Is Windows Phone 7 (WP7) a Basket Case of an OS?

[Hands0n]

I have to say that I was actually shocked at reading the below. In mobile phone terms this positions them as a basket case. I could never underpin my mobile requirements with an OS that is this poorly supported for disabling bugs.

It may be that Microsoft know exactly what they are doing. But it certainly doesn't look like it.

Discuss


Just when we thought Microsoft was getting cool about updates they turn around and mess everything up again.

According to Mary Jo Foley the much desired 8107 update, which brings a fix for the disappearing keyboard issue, is currently under carrier testing, and will not be made available to everyone.

The official statement reads:

Our engineering team has developed a service release which has been delivered to our carrier partners for their assessment. Details on specific improvements contained in these releases are available via the Windows Phone Update History page.
Today they posted on the Windows Phone Team Blog that the update will be “available to many Windows Phone customers” but that the update will be “…. available to all carriers that request it,..”

Microsoft will also be closing their Where’s My Phone Update? site and suggests, instead of watching the page, users wait for notifications on their devices.

They note they will continue to roll out firmware and maintenance updates as needed, but “these will be available across the globe—although not everybody will receive or require them.”

It seems to me the keyboard issue is a perfect example of a fix which every device will require, and which should be rolled out urgently everywhere, not just to carriers that want to bother doing the testing.



Source:
http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-closing-down-wheres-my-phone-update-page-providing-8107-update-only-to-carriers-that-request-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WmPowerUser+%28WM+Power+User% 29

[Wilt]

Looks like a network has gotten fed up of Microsoft trying to shame them into providing all updates to all phones by publishing the 'Where's my update?' site and has threatened to drop support of WP.

It's a shame that networks have such control over software updates to every phone other than iPhones - Microsoft should be able to basically link WP into Windows update and release fixes and small service packs like they do to their desktop OS. The only thing that should really need any third party co-operation is anything that fiddles with the hardware and its interaction with networks (and that would be with the manufacturer, not the network).

[blush]

“Nothing has changed in regard to how we work with carriers to deliver Windows Phone updates to our customers,” maintained Greg Sullivan, Senior Product Manager on Windows Phone with whom I spoke by phone on January 7.

The word is Microsoft’s policies and procedures around how the company develops updates, delivers them to carriers for testing and delivers them to customers is exactly the same as it was a year ago. If a carrier decides to hold off on delivering a particular service update, it will bundle it into the subsequent update it rolls out to customers.

Regarding Microsoft’s decision to no longer update the “Where’s My Windows Phone Update?” page with country, model and carrier specifics, there’s been no carrier push-back leading to the decision, based on my conversation with Sullivan. The original reason Microsoft created the update table was to repair damaged customer trust after the bad “NoDo” update experience. The claim: If Microsoft were to continue adding each and every new phone model and new carrier relationship, the Windows Phone Update table would have become unwieldy.

Yes, Microsoft’s decision to add service updates and not just major operating system releases to the table did create customer expectations that this would be the way things worked, going forward. But if there are any more updates to the Windows Phone Update page, it sounds like it will be only major operating system releases (like the expected Tango and Apollo), and not any of the interim service updates, firmware updates or patches for particular phone models.

I’m just the messenger here, so don’t shoot me. But after hearing from Sullivan, I’m willing to give Microsoft a chance to prove that we early Windows Phone adopters won’t get the shaft from the carriers. But I will say the “disappearing keyboard update” sounds like it should go to all of us with Windows Phones. If a fix to the SMS-messaging bug that provided a scare late last year is going to follow shortly, I won’t be mad if I have to wait a bit longer for both updates. But I won’t be a happy Windows Phone user if I don’t get any more Windows Phone updates until the next time Microsoft releases a new operating system version for my phone.

I must say after using WP7.5 and iOS for about a month I rather like Windows phone and I actually find myself using it in preference to my iPhone. Some aspects of WP7.5 are a bit weird like the office calendar sync but for twitter, Facebook and email I far prefer it to ios.

