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Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley) tweeted that this article was depressing and I felt compelled to write an opinion.
Now, let me first state that I am not a journalist or a professional blogger, yet a passionate developer who lives Windows Phone and has been an iPhone user for the last 3 or so years.
One thing that we all must remember when answering the posted question above, is that we are talking about people, with opinions and passions and habits. These things are hard to break.
There are a great deal of AT&T employees that have been carrying around an iPhone for the better part of five years living most of their lives looking into that screen as if every bit of information and experience they could ever find would only come through the 3.5 inch display. Not to mention there are plenty of non AT&T employees that walk around the same way.
Remember the approach that Apple took when they premiered the iPhone? They told the free world it was Amazing! The focused on the users first, showing them how awesome it was, how it connected to iTunes and they could put their music on it so on and so forth. Me as a developer, I had no idea I could right apps for this thing and I stay pretty dang connected on whats new out there regardless of the OS or vendor. Found that out later.
Microsoft's approach, in my opinion is from the other side. Make the developers love Windows Phone, and we do. Show us how quick and easy it is to create apps for it and how awesome Visual Studio and Blend is for creating these applications, and it is. Let the developers do the talking, until recently the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia/AT&T/Microsoft marketing campaign to get this beautiful device out there into the everyday persons' hands.
Of course, what is the first thing most analyst say "It's a great OS / device...but there are no apps". Well Android had the same issue and it seems to be doing just fine now. I would like to see some group do a true analysis on the "quality" (I know, it's subjective) apps out there for each of the platforms taking these few points into consideration:
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Now, let me first state that I am not a journalist or a professional blogger, yet a passionate developer who lives Windows Phone and has been an iPhone user for the last 3 or so years.
One thing that we all must remember when answering the posted question above, is that we are talking about people, with opinions and passions and habits. These things are hard to break.
There are a great deal of AT&T employees that have been carrying around an iPhone for the better part of five years living most of their lives looking into that screen as if every bit of information and experience they could ever find would only come through the 3.5 inch display. Not to mention there are plenty of non AT&T employees that walk around the same way.
Remember the approach that Apple took when they premiered the iPhone? They told the free world it was Amazing! The focused on the users first, showing them how awesome it was, how it connected to iTunes and they could put their music on it so on and so forth. Me as a developer, I had no idea I could right apps for this thing and I stay pretty dang connected on whats new out there regardless of the OS or vendor. Found that out later.
Microsoft's approach, in my opinion is from the other side. Make the developers love Windows Phone, and we do. Show us how quick and easy it is to create apps for it and how awesome Visual Studio and Blend is for creating these applications, and it is. Let the developers do the talking, until recently the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia/AT&T/Microsoft marketing campaign to get this beautiful device out there into the everyday persons' hands.
Of course, what is the first thing most analyst say "It's a great OS / device...but there are no apps". Well Android had the same issue and it seems to be doing just fine now. I would like to see some group do a true analysis on the "quality" (I know, it's subjective) apps out there for each of the platforms taking these few points into consideration:
- # of applications actually installed on devices
- Fart apps don't count
- # of trial apps installed on devices - users never thoughts it was good enough to pay for the full one
I'm sure there are other things that would narrow down the list of apps, and sure iTunes would probably still be ahead no doubt. However, it would give us a better measure of the playing field.
Sorry if I got off here...but I have shown my Lumia 900 to many iPhone users and Android users. Their first comment 8 of 10 times is "Damn that's fast!".
So, what we as developers, Windows Phone lovers, Microsoft and Nokia must do is now focus on the people who use their smartphones everyday. Tell them WHY they will love, not necessarily why its better than the iPhone or what apps they can install to replace the ones they had so they can get close the same one. But again make them see why it so great.
