Lighten up people, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team deserves a celebration
Summary: Microsoft reached a major milestone with Windows Phone 7 and a small celebration parade took place on campus. People all over the Twitterverse are spun up and need to just relax.
As said last week, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team reached a major milestone with the platform. Today Microsoft employees had a bit of a celebration and all I keep reading about on Twitter is how classless and immature it was to have an iPhone carried by pallbearers. Really people? Lighten up and let Microsoft employees who have been working hard on this new platform have a bit of fun. It isn't harming anyone and I am actually encourage to see them this excited about Windows Phone 7 since I don't remember when the mobile team was this fired up about a product before. I was actually pretty impressed with their Thriller dance myself and it was good to see Darth Vader in the parade. It also wasn't like the entire event was about death to the iPhone as you can see in more photos and thoughts from the parade on the Windows Phone blog.
As readers here know, I spent quite a bit of time with the Technical Preview and think Microsoft has a solid product coming out in the next few months. The Gartner data shows that Apple doesn't have anything to worry about through 2014 from Microsoft so why are people getting too spun up about this Microsoft celebration? IMHO, I don't think the Gartner data means a whole lot in regards to Windows Phone 7 since we haven't seen it released yet and have no way of knowing how well it might do when it is up and running.
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Talkback
RE: Lighten up people, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team deserves a celebration
What is wrong with disssenting views?
But why call on the audience to "Lighten up" and not be negative about Microsoft's iPhone burial campaign? Why try to influence the comments, or make them positive?
Whatever the product, a good review will tell me what's wrong with that product. If I want gushing praise, I can go to Microsoft's own website for that. Dissenting opinions is a good thing, and why we read the comments section.
OK.. So what if the tables were turned?
What if Apple OSX developers had a similar party and buried a copy of Windows 7? I'll wager that would be perfectly OK with you.
Having read Matt Miller's postings on the WP7 preview - I can distinctly recall him mentioning several flaws - stuff that wasn't complete at the time. Is it so wrong for him to actually LIKE the product such as it was? I'll bet it doesn't sit well with you because it's a Microsoft product. If he was gushing over the iPhone or an Android product, you probably wouldn't give it a moment's notice let alone 3 paragraphs worth of a reply.
In my opinion...
it is so premature as to be ridiculous. Being excited about the fight is one thing. Basically declaring victory before you have even established that you CAN fight, just makes you look like you have no grasp on reality at all. This is a gun fight, and MS hasn't even produced a knife, let alone a gun. If I worked for MS, I would feel embarrassed.
Wolfie2K3: I believe there may be an underlying fear
The interesting thing to note is that while they continue to decry, day in and day out, about Microsoft and those that proclaim that Windows phone 7 will be a sucess as fools as the device is not yet released, they continue to proclaim it to be dead, even though the device has not yet been released.
In essence, they feel they are, far and beyond, smarter then the industry as a whole, and that the only opinion that matters is theirs: saying it will be a failure is acceptable, saying it will be a sucess is idiotic.
One has to wonder what exactly it is that they fear. Discover that, and you will get to the root of their problems.
I have never...
read such unsupported rubbish in my entire life. You don't even read/understand my posts. I have never said WP7 is dead. As a matter of fact I have stated that this is a fight MS cannot afford to lose and that they have the resources to stay in the fight for a long time. I just do not see how they are going to be successful given the current realities, such as having to charge for the OS, late to the party, a history of lack of vision and few if any monopoly levers to influence the market.
Why don't you produce some facts and logic anchored in the current realities, instead of a blind faith in MS's success, and then MAYBE we can have a discussion. So far you have said absolutely nothing of any substance whatsoever.
RE: Lighten up people, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team deserves a celebration
You do realize that Android is not free. OEMs have to pay for Android Market, Google Apps, Google Talk, etc.
Was the dancing gorilla.....
Really now ...
Did you see it throwing a chair or something ?
Gartners data is for WM6.x only
If by best you mean ....
Sorry, but everything MS has show so far is an UGLY user interface and a bunch of "me too" features and games.
#1- The market for smartphones is not teens and kids. Marketing a smartphone for games is STUPID. Most parents will not pay $30 a month (plus the cost of the games) to have their kids play the same games they have at home during school hours. O hell, most won't even pay the monthly premium to keep them from getting in trouble during the summer.
#2- Both the iPhone and Android has set the bar high for user interface and usability. The UGLY everything is square with 8-bit colors interface will not cut it in today's world. Seriously, who ever came up with that stupid UI design should be fired along with the idiotic manager who OK it.
The only feature that WP7 has that is not a "me too" feature is real support for MS Office docs. But the fact that it is web based, makes the feature mostly useless ..... because the place where you want to access documents and do some work the most is when you are flying. A web based application is no good when there is no web access.
RE: Lighten up people, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team deserves a celebration
Why do you even comment unless you are worry that WP7 will be successful.
I would assume you lead what you humans call
One would have to logiclly conclude that you see Windows Phone 7 as a threat towards your beliefs in some way, as I can see no other logical reason.
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I guess that explains why iphone games dont sell
RE: Lighten up people, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team deserves a celebration
How many downloads does the GAME Angry Birds have from the App Store? 6.5 Million? Wow, thats alot of kids and tweens...
The early bird may get the worm...
...but it's the 2nd mouse who gets the cheese. Just because someone had a feature previously doesn't mean they've got a perfect implementation of it.
FWIW, the truth is - there's just so many things you can or would likely do with a phone. Typing or editing a doc on a plane - that kinda thing would likely be best done on a laptop or netbook. Something with the app and document loaded locally. By NO means would anyone want to do something totally retarded like write a "War and Peace" length document on a cell phone - unless they weren't playing with a full deck. Ok - They might be trying to set a world record but beyond that - why would anyone want to go there?
But on the other hand... If I wanted to be entertained on a plane, games and other content MIGHT be more the ticket. Why suffer through some lame flick on the big screen when I can get a movie or game that doesn't suck? Adults can be into games just as much as, if not more than kids and teens. Heck, I'm in my mid 40's and even I like the occasional skull bashing foray in some alternate fantasy reality. It's a good way to relieve stress. You might try it some time.
And finally - who died and left you in charge of approving or rejecting user interfaces? From what I've read on WP7, the reviews have been pretty good - except, of course from fanboi types such as yourself.
I disagree
[i]#2- Both the iPhone and Android has set the bar high for user interface and usability. The UGLY everything is square with 8-bit colors interface will not cut it in today's world. Seriously, who ever came up with that stupid UI design should be fired along with the idiotic manager who OK it.[/i]
The Metro UI interface is a highly eloquent UI that re-defines what a UI should be. It is hardly a "everything is square with 8-bit colors interface", but rather an interactive text based UI, that is clean, sharp, and most importantly, [i]different[/i], and allows access to what matters most - content.
Awesome!
Guys, they are predicting 3.9% market share in 2014 for Windows Phone or
Yet Gartner data is not to be believed
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