Personal take on WP8 Announcement- What I missed, What I liked
Last night Jay & Michael did an excellent job of updating all the posts as they were announced from the WP8 summit (while I took a nap and woke up halfway through the summit), we saw some really interesting things some slight let downs and have gotten our first look at the new home screen; so here’s a random collection of MY jumbled thoughts on what went down.
What was Announced
- Multi core processors- this has basically sealed WP as a contender in the eyes of Android fanboys who believe that a phone needs seventeen cores to run; well now that’s covered all the way up to 64 cores so we’re good for a couple of months at least; although it’s interesting to note that MSFT seem to have gone down Apple’s route this week where they “forgot” to mention what type of processors are in their new tablets; I highly approve of this strategy and it’s what I’ve begged for for the past 6 months (hopefully Nokia will follow suite); when the consumer doesn’t know what’s inside the device he focuses on the end experience (which will hopefully be excellent); keeping the specs silent will remove any bias expectations of 4 being better 1 even if it’s not properly utilized.
- Higher Screen Resolutions- This was a must do, and frankly if it didn’t come I would have thrown a tantrum somewhere; finally having full HD 720p screens AS STANDARD will be amazing, the screen on the Lumia 900 is awesome enough (non-pentile with Clear Black Display) bump up the number of pixels but keep the same amazing viewing angles and sunlight readability and you have an instant winner.
- SD card support WOOT! Nokia don’t seem to have ever bought into the apple mindset of releasing multiple capacities of the same phone ; which is a good thing because that ideology is now obsolete, hopefully this will also solve the lack of file manager on WP (isn’t it a requirement if you’re going to be using a removable memory card?) as well as making it a bit easier to share those songs.
- New Browser- honestly browsers have never been a major issue for me (which is why Symbian didn’t bother me too much in that aspect) but IE10 is supposed to be awesome, and you can’t go wrong with awesome.
- NFC- This is a second feature that’s never really been an issue for me; simply because nobody in my region even knows what it is, so it’s safe to say I won’t need it; but of course mobile wallets are becoming the new thing in the brighter parts of the world so Yay!
- More Language support, WP8 FINALLY supports a lot more languages including Arabic and Hindi which are practically essential (as there are no WPs in the arab world due to the lack of support), these languages not being included in the original version of WP is nothing short of pure idiocy; but it’s finally here.
What Wasn’t Announced
MSFT were VERY vague when it came to this “improved multi-tasking” I don’t know what to read into that hopefully it’s a work in progress? having an almost unlimited number of cores available should really solve any reason to limit multi-tasking to app freezes, my guess is that at best we’ll see an overhaul of the app freeze system where instead of only the last 5 apps frozen a much larger number (or infinite) number of apps can be frozen.
The other announcement that deflated my bubble a bit was the lack of true Skype integration, although there’s increased and deeper support for VOIP calls now Skype didn’t receive the all start treatment that twitter and Facebook get, staying as “Just an App that can be downloaded”- this isn’t completely bad (check the next section to see why) but I wish they had done something a bit more with it.
Thirdly there was no notification center announced which is a real bummer, I realize that the flexibility of the tiles and the ability to condense more tiles into one area can act as a pseudo-notification center but nothing can make up for the classic list of notifications, I was really hoping for a drop down menu or a second home-screen (Meego style) or anything really.
Regarding Updates:
As you probably know by now the current range of WP devices WILL NOT be upgrade-able to WP8, sad face? not really, all current devices will get Something called WP 7.8 which will bring the new homescreen to those left behind, and when you really think of it what’s new in WP8 that’s NOT hardware dependent other than that? You can’t honestly expect an increase in your screen resolution, or NFC enablement, or for a magical SD port to pop up on your phone now that it’s coming to future phones; WP7.8 will basically be a UI uplift but as one of the speakers mentioned “Someone running WP7.8 will not be able to tell the difference”, and that’s what matters really doesn’t it?
Also rumored is that WP8 will be available for Whoever wants to test it out on a Wp 7.5 device unofficially through MSFT, which is pretty darn awesome; if you REALLY want it then you can get, everybody satisfied? Not yet? well how about promised support/updates to all Lumia owners for the next 18 months.
Since Skype is destined to remain “forever an app” there technically shouldn’t be any reason for the current generation of WP to get this same app with all the overhauls it’s going to undergo, bringing a little sunshine into your world of single cores.
It’s possible that alongside the new homescreen we might see increased language support as that would fit in nicely with the claims that the current line of Lumia phones will support Arabic sometime in October.
Nokia’s Involvement:
My personal opinion is that it was ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL for Nokia to be there at the WP summit last night in some form or way, just to prove their commitment to the platform simply because the Pureview 808 launches in the US Today/Tomorrow which might have planted a seed a doubt in some people’s mind about conflicting strategies and backing out of WP, (keep in mind that the main reason Nokia’s share dipped after an amazing set of MWC announcements was that the best phone to be announced was running on their “soon-to-be-extinct” platform) hopefully this involvement will show the world that Nokia is mature and capable enough to focus on more than one objective without losing focus of its goals.
