Smartphones

RIP Windows Phone

Told ya so: Microsoft Lumia, Windows Phone are DEAD (also Snoopy) | Computerworld

Microsoft officials [say] the bulk of the cuts will affect Windows Phone hardware. ... Microsoft will lay off [72%] of the Microsoft staffers based in Finland, the home of Nokia. ... A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed...this.
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Microsoft also plans to close San Diego and some of its Beijing facilities involved with Windows Phone hardware...marketing and sales also will be hit with cuts...as a result of the phone-hardware cuts.

Yes, we were right to be worried about Windows Phone. [This is just] buying Microsoft time. ... Windows Phone is failing...it's a fact. ... Sorry.
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[The] "impairment charge" [is] $7.6 billion...plus an additional restructuring charge of approximately [$800] million. ... [But] Microsoft paid $7.2 billion for...Nokia [so] this is a total disaster.
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[Lumia] is on borrowed time. ... Microsoft will no longer attempt to "grow a standalone phone business." ... Nadella has zero plans for [it] to ever make any money.
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I expect Microsoft to kill Lumia. ... The future is...not Microsoft mobile hardware/phones. MORE

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Kinda figured that was going to happen when Win 8 failed in its mission to "unify your device experience" by offering two experiences on most devices that were counterintuitive to the form factor and created vitriol against the phone part.

I really hope somebody snatches Nokia up, because their hardware was fucking amazing. It sucks that Windows Phone ended up being such a shitty platform for that sweet, sweet hardware.

Remember these things?



They were pretty awesome considering how small they were at the time. Funny how small phones were the 'coolest' phones, first the flips then the 'hip' ones like the 8310... now you can't buy anything smaller than a travel dictionary.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Windows phone wasn't actually a shitty platform at all, they were just late to the party and everyone was committed to Android or IOS by the time they got caught up.

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That and you look at Android which is simple and functional, then your first experience with metro is win 8 or server 2012 where it's a step backwards... Doesn't really inspire one to take the leap of faith into the same UI on a phone.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Windows phone wasn't actually a shitty platform at all, they were just late to the party and everyone was committed to Android or IOS by the time they got caught up.

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Well, you aren't wrong, entirely. Windows phone wasn't a horrible platform. It was functional, relatively smooth, and didn't have any major, glaring issues. The problem was, like you said, being way late to the party. Most people were already committed to an ecosystem and without an easy way to switch, it became a case of, "why bother?". Then, you had the fact that Windows Phone had a pretty shitty UI/user experience, was extremely slow on putting out features that existed on iOS and/or Android months/years prior (seriously, it wasn't until 2013-2014ish that they got around to finally adding a "swipe down" option for all your notifications, etc.), and the app support was completely abysmal (mostly due to such a low user base, I'm sure. I'm not sure how "difficult" it was to develop in windows mobile, but I never heard many reports of it being an awful experience).

It's really, really unfortunate. I still have my Lumia 920 andstilluse it for taking pictures (seriously, the camera is that good) and other minor tasks over my Moto X 2nd gen. It's still the greatest phone I've ever owned (from a hardware standpoint), even almost 3 years later.

The 920 camera really was a thing of beauty. I miss it. Neither my OPO or my wife's Xperia Z1C can match those night shots.

Windows phone failed because Microsoft locked it down and went all walled garden without any garden. They forgot their windows phone roots and the fact that their hard core fans have always preferred the fact that windows has been a platform that you can do whatever the hell you want on it. Those are the fans that drive the start of your new hardware and those are the people that keep your shitty OS moving forward with innovation and fixes that Microsoft itself it too slow to do themselves.

Android was hardly awesome when it started but the big appeal to it was that people could fix whatever they wanted to fix on their own. Over time these things got incorporated into ROMs and later on into the actual OS itself. Its a great way to build a platform and features are easier to add as you have a million other developers innovating and doing cool things. All of which is a de-compile away or a github visit to see what they are doing.

Microsofts failure has nothing to do with them entering the game late. Their failure is the same reason Xbox lost a significant amount of market share, its the same reason desktop Windows has languished, the same reason their phone ecosystem is a failure; they've completely lost touch with what their users want and expect. They tried to brute force changes on consumers and consumers collectively said "fuck you".

Microsoft has no one to blame but themselves. They could probably even recover windows phone still if they didn't have their heads so far up their asses.

Lenas_sl said:

The 920 camera really was a thing of beauty. I miss it. Neither my OPO or my wife's Xperia Z1C can match those night shots.

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Yup, the thing is insane. It's 98% of the reason why I haven't purchased a DSLR. I take it with me on every vacation with the wife and our pictures come out fucking amazing. We have night shots at the beach that are incredible. My Moto X 2nd gen photos look like dogshit in comparison (no auto lens/image stabilizers, are you fucking kidding me Motorola?!). Also, I've never seen a phone be more visible in direct sunlight than my 920 was.

Lenas_sl said:

The 920 camera really was a thing of beauty. I miss it. Neither my OPO or my wife's Xperia Z1C can match those night shots.

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What are your impressions of the Z1C?

I think I'd kind of like to switch to google fi someday, since I'm already on sprint, theoretically it should be better in every sort of way, but it's not like my 60 dollars a month unlimited plan is that bad... and I also kind of actually prefer iOS for my phone. (I've used android tablets before, but never as a phone, the only thing I dislike is the workarounds I have to do to use google maps nowadays).

So I guess maybe I'll wait a generation or 2 until my iphone 6 shits the bed completely and won't survive a full day even with a battery case..

Ichu_sl said:

What are your impressions of the Z1C?

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It had like six updates to install out of the box (4.2 to 5.0) that all required restarts, but past that it's been a great experience. It's much snappier than I expected from a small phone like that. I don't really care for all the bloatware it came with, or the Xperia customization, but it's not so bad once updated and using a different launcher. Haven't had a ton of opportunity to test out the camera, I got some cheap clip on lenses I am kinda waiting to toy with first. Been too pussy to test the waterproof part yet.