From Andy's article on his OneStopTech blog:
...I often chat with my techie friends about the state of Windows Phone and I am often asked why I am still so staunchly ‘for’ it, despite the platform having some serious problems right now. I concede that Windows Phone needs some serious help in the app department, but when I say that, I’m speaking on behalf of the many mobile users out there and not really for me, personally. I can live quite happily without some of the big-name, popular apps right now, but I know many simply could not. For them, switching away from either their Androids or their iPhones would make them just miserable because they rely –on a daily basis – on the very apps that are missing from Windows Phone.
It’s easy for geekanoids like myself to scoff and roll my eyes at the mention of ‘Snapchat’, but to a lot of people, that app is almost becoming their main social media platform. And even if it isn’t a huge deal to people every day, a massive number of phone users would be unhappy to ‘settle’ for a platform that lacks it, because, quite simply, friends like to share experiences together, however asinine, because that’s where fun usually lives. The only time I’ve hankered after Snapchat is when I was visiting a summer camp I used to work at full-time, and all of the adults who were working (and living) with me were constantly chuckling at various Snapchat photos that were going around. This Windows Phone user felt somewhat excluded from all the hilarity. “Hey, Andy, why aren’t you on this, it’s hil-ar-ious!” they said to me as I tried ever-so hard to join in with the laughs. Hmm. Telling them that Snapchat wasn’t on my choice of platform was met with sheer bewilderment at both the possibility of Snapchat not being available for somebody toting a smartphone, and also that I seemed to be ok with that. Which I am, but clearly, not 100% of the time.
For others (those who are in the dating game) apps such as ‘Grindr’ and ‘Hinge’ are all they use all day long. However there is the excellent “6Tin” version of the extremely popular ‘Tinder’ dating app for Windows Phone. And then there are those apps that you may find extremely useful for time to time, like ‘Seamless’ for ordering food, or the new eBay-style app ‘Close 5’, or a store app like ‘Bed Bath and Beyond’ or ‘Fresh Direct’ or ‘Target’ or ‘Walmart’. There are new apps being advertised on the New York subway such as ‘Wanderu’ for cheap bus tickets, ‘Task Rabbit’ for those who need helps with their everyday chores, and ‘MiniBar’ for those who absolutely, positively must have booze delivered at their home or office at a convenient time.
Some companies do take the time, and when you see the “Download from the Windows Phone Store” badge on posters or on websites, it almost shocks you. Hobby Lobby (the crafts store) is one such company that seems to be brave enough to offer their app on all three major platforms.
I have to agree - much as I'm quite happy with the third party applications available on the platform (I only actually use around 10 day to day), the average smartphone user is much more mainstream and likely to demand Snapchat or Tindr, etc. Especially as a lot of the existing devices are centred at the low end, appealing to teenagers, who are prone to gravitate to 'hip' new apps - or at least the services that their parents aren't on!
Andy concludes:
Recently on the ‘Phones Show Chat’ podcast, the venerable Richard Yates talked about how flawed the Nokia acquisition was by Microsoft, and how it was, in fact, a purchase of “an idea” rather than anything they were going to actually make any decent money out of. He pointed out that, if Project Astoria were to be a success, then what you would end up with is a Lumia phone running Windows but with Android apps shoved on top, which isn’t exactly that far off the whole idea behind the Nokia “X” range of phones that appeared a year ago. The Nokia X certainly appeared to resemble a Windows Phone UI, and yet with some tinkering could not only accept Android apps from the Amazon and Yandex Android stores, but could also allow Google Play services as well. With Project Astoria (and Islandwood) on the horizon, one could argue that instead of investing more heavily in their own Windows Phone platform and making it easier for developers to code native Windows Phone apps, they are actually using an idea (that they have, essentially, now purchased) to try and solve their problem.
It remains to be seen if Microsoft can execute the next big step in their Windows 10 strategy as well as they did with the desktop side of things. I for one hope they can, and I hope they market it with creative and ubiquitous advertising to allow Windows 10 Mobile to seep into the average consumer’s conscience, so that they might choose one of the new Lumia devices over a possible iPhone 6s at Christmas time. It seems like it could be a long-shot, but stranger things have happened. And if not the consumer, well then, the developer. Because apps is what is needed for Windows right now and we’re not going to get it on Windows Phone 8.1. The platform is essentially tombstoned at this point. Windows 10 needs to come to mobile in a way that excites people, and then it will have a chance of success. I hope Microsoft can pull it off. We shall wait and see.
You can read the whole article here.
'Tombstoned' is harsh but fair - and somewhat ironic given the workings of Windows Phone's multitasking! And I'd not heard the comparison between the abortive Nokia X project and 'Astoria' before, but you have to wonder how much of the work from the former has been able to be reused in the latter.
Comments welcome from the Twilight Zone!