[Hands0n]

I've been running the WP7.5 Jil Sander alongside the iOS5 and Android 4.0.1 - as much as possible I am deferring to the Jil, only returning to either of the other two where I have no other way to achieve what I'm trying to do, or where I need more familiar territory. What I have found is that the People app (the amalgamation of social messaging) is quirky in places, has some weaknesses, but perhaps the biggest spoiler is the polling nature of the app, no realtime Twitter, Facebook etc. This is a poor substitute for life in iOS (near real time) and Android.

Some early annoyances

Cannot update or install apps from, although can browse, Windows Marketplace over 3G (insists on using WiFi!)
Ditto Chat and Chat Status, must be in WiFi
People (contacts) imported from the Google and other accounts truncate mobile numbers and email addresses, some odd choices made as to which to populate the list with! I've had to manually edit quite a few.


WP7.5 is proving to be a difficult child to like, although I do have a continued fondness of it since the first hands on 12 months ago when it was even yukkier.

[blush]

The People contacts app encourages you to enter your Facebook and twitter login info and the app annoyed me so much that I removed the Facebook and twitter login info and have not clicked on People since. I guess the main reason I bought the phone was because it is Nokia, I wouldn't have bought a WP7.5 just for the operating system. The main draw for me is the sturdy hardware design. I used to think the screen in the iPhone was an ideal size but now the slightly bigger screen of the Lumia 800 makes me want to use it instead of the 4S. My ideal device would be ios on Nokia hardware. The battery life is not acceptable on the Lumia 800 yet though, most days mine is ready to die by 3pm.

[hecatae]

Have you heard of #smokedbywindowsphone

Have you won the competition, and then lost "just because"

The following article leaves a bad taste in my mouth: http://skattertech.com/2012/03/i-won-the-windows-phone-challenge-but-lost-just-because/

[miffed]

LOL !! So the task picked "Just happened" to be something that had been user pre-configured on the MS device , that stinks ! , then by luck the Android device is also (by chance) ready for the challenge - so MS resort to denial , then making petty excuses ! That's pretty sad !!

[Ben]

What an absolutely pathetic competition anyway. The whole nature of the thing worries me.

And someone owes this guy a laptop.

[Wilt]

Damage limitation in effect... http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903250/microsoft-smoked-by-windows-phone-apology-sasha-katta

[phil8715]

I've had iPhone, Android, Blackberry and WP7.5, I must admit I love my Nokia Lumia 710, It's on a par with the iPhone 4 or possibly the iPhone 4S. My only beef is that unlike Android theres no live tile for battery meters, or battery meters in general.

[Hands0n]

What a dreadful tale of Microsoft shenanigans.

@phil8715, there are battery meters tucked away in the Diagnostics app. In case you don't know go to the dialler and hit up ##634# - the first time you do this it will install the Diagnostics, after that you can find it on the list of apps. In there are two modes that show the battery state. HTH

Of course, its not a Live Tile or other such display.

[Ben]

I've had iPhone, Android, Blackberry and WP7.5, I must admit I love my Nokia Lumia 710, It's on a par with the iPhone 4 or possibly the iPhone 4S. My only beef is that unlike Android theres no live tile for battery meters, or battery meters in general.
Sorry, no way I can let that one pass without swinging at it. I haven't had a Lumia 710, but the 800 had me running for the 3GS where iOS 5.1 offered a vastly superior experience to Windows Phone.

I can imagine that a degree of personal preference could cause the Lumia 710 to be declared better than a 3GS or even iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S is just too far on another planned to be declared even 'possibly' on a par with any Nokia or any Windows Phone handset currently on the market. Just saying ;)

Glad to see MS have come to their senses re: this 'competition' incident, but I hope they take a close look at the whole concept (and conclude that it's utterly dire).

[Wilt]

The smoked by windows phone challenge was really good at CES - it was filmed each time and usually had a large crowd which prevented this sort of issue. However it obviously doesn't work well when put into stores and is run by different staff members. Especially if they're under pressure to make sure WP doesn't lose.

Re: iOS on a 3GS being better than WP on the lumia 800 - are you sure that just isn't familiarity with iOS speaking? While I don't have more than about ten minutes of experience with WP, I do have lots with iOS, Android and webOS. iOS is the one that often causes me the most problems - unless you know how to do something it is incredibly unintuitive. I mean, just look at that settings screen, it's all over the place.

