Ups and downs of Windows Phone: an inside view

I began to develop mobile applications for Windows Phone even before the official release of this platform, and now I can say without slyness that this is a convenient modern system that is technically not inferior, and sometimes exceeds the capabilities of other mobile operating systems. I am Microsoft Windows Phone Most Valuable Professional, my company specializes in the development of Windows Phone and Windows 8 applications, and the audience of the applications we have already created is estimated at millions. Microsoft and Nokia have done a great job to make Windows Phone popular in the world. Somewhere it was possible, somewhere not very. In some countries, the share of Windows Phone exceeds 10%, somewhere it was at the level of 0.8%. I thought and believe that Microsoft has done and is doing very much to popularize its platform, but there are still some gaps in the approach and marketing. That's about it and talk.

Copy, paste

Those who are familiar with various aspects of working with Windows Phone, agree that the overall concept was copied (borrowed) from Apple. There is nothing bad about it, especially since at the time of the design and development of Windows Phone, Apple was the leading company in the mobile world. Naturally, Microsoft changed something, added something, simplified something, but, in general, everything was copied from Apple (but in fairness it’s necessary to add that Microsoft set the fashion for a flat design). Microsoft copied even something for which Apple was strongly scolded - first of all, for being closed, as well as the inability to customize the device for themselves.
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The initial version of Windows Phone had a lot of “children's problems”, which over time were fixed, but still. Then, users faced a more serious problem: background applications worked poorly from their hands (symbolically, the Skype messenger acquired by Microsoft was the one that suffered the most). Until now, third-party applications that require work in the background, can not boast of 100% stability. The updates, which were released by Microsoft, were, in many ways, purely cosmetic, their update stretched for months, and the inability to upgrade from 7.5 to 8.0 was taken by many users to heart to heart.

The conclusion that can be made here: you can copy, but for success a copy must be at least as good as the original.

Consumer or corporate customer?

It is no secret to anyone that Microsoft core products are designed for the corporate sector. The first versions of Windows Phone could not be used in the corporate sector, but Microsoft persistently tried to prove to its customers that the lack of a VPN is not a problem. Corporatists didn’t think so, that’s why some kind of cognitive dissonance in promotion and positioning turned out. Realizing its mistake, Microsoft very quickly began to conduct a consumer advertising campaign, explain the advantages and distinctive features of its operating system, focus on photos, video and multimedia on the capabilities of the platform and we can say that it worked - sales went.

But, as it seems to me, Microsoft itself did not fully believe that it had created a really good mass product that can be sold by millions. Microsoft continued to spray and flirt with the corporate sector. The result - users did not believe that Microsoft had become a real consumer company, and the corporate sector was still not in a hurry to change its iPhones to Microsoft promises.

To date, Microsoft has added almost all the capabilities necessary for the corporate segment, so I predict a new round of confrontation consumer vs. corporate sector. Be that as it may, this standoff has a very bad effect on ordinary developers.

Developers

The development of Windows Phone took place against the backdrop of Microsoft’s sharp rejection of Silverlight technology and the transition to HTML5. The message to the developers was this: if you know Silverlight, you can easily write applications for Windows Phone. The company did not consider one thing: Silverlight is the web, and Windows Phone is the mobile. The developers have understood this message as follows: it is necessary to go to the mobile. But it so happened that the transition Silverlight (web) -> Silverlight (mobile) lost the prospect of transitions Silverlight -> iOS or Silverlight -> Android. Naturally, against the background of dissatisfaction of these very developers with Microsoft policy. By the way, for the same reason, many left with .NET / Silverlight in HTML5 / JavaScript / Node.js, etc.

But even this could not hit the Microsoft positions very strongly, if not another “ingenious” solution: instead of focusing on indie developers for whom Windows Phone is the first and only platform, Microsoft began to “tinker” iOS / Android / facebook / vk developers to port their applications to Windows Phone. The latter did it reluctantly and then under the pressure of generous bonuses. As a result, the official applications of popular services turned out terrible, came out with a lot of bugs, and after a while the developers of popular services and applications for iOS / Android began, in fact, to blackmail Microsoft without releasing Windows Phone clients without generous “tips”.

To understand the scale of the tragedy, you need to see the presentation of Apple and Microsoft. Apple from its scene shows the development of indie developers (remember the application - the button accordion?), And Microsoft - boasts that Windows Phone has Facebook, Twitter and Yandex.Maps. All Microsoft presentations related to the demonstration of applications are applications of partners and well-known brands (often customers to popular online services for which the Windows Phone application is another way to master Microsoft's marketing budgets).