Secondly Nokia basically proved that they weren’t willing to screw over their early adopters, true us Lumia owners won’t be getting the full-blown WP8 but that doesn’t mean we’ve been forgotten, promising to release a slew of new apps in the upcoming weeks to all Lumia devices is about as much as you could expect for anyone to do (also note that Nokia was the only OEM there at the conference to take the stand, and use that opportunity to toot its own horn – special relationship paying off?); the apps announced include (check out Michael’s post here):
- Smart Group Shot: Capture great group shots in just one attempt by choosing the best faces from a burst
- Action Shot: Capture fast-moving action shots with just one click and significantly improved shooting speed
- Panorama: This new control feature makes it easy to capture beautiful panorama shots by finding the image in the sequence
- Self-timer: Set up your Lumia on a stand and get yourself into more photos
- Data Counter
Also announced was that Nokia Drive (along with Nokia maps) will be the default navigation application on WP, I already knew this was coming from the meetings with the Nokia people at MWC but don’t be confused people this is a good thing and here’s why:
- MONEY!- Nokia will undoubtedly receive royalties on every device that’s sold running Nokia maps, whether MSFT is the one paying these royalties (as part of the licensing fee) or each OEM will pay directly makes no difference, the point is there will be an increase in cash flow for Nokia, which is always a good thing. Also keep in mind that Nokia stopped charging for their navigation fees, although it was 5 years ago the 8.1 billion they dropped on acquiring Navteq will definitely pay it’s dividends soon enough.
- Increase in WP Market share- this goes back to the age-old “increase the size of the pie, rather than your slice of it” This month alone both Apple and google unveiled their own new mapping applications, both bringing turn by turn navigation (albeit online navigation) along with 3D maps for Apple; Bing maps would have been considered a joke compared against these, but with Nokia maps as the default MSFT can advertise the hell out of it bringing more publicity to its awesomeness (For the record I’ve tried Apple’s Maps on iOS 6 and it shouldn’t be taken lightly, with Siri to listen to you and live traffic updates it’s no longer the joke that was navigating on Google maps).
- Secure’s Nokia’s place as an essential OEM for WP furthering the special relationship between the two as well as a sort of insurance policy to protect them from being screwed over.
- Gloating Not really an important factor but when your friend fires up his HTC WP and has to use NOKIA maps to get home instead of HTC’s own failed navigation applicationit’s a reminder to buy a Nokia next time.
Honestly I was expecting an announcement of the removal of Microsoft Zune MUSIC services as well and the incorporation of Nokia Music as the default as well, simply because of the wider foot hold that Nokia has on the world and larger availability, maybe we’ll see that later.
Keep in mind that yesterdays summit was a Windows Phone 8 PREVIEW- meaning that there will probably some more features that weren’t discussed and won’t be discussed until we’re closer to the launch date ( to prevent anyone from beating them to deployment of these ideas; which is practically custom these days).
Anything on your wish list that didn’t make the cut?
Category: Nokia, Symbian, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Heyyo, names Ali- Currently a fourth year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! (Have: Green Nokia N8, Cyan Lumia 800, Black N9, Stormtrooper White Lumia 900, Black 808 PureView, Red Lumia 920). Follow my twitter handle '@AliQudsi' - no pressure. Thanks.Subscribe
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I sure do hope they add more features and lessen the dependency on Zune at least in media loading.
I hope they add Bluetooth file transfer to their list.? I plan to get WP8 in addition to my fantastic 808.
Meh where are BT file transfer and USB Mass Storage? :/
Hardly anybody cares.
M$ has not yet disclosed all end-user features yet. They said it would be revealed during fall and have promised something exciting is coming
Eh, ? Primary need for me, as well as top class camera.
Everybody except you cares.
No they don’t. Not in Europe or the US anyway.
I take it you’re talking about Windows Phone?
Yeah, it does not seem to interest very many people.
Blue Tooth File Transfer, and you knew that, you’re just trying to be difficult.
usb mass storeage, and usb otg is amazing when you need to get a file on to a client’s pc and theres not net around.
Those in developing countries do, other than the question whether it has SD card slot. This includes India and China. And these markets are one of Nokia’s main markets, which can continue to grow, considering its where the highest percentage of world population are
Look at the image above.. the Micro SD part.. that answers your question.. you will have usb mass storage bring all your videos and apps without need to connect through Zune.. sadly it will only be in wp8
Honestly, nobody in developed world uses those. Who cares.
I thought, since it is a shared kernel, the USB OTG and bluetooth capabilities relies on the OEMs providing the hardware and driver support.
And Joe said this is far from a complete WP8 announcement, the summit was more for the end user and developers. I’m hoping to see more WP8 details released, more along the UI line, preferably.
Nokia related, I am wondering what happened to all those EA games that Nokia and EA promised to bring to WP7.5. Where is our Real Racing 2, it has been months since the partnership was announced.
It would have been nice to announce 1080p resolution support JUST BECAUSE the competing OSes are heading in that direction. I have already seen comments from the Android camp bashing WP8 as having a resolution limitation and being outdated. :/
All in all, MS did a wonderful job with the unveiling of WP8 and they actually exceeded my expectations with their announcement.
