ArnoldRimmer said:
disolitude said:
I think this was a problem at launch but these days those hardware specs aren't that high. I mean single core only, 1 ghz is pretty common, screen rez is standard and 256 ram/8GB is not that much to ask for as well.
So yeah, I don't think the specs are that high anymore. I honestly think its remarkable how smooth they are keeping the OS experience across the board after mango update, even with last gen devices like Dell Venue Pro which only have 256 megs of RAM.
I think WP7 main problem is OEM relationships/confidence and that Windows logo on the back on the phone. People have preconceived notions about that Windows logo...and rightfully so as windows phones have been very buggy in the past(windows mobile)
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While the specs have been lowered, they are still a lot higher than Android hardware requirements, leading to higher entry prices. I just had a look at the available WP7 devices and their prices in my country, and the cheapest WP7 phones that appear to be somewhat popular come at about 250 Euros. That's definitely affordable, but I think the majority of people is nevertheless looking for even cheaper devices. Android Smartphones on the other hand already come as cheap as 99 Euros and considering the price they are quite feature-packed, usually having WLAN/GPS/Bluetooth/Digital Camera etc. already builtin. Their biggest downside is being slow and the display being of bad resolution etc. - but in the end that only affects comfort, you can still do almost anything with them that you can do with high-price Android phones. I think a person who is today looking to replace his old mobile but who doesn't want to spend more money than necessary will likely choose an Android device, because when looking and comparing feature lists, the cheaper Android devices will look like the best deal for the price.
And of course, WP7 has the problem of being rather late to market and simply not having a reasonable market share yet. For customers that's a clear downside, because as long as it's not sure how bright WP7's future is going to be, spending hundreds of bucks on a WP7 phone is a bit of a risk and going with the established choices seems much safer. WebOS for example really is a nice OS as well, yet commercially it failed and was abandonded, and many people who spent their precious money on those devices are probably a bit pissed now.
The fact that Windows Mobile didn't have the best reputation etc. probably is a problem too, but I don't think its one of the biggest problems. I once had a Windows mobile smartphone as well, and back at the time I didn't even think it was that bad.
I actually consider the Metro UI to be a bigger problem. The general concept might be great (I really don't know, since so far I never had a chance to try a WP7 phone), but I think many people will find the simplistic design a bit boring (or even cheap looking). One can of course say that this was a consious decision because in the end eyecandy is rather distracting than actually improving efficiency etc., but in practice many people love eyecandy. When I would go in a mobile phone store looking for a new phone, walking past a device with the typical Metro home screen probably isn't much of an eyecatcher. When they would try out the phone they might realize that the user interface concept is very clever, but they probably don't come that far because with several other smartphones around, the simplistic Metro user interface probably won't be catching their attention.
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