Thus, Microsoft made it clear to everyone that the main value for it is its partners, and not indie developers. Unlike Apple, which arranges the genocide in the AppStore to everyone, despite the "star" and fame of the publisher.

The second problem in positioning is the thesis “90% of all popular iOS / Android applications are ported to Windows Phone.” This, of course, is not bad, but if you ask what unique applications are available specifically on Windows Phone, but not available on iOS / Android, the answers will not be very convincing. A side effect of this can be observed in the app store. If you open the top paid or free applications, then on the first ten positions we will see applications from Microsoft, Nokia, global and local brands (Facebook, Vkontakte, Yandex) and only then applications from indie developers. Taking into account the fact that vendors have a separate category (for example, Nokia Collection), the presence of eight applications from Nokia in the top ten in the “photos” category looks like a mockery of developers.

The same is happening in the category of "games". In the top 30 there are only 1-2 apps without Xbox Live status. This status can be obtained only by well-known publishers (Chillingo, Game Insight), and indie developers can be said that 99.99% of the cases are closed. And even the presence of popular games does not give the right to get the coveted status, and therefore, help in marketing and promoting from Microsoft and large sums in the account.

Well, one small detail, but which is very much "angry" with the Microsoft community - some Microsoft applications go first to iOS / Android, and only then to Windows Phone. This causes misunderstanding on the part of the Windows Phone community and gives a (fair) ridicule from Microsoft haters.

Nokia

The presence of one partner scared off other vendors - for today the share of Nokia smartphones is about 85%. Despite the strategic partnership before the purchase of Nokia, these were two companies, which means that decision-making processes were slow and not always timely. Now, after buying Nokia, there is hope that things will change for the better.

The second problem related to Nokia is its low popularity in the USA, Japan, China - traditionally solvent markets. The emphasis on low-end phones and the prestige of Nokia in Latin America and Europe gave their result, but now this trump card has already been played and we need to figure out how to enter new markets.

Chef, it's all gone!

Only frank Microsoft haters and people who have never managed a company, especially large ones, can say that.

There are several important things to know about Microsoft:

• corporate thinking is difficult to overcome in a couple of years, especially such a "monster" as Microsoft;
• Microsoft is doing well in existing markets (remember at least the Xbox);
• Microsoft’s overall situation is very, very good;
• Sooner or later, many users and companies will begin the transition to Windows 8 or Windows vNext (whether they want it or not), and the unification of Windows Phone and Windows 8 will still play its (positive) role in the future;
• Android and iOS users will sooner or later want to try something new and this may become something Windows Phone.

So, what is next?

After watching yesterday's Apple presentation, where the Health Center, Family Share, etc. were announced. (by the way, this article was written before the announcement of Apple and has no connection with it), you understand that Apple feels good trends (and sets them).

The problem with Windows Phone is the lack of some sort of “trick” tied to a certain area - for example, iTunes U for students or medicine, where the iPad has become, in fact, the de facto standard. Such a chip for Microsoft is Office, but again, most consumers do not need an office on the phone. The second bid is a good camera, in principle, is a good and successful attempt, but on the other hand all the flaws of photos taken on iPhone / Android devices are easily compensated by Instagram filters, and professional photographers will not throw out their SLRs anyway.

In general, Microsoft had to start with developing standard solutions for various types of business - for example, develop a good control for displaying books and HTML data, provide a convenient mechanism for selling electronic magazines / books (at least go on the principle of the same "Kiosk"), so that developers would invent new services around this, and not played with the implementation of the next epub reader and did not produce terrible news of the same type, made on the basis of a conventional web browser. Or go on the path of buying profile startups, as well as integrating popular services (the correctness of this approach is illustrated by Bing, based on which Apple Siri and Spotlight work, and who can do everything the same as Shazam). Instead, Microsoft makes App Studio to fill the store with low-quality applications.

Whatever it was, Windows Phone 8.1 (and integration with Windows 8) is a huge step forward, the number of Windows 8 devices is increasing at a tremendous pace, after the end of the Windows XP support period, the share of Windows 8 is growing and is already reaching impressive sizes; (integration with cloud services, partnership with Xamarin, development of corporate chips, partnerships with a large number of vendors and service providers).

In general, through trial and error, Microsoft gained new experience, the first hundred million users and a good foundation for the future. We will see how the corporation uses this potential.

Thanks for attention!