Windows Phone View: Part 2 (Eco Matters)
A lot is made in tech blogs about how users are buying into an ecosystem not just the phone. This is true and grows truer with each passing day. The thing is that ignoring trends is never good. Yes the Windows Phone ecosystem needs to mature but the same needed to be said about Apple’s and Android’s. Sure things were different when the iPhone launched and slightly less so when Android began its ascent in market share. There is no doubt Windows Phone has a steep challenge but please don’t pretend like the task is insurmountable. The growing installed user base, the continued rising app count and the already present strong ecosystem can and should lead Windows Phone to new heights.
Growing User Base
Ten million-This is the magic number most large developers look at to decide a platform is worthy of their time. With each passing day Windows Phone gets closer to this magic number. With a strong marketing push there is no reason to think this number will not rise and rise quicker than at any point since the launch of the WP7 platform. Each new handset that gets sold is an opportunity for network marketing. By this I mean that each new Windows Phone handset sold into the wild gets viewed by a person’s network. Its free advertising. How else do you think iPhone’s got so popular? A beautiful phone added on top of a solid user satisfaction rating and recommendation leads to residual sales.
Apps-A-Plenty
Here’s a dirty little secret nobody wants to mention anymore. Both the iPhone and Android are built on the strength of “off brand” apps. You know the ones, games like Angry Birds, Words With Friends, Instagram, etc” the apps & games that were not exactly a household name until they became, well, a household name. So it tickles me when Android and iOS users rag on Windows Phone for simply doing the same. Lost in all the smoke blowing is the fact the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace app count continues to increase sharply. There is little evidence of an impending slowdown. I remember 9 months ago there was a lull in the app submission and stories were flooding the tech blogosphere about how that was evidence that devs had already given up on the platform. Needless to say history has shown this to be quite erroneous. We know there are officially at least 70,000 apps in the Marketplace though not all apps are available in every region. Some sites have recently posted the number to exceed 80,000 but I much prefer going with the lower number to be safe.
Netflix, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Ebay, ESPN ScoreCenter, Skype are all present and accounted for. There has not been a single time in the last six months that i’ve needed my phone to do something and there wasn’t a solid app to meet the need. Yes the official YouTube app blows but YouTube Pro rocks. Third party apps are the lifeblood of all platforms so who are we to dismiss one if it has the functionality you’re looking for but not the name. Where would we be as a society if we all thought like that? Elitist pricks. Instagram is cool but you know what its not exactly the filters that make it the hit, it’s the social part. When you post to Facebook using Instagram people could care less that it is an instagram photo they just think the photo is cool.
Before people on iOS and Android got Cocktail Flow guess it was stunning everyone on Windows Phone 7. Whats the best new time waster I play? Wordament which not only has turned into a Xbox Live title but will be a featured app in Windows 8. When Windows 8 is released guess what will become one of the must have games for your platform? Wordament!
Yes there are horrible apps on the market, bad & buggy Twitter apps and even Xbox Live titles that inexcusably have not been updated to support fast app switching and other Mango features. Please just don’t pretend like the problem is exclusive to Windows Phone. I chuckle everyday as my wife gets frustrated with her beloved iPhone.
Enhanced Ecosystem
People like to dismiss Microsoft services but the fact is that hundreds of millions of users utilize their services on a daily, almost essential basis. If you own an Xbox 360 and want to have some nice integration grab the Xbox Companion app from the marketplace. Before there were the cute iCloud commercials Windows Phone offered the ability to sync Microsoft Office files across devices. Whenever my wife, who is a dancer and choreographer, needs a song for a performance I simply grab the song in the Zune Marketplace. There are a nice selection of apps and games to boot.
Yes an ecosystem is much more than just services. A strong ecosystem includes accessories. This is indeed where Windows Phone is lacking but Nokia is changing that by offering their own line of accessories, HTC has a dock for the Titan too. This is the one area where Apple is clearly dominant. Microsoft needs to do something about this and fast. Just like the partnership with Nokia has produced stunningly beautiful hardware they should seek out an accessory partner. There is just something about having accessories that have been crafted with your phone in mind. Get with Case Mate and somebody like JBL to produce a line that will deliver.
Conclusion
It feels very much like a territorial animal protecting its turf. People seemingly have been waiting a long time for Microsoft to fail and fail hard. Its not going to happen, not anytime soon anyway. Mobile is the key play and its not like Microsoft will give up on the market. Microsoft is doing as much as they can to get the app count ramped up, they are prepared to forge ahead without some developer holdouts (I’m looking at you Pandora) and market competing apps. In the year ahead people need to realize having Microsoft backing you as a dev is huge. Windows 8 is coming and I’d much rather be in position to get prime marketing real estate in the Microsoft ecosystem than not. I’m listening to iHeartRadio more and more. Pandora is a thing of non-consequence to me and might serve as an example of how fast something can fall out of favor. Anybody still active on MySpace? The ecosystem continues to improve and the hardware is being taken up a notch. What’s not to like about that?
Its okay to disagree with me just don’t be disagreeable.