No doubt you're correct about the 4S being better - but I am inclined to believe that is purely down to the hardware and established ecosystem, rather than anything special in iOS itself.

Obviously, as I said I've only had a play around with WP so it could be really that bad and make me completely wrong here. Very bad news for Nokia and Microsoft if it is, though.

[Ben]

Yeah, as I said, a degree of personal preference has to be accounted for. It's just the 4S that I don't think can possibly be called 'on a par'.

You really find iOS unintuitive? Isn't it sort-of infamous for being so intuitive? Ok, yes, Settings aside, but you can give an iPad to a child and it'll instinctively know what to do, and you can even give an iPhone to my mum and she'll be able to use it first-time. As I noted in my Lumia 800 review, this was not the same story for Windows Phone. Endearing once you've learnt it maybe, but completely on another planet.

[Wilt]

I think it was intuitive to start with, however, over time as things have been added it has become less so. A little bit of anecdotal evidence here, I recently changed my apple ID email address and, if I am remembering correctly, there were three different places I needed to enter my new email address. iTunes, iCloud and Gamecentre. Surely those should be all linked together? Or better yet, update automatically when I changed it on the Apple website.

The basic stuff, yeah iOS has got it down - it pioneered many of the basic multi-touch gestures we take for granted today, but once you move past pinching to zoom and try to do anything a bit more advanced it can often just end up being confusing. Perhaps that is the price that needs to be paid to get the initial 'just turn it on' simplicity, but I don't think it would take too much effort to tidy some of this stuff up.

[Ben]

it pioneered many of the basic multi-touch gestures we take for granted today
This might be where the Windows Phone experience went a bit wrong. There seemed to be quite a heavy reliance on the touch buttons for getting around, and things didn't swipe or respond in the way I expected them to. By contrast, even Android feels more natural.

I do agree that iOS needs some tidying up - a lot has been added to it since its inception, bringing with it some unwelcome complexities the deeper you delve.

[Hands0n]

I have now been using the Nokia Lumia 800 for several weeks. Last week I hooked it up to my work's Microsoft Exchange server for eMail and Calendar (not Contacts or Tasks) to go along with using Outlook on my desktop PC. The actual set up of the eMail account was a piece of cake. Giving it my eMail address and password the WP7 found my exchange server and did all of the necessary "stuff" to connect securely. The only thing that it insisted on was a screen lock PIN which I was quite happy enough with.

In terms of intuitiveness, I have to say that WP7 has taken some learning to use the UI and OS. It is not as intuitive as iOS and Android have been. Even WebOS was more intuitive (Palm 2 Plus) than WP7 on either the Nokia (710 and 800) and Jil Sander (LG E906, a lovely little phone by the way). In fact, I had to consult the web quite a few times to learn how to do things. That said, once learned the OS itself is quite powerful and there are some really nice built-in features around social messaging that is native to WP7. Of course, there are third party apps to do the same things, and so I find myself flipping from native to third party and back again.

Am I now hooked on WP7? No, not really. I still feel it is something of a basket case of an OS. It tries to be so many things and fails to be many of them. Yet underpinning this state of near-disaster are quite a few really neat features. But it is a darned sight better than the firm's Nokia 6310 that they've got me using - and so I'll persist for a lot longer, especially as I now have my Quidco rebate confirmed at £50 which means my T-Mobile SIM (300 mins, unlimited text, 750MB Internet) is costing me £3.85 a month. I can handle that.

[Ben]

That said, once learned the OS itself is quite powerful and there are some really nice built-in features around social messaging that is native to WP7. Of course, there are third party apps to do the same things, and so I find myself flipping from native to third party and back again.
Yes, this is a bit of a conundrum isn't it. There's basically People, Me, and then the dedicated apps like Facebook and Twitter all vying for the user's attention. Far from centralising the social experience, Windows Phone seems to have somewhat fragmented it. There's greatness mixed in there, but it's as if someone imagined a concept and then a dozen or so other people diluted it.