Actually, for me it is a serious factor - driving me away from Windows. Familiarity does indeed breed contempt, at least for me.
“Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile, because Windows 7 is so much better.” That’s the first thing the trainer from Microsoft told us when we were about to release the Pro 7. And that may be the problem–Windows Mobile 6 sucked. I’ve seen customers who used Windows Mobile for years give up and switch to Blackberry or Android because they couldn’t stand it any longer.
And the trainer was right about Windows 7. It is a much better phone, but the negativity from previous versions is overwhelming. Mango is getting a number of rave reviews but it may be a case of too little too late.
In the three months we’ve carried the Pro 7 my store has sold three, and one of those was returned. Compare that to three Blackberrys and fifteen Androids a week. Microsoft has a long way to go if they want to catch up.
I don’t see it as too big of a deal. Samsung, LG and HTC make a lot of money from their Android phones. If they drop Android because of Googorola what are they going to do? Apple won’t let them use iOS and adopting Windows 7 may be their death knell. No, there’s too much money in Android for other manufacturers to drop it.
This will not help …
(Bolding mine.)
An MS business partner I work with always gets a Win phone because everything they do is MS - but every time I talk to him he is complaining about how it randomly shuts down or locks up and he has to remove the battery (multiple phones, multiple models over the years, he laughs about it, then he cries).
That type of thing prevents me from even trying one of their phones, and I can’t be the only one.
yet my HTC trophy is incredibly stable. Something doesn’t smell right with his story.
I await the day BB finally dies. Other phones just can’t get themselves in the door. Ten years ago, Blackberry became the premier smartphone for business here and people started buying them for their personal use because they got used to them.
Because your HTC trophy isn’t having a problem that means that MS has never had problems in this arena?
Are you unaware of the stability issues win mobile has traditionally had?
Do you think I didn’t see him have to reset his phone more than once? (which is why the topic came up).
Do you think that even if he told me it happens frequently, just like with his other win phone, that he was lying?
It’s funny, I’m just guessing here and I could be wrong, but the only other time I see immediate disbelief or defensiveness about an MS product is with my friends that work at MS - so I am guessing you are an employee.
WP7 has essentially nothing to do with Windows Mobile.
if it was an inherent problem with WP7 I think there would be more written about it than some guy on a message board talking about his extraordinarily unlucky friend.
I don’t even work in that industry, but nice try. My “immediate disbelief” is one part “I’ve not experienced that with my phone” and one part “if this was a widespread problem, the tech press would jump all over it.”
I love that sales pitch “Try us, we aren’t shit anymore !”. Sounds just like what GM and Chrysler were selling over the past 20 years. You have to blow people away and have some sort of unique feature that everyone has to have to overcome that kind of legacy. Not just say “it isn’t the same anymore”- suuure, uh huh, why should I spend my money to find out when I have two proven winners in Android and Apple to choose from.
I didn’t say it was wp7 - my post was related to the Cell Guy’s point about win mobile leaving a bad taste in people’s mouth.
This situation I described happened 3 years ago and 7 months ago (same person). It’s entirely possible the 7 months ago experience was still a win mobile phone - I didn’t ask.
then why even bring it up? nobody gives a shit about Windows Mobile.
Uh, is there a reason for swearing? You seem upset.
This was Cell Guy’s post in which he correctly points out that win mobile was less than optimal:
Because I had seen an extremely pro-MS person complaining about his windows phone, I mentioned an anecdote that supported Cell Guy’s post.
Summary:
Win mobile had serious problems with freezing/needing to be reset, for years
Consumers remember stuff like that
This makes it even harder for MS to convince people to buy phones running their OS
Do you disagree with this analysis?
Ok, you got me curious about WP7 and freezing, guess what, 3 million hits. Here’s an MS answer:
And there are a whole bunch of these:
I would recommend some googling so you can see for yourself.
exactly, and as consequence nobody gives a shit about any kind of Windows mobile phone.
I don’t think this is correct. As I understand it, WP7 comprises a new user interface layer over an OS that is derived from Windows Mobile.
it uses a newer version of the WinCE kernel. Everything else on top of that is new.
I get 6.5 million hits for “iPhone freezing.” What’s your point?
True, and the kernel has been reworked quite considerably in some respects, but I suspect it won’t have been rewritten from scratch. Time will tell whether any of Windows Mobile’s failings have crept through in those bits that are derived from the previous kernel. I’d like to think they won’t, but my (terrible) experiences with Windows Mobile 6.1 made me switch to Android, rather than Mobile 7.
I’ve been a MS software dev guy for years. As such I’ve had MS PCs, MS servers, and MS phones.
My HTC running WinMobile 6.1 has been almost troublefree for the 4-ish years I’ve had it.
My wife bought an HTC Win7 Phone 3 months ago. Snazzy interface, easy to use. Reliable.
The thing I do NOT understand is they crippled the interface between it & desktop Outlook. No more direct syncing; now you need to go through live.com and that won’t sync tasks or notes. WTF???
It’s almost like they designed it for consumers & kids to share videos & play Farmville rather than designing it as the Blackberry killer businessman’s phone. Which is what my wife & I want / need.
I’m in the market for a new phone too and the lack of a good syncing solution is making me think about jumping ship to gmail, gcalendar, & an Android device.