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I was a pretty early Pandora adopter. I even had it on my TouchPro (thanks, xda…) I’ve used it ONCE in the last year, however. Not having a WP7 app is a big part of that. Even if they should get a Pandora app, I doubt I’d use it much.
The whole app argument is getting old. According to ComScore, one of those services that we rely on for accurate data, more than half of all US smartphone users (that’s about 52 million) have never downloaded or used an app. Only about a third of all US Smartphone users have accesed a social site or played games on their phone, leaving about 67 million users without the immediate, deal breaking, need to access these types of apps. You know, apps like; Instagram, Angry Birds and Words with Friends.
Personally I couldn’t care less about these brands/developers who turn their back on my OS of choice. But until they do get their heads out of the sand, and they will, there are plenty of current and future Smartphone users who would thoroughly enjoy using a Windows Phone if they got a chance to play with one. heck, they might even find an app in the less cluttered Marketplace.
Why don’t the reviewers, who are obviously a part of the third (the minority) who find apps important make that clear. It’s like a Car magazine reviewer telling their readers NOT to buy a; Ford, Lexus, Toyota, VW, Chrysler, Nissan, Acura, Hyundai, etc. because it does not come with OnStar. Great service btw, but not the end all app.
@Jim-Both my mom and my sister have android phones and neither gave more than 5 apps installed. In fact besides Facebook the rest is all games.
@MartiM-Its funny because clearly other apps and even Nokia are taking steps to be a more full feature solution to Pandora. Yes at this point many people have learned to not really miss it.
New smartphone users will look at the marketplace and think “wow there are a crap load of apps and games.”
I’d like to also point out that the very best apps on Windows Phone can go head up with any other platform’s best apps and not falter.
I think that the “Our future is a unified ecosystem” image above says it all. Is there anything out there, that can match the Windows-bing-live-xbox-phone-office-zune-skype-skydrive combo from a consumer point of view? I think not! (And don’t forget Azure and .NET from the developers POI – unbeatable!)
I’m definitely no MSFT fanboy. I think I have real clear eyes when it comes to seeing exactly what they are up to. Who else here is a console gaming nerd? I am! And I have been, ever since my big brother brought home a Nintendo Entertainment System some day in 1987. I’ve also been a Nintendo fan since then. I saw plenty of consoles and ecosystems rise and fall … years after the beloved SEGA failed in the hardware market, we (Sony and Nintendo fans) laughed at Microsoft for being so foolish as to think they could come in and make money. Especially as they focused on FPS games and not RPGs, the bread and butter of console gaming which enticed the Japanese hardcore gamers, and where we “knew” all others followed.
We laughed as they lost hundreds of millions of dollars, made stupid rookie mistakes at game shows, and barely made a dent in the Japanese market for over half a decade. We saw leadership changes, and missteps, and RRODs … but we also saw MSFT Just . Keep . Coming. Their tenacity shocked everyone. Who knew that Kinect on XBox 360 would one day be the premier gaming system in the U.S., in mindshare as well as sales? I don’t own one, and I don’t begrudge MSFT their success. But I know how furiously this company can fight. For the long haul. While being ridiculed and laughed at by opponents the whole way. Until one day … they’re eating your damn lunch. MSFT has money to burn, friends.
They KNOW, all their top guys know, that mobile is the most important computing market for the next several decades at least. Why would a company that dominated the desktop market for 30 years lie down and let Apple/Google own this market? This will be a long, long fight. 2007-2011, reign of the iPhone? Who will even remember it in 2020? That’s the game Microsoft is playing, low and slow. The Lumia 900 and Windows 8 / WP8 are a pale shadow of what they have planned, and I believe they have the tenacity to see it through, no matter the cost. Just you wait!
I don’t know why you even care about a Pandora app. Just like many things in the Windows Marketplace, if a company is unwilling to make a decent app for their service then someone else will. I’ve been using Radio Controlled to get Pandora on my phone and now I could care less if Pandora makes an official app or not. I just don’t understand why Pandora or any other company would rather have someone else collect money for an app they could easily make themselves. :/
I’ve been meaning to share this observation, but the mention above triggered it:
Anyone else seeing a massive growth in the number of people logged into Wordament?
Games that used to have 120 and 200 players (based on time of day) now have 350 and 500 players. I saw it come close to 600 worldwide.
Just sayin’…
@Ike: In fact I have noticed that about Wordament. When Windows 8 launches it’ll get even crazier. My scores have almost doubled but it’s way tougher to crack the top 20.
This may in fact be the worst idea MSFT has ever had. Too little, too late. If someone wants to see something expensive that will lose more than it will gain, this is it. For Android we have Documents to Go, Quick Office, Olive Office, Kingsoft Office, Think Free Office, Office Suite Pro 6, and the list goes on. Then on the iOS side we have Quick Office, Documents to Go, iWork, and the list goes on there too. So what exactly is it that MSFT is going to bring to the table, other than a name? Once again, too little, too late. They should have gotten into this from the start if they were really serious about it.