6y ago

Microsoft’s control over the hardware specs and the behavior of the software allowed it to run smooth as silk on older, single-core processors. I’ve always thought that Windows Phone looked particularly good (as mobile platforms go) at lower pixel densities.. With each new generation of Windows Phone, Microsoft not only closes the gap with iOS and Android in important ways, but it also differentiates in important ways WINDOWS PHONE 8 REVIEW https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570494/windows-phone-8-review https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570494/windows-phone-8-...

hakfoo 6y ago

I did. I got a Lumia 1020 because it made a clear setting point other than "it's 5% faster" with the insane camera design. I think it replaced a Galaxy SII LTE variant which was a quivering mess software wise. I then got a 635 when the screen broke and it was too costly to repair locally, and a 640 when they were selling them for like 30 bucks on Black Friday one year. I appreciated the consistency in design and that even the cheap devices like the 635 felt quite snappy. They also seemed a bit more coherent with update support. Yes, the no WP7->8 update path was a huge mistake, but I think by the end they were updating the OS for all WP devices (capable of being updated) centrally, rather than relying on the OEMs; the WP10 update betas I tried seemed competent enough but there was a growing sense their heart wasn't in it.

rvschuilenburg 6y ago

I had a non-nokia windows phone; the HTC 8X. It was a blast to use the windows phone UI. Everything just felt "right". In addition, even compared to phones today, the HTC 8X was a beauty in my opinion. What killed the experience, was the ongoing app revolution. And apps weren't being released on Windows Phone.

MarkusWandel 6y ago

I had a Lumia 520 running WP8 for several years. If there's one word for this OS, it's "disciplined". It was easy on battery, it was totally stable (in my experience anyway) and it was absolutely miserly with mobile data. For example the email client still used ActiveSync, a protocol which was designed when every byte still counted, and there was virtually no unexplained "operating system" mobile data usage. The discipline also extended to heavy sandboxing of the apps so a lot of functionality was simply unimplemetable, such as reminders for missed notifications. But the phone worked, the UI was intiutive and responsive, and the only reason to move on, other than general phone obsolescence like the 5MP camera, was the lack of mainstream apps. We had a brief experience with WP10 on another phone, and it seemed spiffier but less stable. WP8 was the high point.