Does Windows Phone 8 Have A Future
So Does it? There are 4 main competitors in the market, Google, Apple, RIM, and Microsoft. Each company having their own philosophy on how a phone should operate and accomplish the same goal. Google’s Android is open and extremely customizable, while Apple’s iOS attempts to keep their system locked down with, in my opinion, not much innovation. Then there are the once phone giants RIM still chugging along with their Blackberry devices and Microsoft with its non-stop advertisements for Windows Phone 8. It’s very clear that Android and iOS are the front runners and its highly unlikely that Blackberry or WP8 will ever catch up in market share to either company. If anything its more likely that WP8 catches iOS in market share within the US, but not globally. So where does WP8 fit in? What do they have to get users to switch? More importantly what do they have to make users stay and not switch back?
While I am a huge android fanatic, mainly because of how customizable it is and all the different form factors it comes in, I think WP8 could be a good competitor to android in the future. Why? Because while android is open and applications can be made to make it compatible with any operating system, WP8 fits in nicely with Windows 8. If you grab the new Windows RT its practically like me taking my current Windows Laptop with me but with the ability to give it the portability as my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. All of my documents are easily accessed on the go. This isn’t a need as you can run office on android tablets; this is just a convenience of not having to switch platforms. Everything is unified. For businesses I think this is where Microsoft can win.
Getting users to switch isn’t as hard as getting them to stay. I’ve had a few friends make the plunge and not long after either go back to their old device or get a new one. The main reason for this is Apps! WP8 doesn’t have as many apps as android or iOS. Users like to have choices in picking how to use twitter or Facebook. It’s not just that though. They also want to be able to partake in apps their friends are using like instagram. And usually if there is an app on WP8 that’s also on android or iOS, then it isn’t up to par with the other apps. So getting users to stay on WP8 will be the biggest challenge for Microsoft.
What is your opinion on WP8? I personally like it. The live tiles make getting information quick, kind of like flipboard or blinkfeed. I’m still AndroidNurd and I won’t be switching, but what are your thoughts on the subject?
It's My Box 