Good point, especially since they announced the Zynga games. Maybe EA decided it’s easier to port those games to WP8 with native code than to do it in XNA?
Or it just takes some time, and might be something Nokia announces with the new phones.
And incompatible with L900. Hope not
Now I am very worried about what Nokia is going to sell next few months?! Elop killed Symbian ja Meego/Maemo. MS killed WP7.5. Now customers starts to wait WP8? I am so angry because my shares goes down down down.
You cannot play in stock market with emotions
Buy more to cover up your losses LOL
Or sell now to cut your losses, or hold and wish / believe for a better future.
With regards to the browser, they claimed IE9 was full IE9 like on the desktop, but that’s not really the case. It has some weaker HTML5 support. Hopefully when they say it’s exactly the same as IE10 on the desktop they actually mean it this time.
Totally agree about a drop-down list from the top. I intuitively went for that when I was using iOS and was disappointed it didn’t do anything. Probably one of the better aspects of the Android UI. Too bad all you get with WP is signal strength and WiFi on the swipe down, and no ability to do anything with it.
I agree about Skype and VOIP. No reason for it not to be there, so we can reasonably hope for it, then again, no reason for transit directions to be absent on Bing maps, so nothing can be taken for granted. It’ll definitely be one of the biggest improvements for WP if there’s solid VOIP support, means you can do away with a phone plan and just get data. Here that’s $35/5GB, which is plenty to handle some VOIP calls as well as some general data use.
Hi Ali,
I just read some of your comments and I have the following notes
1- the number of freezed apps in the background is related mainly to the ram size.
2- Microsoft hold yesterday the developer summit (only a sneak peak) and hopefully more consumer features are to be announced like the notification system and Skype integration.
For all you whiners (not to point anybody in particular), please look the Belfiore’s keynote before whining more – he _clearly_ stated that this is a summit for developers, they are discussing only the crucial things that matters to developers the most. Benefits and features for end customers will be discussed later on (this means that for example BT-file transfer was not on the list due to the nature of this event).
Be patient and enjoy the summer. WP8 will be great enough to satisfy almost everybody, and the remaining 10% will not be satisfied during their lifetime, no matter what.
Whatever he said but for the time being they have killed the feelings of the current Windows Phone buyers. And now in result of that Nokia should not expect from the Lumia line.
No, they have made current Lumia buyers very, very excited. Including me.
+1
Relax…
9 out of 10 current WP owners have no clue about any upcoming WP8 OS, and likely wouldn’t care anyway. Remember, people frequenting boards like this are not your typical smartphone customers. Most people don’t use USB-on-the-go, Bluetooth file transfers, tethering, etc.
The sellers will have clue. They will not position WP devices till WP8 comes on board which is another 4 months!
Yeah. Because they didn’t still sell iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4s or SGS IIs knowing that the iPhone 4S and SGS III were coming out.
Oh wait. They did.
the sgs2 is in different range, it’s now a mid-range and its price is way lower than the S3 and it’s getting updates and the iPhone is iPhone whatever it sucks it wil still sell like hot cakes
They did but will tell customers that SGS 3 is coming out in XX weeks/months, if they want the latest. Or buy SGS 2 at much reduced price when SGS 3 is out. This is real life situation. The resellers in your part of world may have one way of selling, those in other parts of the world have other strategies.
I seem to recall that when the iPhone3 was released quicker than many expected there was an early upgrade/compensation scheme (certainly in UK by O2). Subsequent to that it was in the public domain that Apple had an annual(ish) refresh cycle and that previous products would receive upgrades to the new OS platform and support functionality where physically supported – see your iPhone3GS example being updated over three years after release. The notable exception being Siri on iPhone4. So yes it can happen on other platforms.
However it is an unfortunate precendent that Nokia’s WP flagship device looks slated to only receive one update (and as presented so far it’s only the start screen nothing deeper like backgrounding Nokia Drive Skype etc) at a moment where Nokia needs to inspire as much confidence and trust in their new platform choice and the wisdom of purchasers selecting Nokia when those commodities have been in very short supply in recent times.
And the resellers even more. They will minimize their risks having obsolete stock. Some might cancel orders altogether (T-mobile as an example). Just what ahppened with Symbian
“User dont want the things that we are not implemented” (c) m$
Basically Nokia risked all for WP7. Every developer knew WP7 being based on the WinCE kernel was technically inferior.
Now it’s all about WP8 which sounds and looks good. Nokia gets to wait more while everything dives downwards.
As of today Nokias brand value is not seen as reliable. Nokia customers, investors and third party developers don’t look too happy at the moment.
when MNB will be renamed to MMB?
when MICROSOFT will pay $1 billion each to JAY,ALI,MICHEAL and every other blogger of MNB and even to ANDRE
LOL!
Even if they paid me a tenth of that I would extoll MS/WP/Third Ecosystems virtues like the shameless shill that I would be.
Don’t like it? Then leave.
It’s not as if you contribute anything anyway.
