It wasn't all that long ago that I was a staunch Windows Phone user. After switching from a simple mobile phone, Windows Phone became my life companion, the operating system I turned to when I needed to get anything done – even with a Windows PC right in front of me. So how did Apple convince me to stand in line for an iPhone 5s on launch day? It didn't: Microsoft did.
What have you done for me lately?
Windows Phone isn't that long in the tooth. Having scrapped Windows Mobile, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 to critical acclaim. Here, finally, was a fresh new concept of what a mobile interface could look like. Unfortunately, Windows Phone's design team seems to have sat on their hands for the next three years.
Windows Phone 8?s live tiles are great, they're also overly relied upon.
Windows Phone 8 is still flat, and Live Tiles are still the greatest form of notifications I've seen implemented into a smartphone operating system. However, watching a few videos of the way notifications work in iOS 7 convinced me that Live Tiles and one-time pop-ups should never act as a device's sole source of notifications.
These issues, and Microsoft's inability to get large comprehensive updates in the hands of users in timely fashion, left me with a sour taste in my mouth. There Apple was, shipping a new flat attractive interface, questionable icon philosophies aside, with an operating system that is fully featured. Meanwhile, I was still waiting for an update to enable the radio playback functionality that my Lumia 920 and HTC 8X shipped with a year ago. For the record, I've yet to receive that update, and Microsoft finalized it in early June, reportedly.
Microsoft Anywhere
Like Xbox Music, most of Microsoft's apps and services are available on Android and iPhone.
For all the issues I have with Windows Phone at the moment, I both value and cherish many of the Microsoft's other core products like Xbox Music, SkyDrive, Office 2013 and Bing. Until fairly recently, you'd have had to own a Windows Phone to get such a potent mix of Microsoft products.
No comments:
Post a Comment