Metropol

Hello,

So over the past few months, after starting to use Windows 8, I've slowly been becoming more and more fond of the Windows (Phone) interface - I think it's lovely. It's clean and uncluttered, but it looks really nice, and I think it's generally quite present. I'm not planning on upgrading to a WP anytime soon (I've got a few decades left on this contract), but they seem like an attractive proposition, yet the percentage of users is tiny. So, are there still various limitations that could put people off? By this I mean, is Windows Phone still tainted by a lack of apps, creating quite a sterile Marketplace, meaning that it can't match it's competitors because it doesn't have the apps to do so? Is it not catching on simply because it's quite different, or as an outsider, am I missing some big issue that there is with the phones? I'd be interested to hear your takes on this.

Oh, and can anyone spot anything wrong with the following image (not including the blurred images)?

Funnily, I was just going to post on this matter because there's suddenly a bit of a price war going on, and it seems like Windows phones are leading the charge with entry-level phones like the HTC 8S going for £150 on PAYG. I have to admit it does tempt me to experiment, though I do still perceive there to be a lack of apps.

the thing with the ecosystem is that a lot of mobile apps are made by "bedroom programmers" and I don't think many of them have the appetite to support another architecture, especially one with such a small market share. I think that's why we only see the big apps across the 3 platforms. The answer of course is some way to enable WP to run android apps.

What I don't like about Windows Phone is the same I don't like about Apple iOS and that is lack of customisation and tweakability - a nanny knows best mentality of the designers. I think that puts off a lot of hardcore enthusiasts, plus the WP handsets I have seen are not a patch on the specs of the android equivalents.

Critique wrote:So, are there still various limitations that could put people off? By this I mean, is Windows Phone still tainted by a lack of apps, creating quite a sterile Marketplace, meaning that it can't match it's competitors because it doesn't have the apps to do so? Is it not catching on simply because it's quite different, or as an outsider, am I missing some big issue that there is with the phones? I'd be interested to hear your takes on this.

There are a few problems with Windows Phone at the moment. One is that users are already so entrenched in other ecosystems - Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS - that they simply don't want to switch to a 'new' platform that none of their friends have.

There is still an apps problem with WP as well - it's not so much volume (there are now over 130,000 apps on the Windows Phone store), but the availability of top-tier apps available on other platforms (Instagram being the example most frequently cited); the availability of second-tier apps that offer useful 'critical' functionality to mobile users (such as those for banking - no Lloyds TSB, Barclays or Santander apps in the UK - or for cinemas - no Odeon or Vue apps in the UK); and the speed with which new apps are made available on the platform.

The latter is especially important to users. Draw Something and Words With Friends were launched - as Nokia Lumia exclusives - on Windows Phone months and months after iOS and Android saw them, by which time many users had already moved on to the next big thing. Users don't want to have to wait for months for new apps to be launched. When you see an ad on TV for a bank, a movie, an airline or whatever, you can be 99.9% certain that it'll be available on both iOS and Android; there's no such certainty that it will be available on Windows Phone, and often no hint as to when a WP app will even be developed.

The situation is getting better though, albeit slowly.

Critique wrote:Oh, and can anyone spot anything wrong with the following image (not including the blurred images)?

1. The font is wrong - it's not Segoe WP.
2. There's no 'Games' tile on Windows Phone 8 - everything goes through the Xbox Games hub, which can be accessed via the green tile with the controller icon. If there were a Games tile, its title would also be aligned at the bottom-left of the tile, not bottom-centre.
3. The controller on the Xbox Games tile is incorrect; the actual version only has a single, centred button - there are two additional buttons on the controller here which don't belong.
4. The settings tile - the one with the big cog on it - should have the same background colour as the primary UI settings colour; in this instance, it should be teal, as the majority of the other tiles are.
5. The 'clock' icon on the Alarms tile has 'feet' below the clock; the real version does not.
6. The 'smile' on the Messaging icon isn't quite right; it's not thick enough, and looks like a Times New Roman bracket, where a Segoe WP version should have been used.
7. The envelope icon on the email tile is incorrect. The actual version is a solid envelope with a cut-out to mark the outline of the flap; here, the envelope is hollow, but drawn with outlines.
8. The Chrome icon at top-right - Chrome isn't available for Windows Phone 8. If we're being especially picky, that's also the old Chrome icon; the new version is a flatter circle broken into segments.

Android launcher skin right?

martindtanderson wrote:Android launcher skin right?

You weren't supposed to see through it, Martin! There was me thinking it looked almost identical to WP8! I've changed the tile icons after BBC LDN pointed the issues out. I decided that I actually quite like the Windows Phone UI, and that my own phone felt a bit stale after it returned from the O2 Repair centre (apparently there wasn't a fault... I wouldn't of sent it off if there wasn't!) and downloaded a theme so I could 'experience' Windows Phone 8 - the launcher, lockscreen and basic apps are all done quite nicely.

I did a look at the apps Windows Phone has, and when I was looking at apps I use frequently, I did see that there were quite a few gaps. There's no MyO2 app or 1st party YouTube app, and some of the apps that have made it onto Windows Phone seem quite inferior to the equivalent on iOS and Android.