They will not leave, even though Nokia stops producing products that interest them. They will stick around to provide an opposition (to what? is this a parliament? opposition to the people enjoying Nokia products apparently, can’t have that!) and to say “I told you so” when it all expectedly fails.
Well, that is what incognito says he will do, and he is one of the saner ones. The rest will probably do something even more spectacular. Can’t wait. It will be a blast… of Volbeat.
incognito presents a negative but realistic view. Apart from a few things I have no general issue with his posts.
I just don’t get the sad little tossers who seem to gloat at Nokia’s fall from grace. I think it’s a bit of a shame but it was always a possibility and it makes me neither happy nor sad. It is what it is.
Were it me, if I disagreed with Nokia’s approach I would have jumped ship and bought an Android or iPhone again and would be posting in blogs relevant to my choice rather than hanging around like a sour faced, spoiled little swine crying “I told you so”.
Maybe that’s just me. I can only hope that most of the people who do this are young as they appear to have some growing up to do.
+1
Mark: I don’t have an issue with incognito’s realistic views. He has many. Just that when he too turns into “a sad little tosser”, and promises to remain as such without any intent of bowing out, that sucks.
If you don’t care for the direction Nokia is taking, and that direction now is clearer than ever, why not just let those enjoy it that want to. But no, that is not an option. And the song plays.
Will you, please, go back to that post and read it carefully again before profiling me any further? I said what I thought you expected to hear, and I even explained it further on – I have no intention to gloat when Nokia goes under the ice – however you decided to translate it based on your preconceptions and put the words in my mouth.
Since you’ve been screaming ‘trolls’, ‘trolls’ all over that thread with no real justification (in fact, the thread was quite troll-free compared to some others, and you ended up being the biggest troll on it) I just wanted to give you something to scream about, hence the purposefully added ‘assumed’ and a smiley at the end – but you just read that the way you wanted to read and in response you unleashed a baseless megarant.
Why so serious?
Since when did anything have to be based on reality here? Lord knows I’ve tried. But that does not gain any response here, just mindless and inaccurate rants against it from people who seem to have paid zero attention to whatever Nokia is trying to accomplish here.
As for your indignant reaction, my opinion is that you fail to acknowledge (to yourself or to us) your real actions, which are quite different from what you are painting them up to be now. That’s okay, you probably believe it yourself quite sincerely.
I’m not saying you are on any kind of conspiracy or acting out of malice. No, you are not. I’m just saying: You know a lot, but just couldn’t contain yourself to it, it became personal, about being right and schadenfreude got to you. And that has been showing.
You let the game get to you, so to speak. That makes two of us, indeed, so let the song play and the rants continue. There is very little point in discussing it because nothing we will ever say will change any of it here.
Great, now I’m even self-deluded. Well, thank you, I agree, there is very little point in discussing further.
We’re just human. And for whatever reason, the possibility of having a good, solid conversation on this site has vanished.
ever a MS cheerleader. If they don’t get criticized, they will never some things that are important for potential customers.
If enough people will complain about BT file transfer, they might implement it to cater to a much wider audience outside of the western world.
Plus it would be wise for them to court back former Nokia fans by adding more symbian-like features to their WP phones. Of course Nokia has no more control over this but I just hope MS/Elop realize that everyone outside the USA use their phones differently.
*Yawn*
How tedious. I must be an MS cheerleader because I have a different point of view. What an absolutely original statement. Go you!
As I’ve said before I think XP sucks, Windows Mobile (not Phone) is a horror and desktop IE is utterly shit.
So wrong again, champ.
“Don’t like it? Then leave.”
its smartest mantra from m$ apologists last days
for sure I’ll leave soon and you’ll be happy.
More complicated problem for humans is the problem of choice
m$ simplified your life a lot – grab the choice from you
Yeah OK. No-one cares.
Seeya.
We all have the same choice. We can pick and choose from the mobile OS choices available. What we need to do is learn to respect each other’s choices.
Those who choose to stick with Nokia’s future direction, seem to have a home at MNB. I’d wish these people would have some solace from each other here, instead of endless war. I don’t think endless war is respectful or polite.
Those who don’t choose it, I personally would hope they find a happier home somewhere else, where their desires and communities match better. At some point it might be the best thing just to accept and move on.
Feb11 was 18 months ago. I don’t think sticking around just for trollings sake, without interest in Nokia’s products discussed (such as WP in WP threads), is respecting other people’s choices.
Some venting is understandable, heck I’m venting, but there comes a time when I’d think individuals should choose to let it be for everyone’s sake. Beyond that, it is of course Jay’s decision to choose what is the target of his blog and who are welcome here.
Very very soon…. Infact it is in transition already!
Why are you attacking this site b/c of news you don’t like? MNB does an excellent job reporting ANYTHING Nokia. Would a MMB have as many (or any at all) stories on the 808? How about N9?
Ali: One correction, WP8 won’t be available to try on WP7.5 devices – that early testing opportunity was in reference to WP8 updates rolling out in the future. WP7/7.5 devices will get the WP7.8 update, likely in the same way we’ve gotten all WP7.x updates.
Otherwise, thanks for posting a nice summary.
“8.1 billion they dropped on acquiring Navteq will definitely pay it’s dividends soon enough.”
hmm, it will take an awfully long time don’t you think to recover that 8.1billion ? besides nokia already pays microsoft for windows isn’t it ? so the cash flow is going TO microsoft FROM nokia
Cash flow will be going to both directions. Even after the support payments – which Microsoft pays and which exceed royalty payments at the moment according to analysts, so Nokia is a net receiver at the moment – there will be the new location and advertising based revenue streams coming from Microsoft to Nokia.
This is one major reason why Nokia chose the Windows Phone strategy. With Google this business model would not have been possible, since Google is a competitor, not a co-operator in that space. Like I said yesterday, I make no comment on the viability of this strategy, just tell it like they planned it to work.
Don’t let your conspiracies get the best of you. Nokia has mapped out a business for itself. That doesn’t mean it will succeed of course. It might fail spectacularly.
“Don’t let your conspiracies get the best of you” then you continue with
“Nokia has mapped out a business for itself. That doesn’t mean it will succeed of course. It might fail spectacularly.”
Only a stupid person kills their business on a promise of a future business.
Logically I feel we are left with 2 conclusions about Nokia on the WP strategy.
1. Nokia executives are super dumb.
2. MS has taken over or crept inside Nokia.
“Only a stupid person kills their business on a promise of a future business.”
Yep. Not that Nokia had any business to kill, thanks to OPK and the Symbian evangelists that drove the company to it current horrendous state.
Thank god things are looking better now. Not that there is any guarantee that it will work out, but it sure seems promising.
Zipa:
I appreciate your valiant effort, and by all means go on if you want, but my opinion is that it is pointless.
The battle-lines have been too long drawn here. Any attempts to offer a broader horizon from the accepted One Truth (which means believing in little green Microsoft trojans), is to be labelled an Elop shill.
Any attempts to actually understand the real Nokia strategy they are attempting, and explain it to those who clearly don’t know shit about it, are labelled as apologism or worse, as a visit from the Nokia propaganda department.
But most imporantly, any attempt to do the above means that the person attempting is thought to believe 100% blindly in the Nokia strategy, its success and the holyness of the great leader. Even when they (like me) don’t actually believe any of those things.
This leads to such prized gems as believing any non-Windows Phone from Nokia will be treated like the N9. People believe it even as they see the 808 roll out globally. They still believe it is being sabotaged. They also believe Nokia is giving its IP away for free to Microsoft and actually expect others to PROVE this is not the case. In any other context this would be considered lunacy.
There is no middle ground. Hence, any discussion is pointless until Nokia either fails (possible), gets bought (likely), or succeeds. In the first two scenarios it will be “I told you sos” galore (no matter who told what really) and in the last case people will still troll.
So, no point.
Janne, I almost get offended by your black and white view on the critics.
Ok, my comments Åre mostly negative on this blog. That is driven primarily because the blog entries themselves are mostly positive, not objective.
You know what I’ve written here and I haven’t critisized the adoption of WP, quite the opposite. I was also hopeful that the strategy would work. My premises have been all the time:
1. Elop (Lumia autocorrect Slip is quite accurate) does not know his business.
He is no strategic thinker, but hero CEO wannabe. He pushed the all-in strategy trough, destroyed cash-cow, was overconfident on WP, listened the wrong people whilst doing the analysis (see Contreras)
2. Symbian needed to be ditched, but in a softer way. They could have shifted people to Accidenture and said that that way they could sort out organization. In the very first announcement they needed to give clear timeline, how long and what kind of updates are coming. Eg first announcing that Nok US will not sell Symbian anymore strenghtened the message that Symbian was dead. They should have pushed Maemo with all energy available and say that there will be max 1-2 primarly developer / Qt falgship devices out each year to support the low end. With hindsight (and foresight it is clear Elop wasnt wasn’t at all. Mameo line would have kept MS on alert that they need to deliver.
3. Adopt WP with the message that is is primarily to US market at first adding that Nokia seriously evaluate it as the primary platform for biz and gaming. They should have introduced the same WP devices and gone full WP with 8. Now they have another Osborne on their hands and nothing left to sell. Mapping revenues won’t start flowing in before they are lost.
Nokia is no start-up set up with risk capital, where one has only one chance to succeed. Not they are. And don’t start with the strategy talk. The original strategy is now scrapped. There is no internet (qt) for the next billion left. The smarterphone guys need to be genius, if they get to upgrade S40. Wasn’t smarterphone participant of Li-Mo Linux? It seems that the Future disruptions is taken back also.
I hope that WP8 is a success, I’m afraid Nokia won’t be seeing it and I see iy possible that I completely lose interest in them when they become sheer OEM with some apps and lead in camera tech, when all the rest are good enough.
I’m through being nice becauce here nice gets you nowhere with people.
I agree with everything in you post, except this:
“The original strategy is now scrapped. There is no internet (qt) for the next billion left. … It seems that the Future disruptions is taken back also.”
Which I don’t agree with. Everything else, I probably wrote much of that stuff here over the year.
Just to clarify: I agree Qt is probably gone, but not Internet for the next billion in general.
Meaning Qt mobile at Nokia. Not Qt in general.
See how this place makes one paranoid? Without that clarification I’d received an attack listing my Qt 3D apps and how I’m an Elop shill without any technical knowledge.
Typo: my => me
+1 dude.
Elop killed too many important things at Nokia and these people here say lets forget the past and move on to WP8 only strategy.
It’s getting weird that we get to see Janne replying to every other alternate comment.
I’ll stop in due course, don’t worry.
Unlike some others.
The very same Symbian evangelists are now the most rabid WP evangelists, and they are doing the same harm to Nokia yet again… This time probably until death (of Nokia) do them apart.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
They planned/banked on selling 150 million Symbians while they transform to the new mode of operation. Thus they felt they were merely changing, not destroying (well, platform support money meant that they knew some destruction would happen).
Just because we saw the Feb11 as a mistake and high-risk gamble, does not mean they chose the route out of malice or even extreme stupidity. Incompetence or optimism. It would be far easier to appreciate the criticism if you guys put your tinfoil hats to the side.
Misguided optimism with a smidge of incompetence, I’d say. They failed to see the Androids come marching in at the lower price points so rapidly and in so big numbers. Which pretty much left Nokia dead in the water.
The only thing that was still selling Symbian phones was the fact that it was the only thing available for someone with ~100 euros to spend. No other options. Zero. Zilch.
Now the options are (taken from Gigantti.fi):
- Nokia C5-03
- Samsung Galaxy Y
- Samsung Galaxy Gio
- Sony Xperia X8
- Nokia 500 (the most expensive of the bunch)
Gee, I’m really surprised that Symbian is struggling…
“Only a stupid person kills their business on a promise of a future business.”
Yeah, like that dumb Apple killing PPC and focusing on Intel or OS 9 for the completely new OS X. That sure worked out badly for them!
you must be joking.
The Intel move helped Apple with revenues. People got to use their applications thru Boot camp. Investors were very pleased with the move. Apple increased market respect and developer interest.
The Intel was a great move for OSx. People were lesser scared on trying Apple products
The WP7 move chased away third party developers, chased away symbian users and lowered Nokia revenues for 2 years. Investors lost money and talented coders got fired.
So what would have happened if they’d stuck with PPC?
Answers on the back of a postcard to “business would have tanked”.
You should have seen the amount of angst on the Apple blogs when it happened. Truly awesome to behold.
In the fillings there is clear statement that the whole arrangement with MS will be slightly net positive for Nokia only when they take the minimal number of licenses they obliged to, i.e. in case the partnership fails. MS will be receiving net stream of real money from Nokia in any other case, not the other way around.
No, the platform support payments mean it is slightly net positive – basically that Nokia gets Windows Phone for free at the beginning. That is not a forward-looking statement on what the business model will be once the location platform and related shared revenue streams are up and running.
But you obviously believe what you want to believe. That Nokia actually signed a deal where they hand their IP away for free. Nothing I say could ever change your view.
OK, so let’s quote the relevant part from Q1 report:
And as a bonus article from the days the deal was being finalized, even back then they apparently didn’t know what you know – that MS wont receive money from Nokia:
Yes, you will believe that interpretation – that a quarterly 250 million check from Microsoft buys them free-for-all at Nokia’s IP table. I don’t believe that to be the case.
There is no point in discussing why.
Yeah, it’s quite unbelievable, isn’t it? Actually I would liked to be proven wrong just to help me to restore my hope that the world can’t be such insane place.
Don’t worry. You will be proven wrong.
My problem with all this is even now lumia 900 is being launched in new countries, or has been launched for less than half a year. All these flagships won’t be able to run the latest and greatest WP had to offer. What will people think then?
wp 7.8 will shut them up. if not, free xbox and play 360 for all
Screwed. Royally.
Well said.
Most will not know about WP8 or won’t really care all that much… The question is whether the Lumia 900 can fulfill their present smartphone needs, and if they like the design.
agreed
Agreed. No-one is really going to care outside a few nerds.
I’ll interview some people I know from Gigantti in Finland and come back after.
Yeah, sure. Anecdotal evidence from non-impartial sources is always helpful.
Not.
Might as well interview people in the Assembly -convention. People who sell tech need to be a bit geeky themselves, while that fact alone might affect sales, they aren’t the demographics Mark talked about with his “No one”, I think. Go interview random people on the street, in a mall, or a construction site.
what people will notice thou, is the shiny new apps that their less than one year old flagship, which they either paid for in full, or get a yearly contract, wont play.
And they might notice, that a nokia lumia wp8 midrange device run those shiny new games or apps. Perhaps even costing half their lumia 900.
its going to be very hard to swallow.
But which apps? Without context it’s a meaningless statement.
hey, have they cancel the list view on the homescreen?
The most omportant microsoft have missed out is the getting rid of the three bottom buttons(or maximum one button at the bottom), and some microsoft theme, the tiles are too plain to my taste, ios icons are so attractive!
Remember, this is all in the eye of the beholder…
To me, the WP UI is nice and clean, minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing. The iOS UI is primitive (basically the apps screen of android ALL the time) and a mess of garish app tiles.
Yep, iOS looks like an epileptic robot had a seizure and threw up on a screen. It’s not quite as bad as you can make Android to be, but on the other hand there’s nothing you can do to change it, either.
for all the cheers which wp8,brings in .nokia’s mid range and low end smartphone sales will be in question.essentially customers will keep away from dead wp 7.x.
Nokia should have continued with symbian/meltemi for low/mid range smartphone.
Someone running the WP7.8 WILL be able to make out the difference. WP8 apps will NOT be avaiable for the poor 7.5 phones.
Siri isn’t available for the iPhone 4. Facetime isn’t available for the iPhone 3GS. Neither can run retina display apps.
They still sell.
you are comparing apples and oranges Nokia is NOT in the league of apple in terms of loyalities the iPhone is more prestigious, fashion gadget than a smartphone and people with iPhones don’t give a f*ck about nokia anymore. so please you and anybody else don’t say “look at apple they still sell” it’s a total BS.
Your point is irrelevat. Previous models still sell whether that’s an iPhone or SGS II or whatever.
Agreed. Apple is a thing of it’s own, and should not often be compared to, both in positives and negatives.
This article made for a good read, but Ali, writing for a prominent international blog with a good number of UK readers you should be informed that use of the word ‘retarded’ in the context of a substandard decision making process is considered poor taste and an insult to people with learning difficulties or motor function issues. I am aware that use of the phrase is still commonplace in the US. In the UK it has almost entirely been eradicated from intelligent writing.
“..languages not being included in the original version of WP is nothing short of retarded”
perhaps replace with
“..languages not being included in the original version of WP is nothing short of inept”
please support the effort to reinstate the definition of this word to its original general meaning of ‘delayed start / slowed down’ and consign the slang insult to history.
“This article made for a good read, but Ali, writing for a prominent international blog with a good number of UK readers you should be informed that use of the word ‘retarded’ in the context of a substandard decision making process is considered poor taste and an insult to people with learning difficulties or motor function issues.”
That’s just because the “politically correct” crowd in UK are a bunch of retards.
Lol, true!
Besides, the brits love terms like muppet, c*nt, w*nker, etc.
Most Brits are nowhere near politically correct, and we’re talking a broad spectrum of society here; not just Charvers and Cockneys…
@Extraneus. The people you describe behave/act the way they do out of choice or social background. A child born with, say, cerebral palsey, is not able to control their behaviour and it is unacceptable for a word to be generally used which eludes to disadvantaged people in such a derogatory way. It’s not crazy political correctness, just natural human compassion. How about you walk up to a black man you have never met and call him a nigger? What do you expect to happen next? How do you expect him to feel?
What is or isn’t considered polite by society is in a constant state of flux and it is the responsibility of good natured intelligent people to keep in tune with the times.
Don’t be an old w***er like Rupert Murdoch. He’s supposedly a well traveled educated man showing himself to be an ignorant bigot.
@Zipa. I don’t have any relatives with disabilities, so your trolling isn’t stabbing me in the chest. It just makes you look the fool.
I have a brother with Aspergers. I have a nephew with autism. My sister-in-law is in a wheelchair. I have a chronic illness. We can all take a joke, why can’t you?
There is a difference between using a word as a generic term and as a specific insult. If you don’t know that then I suggest you learn.
Mark, it is you who needs to learn. It is a lack of education and consideration to think that use of the term ‘retard’ as a ‘generic’ description for someone who makes bad decisions or has poor reasoning skills is humour; the term is consequentially insulting to the people from whom the it emanates. It is saying that someone is stupid and comparing their mental abilities to someone with a disability as an insult. How about “You run like a spastic?” Is that just funny, or does it insult people born with cystic fibrosis?
“Can’t you take a joke?” Pah! The bigots’ excuse for insulting language and behaviour at the expense of others. And whilst some victims of stereotype abuse may deal with it by ‘joining in’ themselves, not everyone has the ability to shrug off personal insults in this manner.
I’m not a raving p.c. Liberal, I just don’t think that it’s very professional to use the word ‘retard’ in published articles when there are plenty of other more suitable and less insulting alternatives.
Hell, even Americans are starting to realise how hurtful a seemingly innocuous word can be:
http://www.r-word.org/Default.aspx
No it isn’t. I’m well educated, certainly enough to differentiate between a throwaway term and a personal insult.
Don’t like it? Cry me a river.
Cry me a river? You don’t care, so why post? I just happen to have some sensitivity and compassion for my fellow human beings, without prejudice or discrimination.
If you believe that using the word ‘retard’ to question a person’s intelligence is a “throwaway term” without understanding how its use insults people with certain disabilities, then you may be educated, but perhaps not in the right way. You insult ALL disabled people this way by implication, not directly.
Sounds like your conscience says that it’s okay to use the word retard as a throwaway term just so long as there aren’t any ‘real retards’ within earshot, right?
Because he is THE RESIDENT ASSHOLE, that’s what.
And BTW, when I said he is THE RESIDENT ASSHOLE, it was a joke.
Thanks for changing it to ‘idiocy’ Ali. It seems to be a small point on the face of it, but greatly appreciated all the same.
all in all we have a small army of dead stormtroopers.
What is a future of Meltemi and open projects? There is no threads but Windows&Micrsoft only, so I ask this here – about what I like.
You’ve just missed those, try browsing articles from last week.
But the short story is that they’re all scrapped.
Does this mean there will be no mobiles for users like me? Why? I am confused.
No. Don’t like it? Buy an Android.
No, this is unfair. I don’t want any Android. I just can’t belive in this….
((
I want my Nokia!!!
Jerome Welocky:
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no – there is no future for those at Nokia, at least in any foreseeable future. It will be Series 40 and Windows Phone from now on.
If those do not meet your preferences, Android, BB10 or Tizen might interest you. Nokia’s approach will be closer aligned to that of iPhone from now on.
So, think if you can live with that and vote with your wallet.
“Nokia’s approach will be closer aligned to that of iPhone from now on.”
then RIP Nokia
they are putting their heads with apple they can’t beat them, I am not talking about the products if they match the iPhone or not but the customers of the iPhone are the problem, they are mostly fanboys that don’t look at the company [Nokia] that make 20$ cheap phones, they bought iPhones to show-off.
“promised support/updates to all Lumia owners for the next 18 months.”
It may sound good, but think of it- even nokia belle OS is being supported till 2016 and Lumia phones till 18 months..!!!!
I currently own L800 and i feel that approach should be – ALL the features in WP8 should come to lumia phones(or wp7.xx devices) . Only those to be left out which are hardware dependent..
Then it would be justified. Else after 3 months of purchasing my phone, sadly, its outdated. (Already it doesnt have host of features;)
but every feature of WP8 barring those demanding hardware should come to WP7.xx …
“ALL the features in WP8 should come to lumia phones(or wp7.xx devices) . Only those to be left out which are hardware dependent..”
Which is exactly what will happen, according to Microsoft and Nokia announcements at the WP8 launch.
To be honest, I don’t think ALL non-hardware-dependent features will come to in Windows Phone 7.8. Some will, but not all. Others Nokia will fill out with their Lumia-specific apps.
But still, it will leave a significant platform gap between the WP7.8 and WP8 devices. It is important to note this. Especially that apps made just for WP8 will not run on WP7.8.
Of course I expect a lot of apps to stay WP7.8 compatible, but games will certainly be an area where WP8 exclusivity will start sooner than other types of apps.
Even for games, not all games need to use native code, and are easier to make not using native code. Like I said in another topic, I don’t think the 300 apps / day for current handsets is going to be affected for the next 6 months.
Am not disappointed that wp8 isnt coming to older devices like my Omnia 7 but I am disappointed that new phones like the Lumia 900 isn’t getting it.
So no big surprises, no disruptions. And that’s the problem. Although WP8 is big improvement over WP7, there is nothing that put it ahead of Android or iOS, no reason why should people want to buy it in droves.
BTW, we now have officially confirmed WP7 was beta-test dead-end, and it only underscores the idiocy of Elop’s decision to go with WP when he had to know he wont have real phone for at least next two years.
The Shared Windows NT kernel wasn’t enough for you?
Although so, WP7 not upgradable is sad. Very sad.
No, why it should? It’s neither surprise nor disruption.
One thing that worries me a bit about the announcement that WP8 won’t be available as an upgrade to current WP7.5 phones is that it somewhat contradicts Microsoft’s story about the WP8 core scaling down to even less powerful (Meltemi-sized?) devices.
If Nokia managed to bring WP8 to a device like the Lumia 610, it would both reduce fragmentation and be a very clear demonstration of the scalability of WP8, especially after requiring a special treatment even of relatively basic apps such as Angry Birds to support a lesser-spec’ed handset.
That is second on my list. I understand that Nokia is in cash-crisis (they already have trouble with financing ie. Refinancing their old loans despite some amount of cash reserves). I highly doubt that they will meet even the postponed Meltemi launch of Q1 2013.
This is most likely because of some architectural/bootloader/etc differences in current WP7.x devices compared to WP8 requirements, not necessarily because the processor/memory specs would not be enough. I do expect WP8 to scale well down eventually.
So does this mean that Windows Phone gets Multi-tasking like Symbian coz if it doesnt than i’ll stick to my N8
It doesn’t get it, it likely never will. The multitasking will improve, but still be more like the one in iOS.
As for N8, why not stick to the 808! I’m loving mine. Might serve you well for a few more years.
As for multitasking options, BB10, Tizen and Android might serve you well.
Can’t afford the 808 not yet atleast..no carrier subsidies in India..
Microsoft’s update path is a good decision, better that than an OS that doesn’t work properly, especially as a big part of the pleasure of WP is its speed and stability.
To save comment space here, i have written an article on it http://www.thedailyopinion.co.uk/?p=1871