WP7 Consumer Experience
I was cruising the WP7 scene on XDA and came across this comment by Croak, who went from an Android phone to the HTC Surround, in the WP7 Tips and Tricks thread. I found it astonishing and want to run it by you:
1. Buy a Windows Phone 7 device on launch day
2. Discover you can’t connect to either your work or home WiFi networks because they are hidden.
3. Discover you can’t install Zune x64 software on your work Vista machine without the installer crashing.
4. Discover that the colors on the Surround are waaaay off, red looks like orange, orange looks like yellow.
5. Discover that you can’t read more than 4 email headers without scrolling.
6. Discover there is no way to reduce the text size in the email applications.
7. Discover that you can’t use the device as portable storage.
8. Discover that when you do get Zune installed at home, your LiveID from the US won’t work while you’re in Canada.
9. Discover that the market is driven from the X360 points system, and that your confused country status won’t even let you purchase points with a credit card.
10. Discover that the points thing is not really an issue, since there’s nothing in the market worth paying for anyway.
11. Discover that your fancy speaker-slider phone with kickstand has no landscape menu system when in the Zune media player.
12. Discover that while the front panel of the HTC Surround is aluminum, it does not survive being hurled at a brick wall in frustration.
Is any of that true? J/w… >:)
Doug Simmons
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
DavidK: So the typical tech-news reading guy thinking about getting a WP7 phone and does should have already known that he wouldn’t be able to connect to his office’s wireless network because of some wifi security thing? Really? Not only do I read the tech sites, I write for one and I didn’t know that.
Regarding whose issue it is, Microsoft’s or HTC’s, you may recall having written more times than either of us could count how Microsoft created a rulebook for the OEMs that they had to follow in order to get WP7 on their device. This kind of quality control, in my mind, makes it a Microsoft issue too in terms of who failed.
Johnny: I hear where you’re coming from but at least four or five of those are pretty significant and surprising to discover couldn’t straighten out after all this time.
one person having a bad experience is not a generalization for everyone that purchases it. Maybe you should have waited till you had a larger pool of very dissatisfied purchasers as this one guy is before making sweeping generalizations, if that happens. That is all.
most of the groups are user error or stupidity or hardware issues that are HTCs. The color issues, for example aren’t WP7 – it’s HTC. This whole thing about hidden wifi networks – this isn’t news. It was news a month ago when the initial WP7 reviews came out and they all noted this but anyone who reads enough tech news and wanted to buy WP7 should have known this. Same with mass storage- you ahve a freaking cloud – use it. #Userfail
I must have missed the generalization, he is asking if any of the Mobility Digest readers have had the same or similar complaints. If your happy say so, if not, then say so, I don’t’ read any comments from Doug either way
Thanks Doug Simmons. Your articles and comments have compelled me unsubscribe my mobilitydigest feed.
>Maybe you should have waited till you had a larger pool
That’s laughable. Simmons is just a troll who happens to be a main poster. The idea that he would do anything like you describe – ie reasonable, smart, fair, etc. Is a joke. You can find just as many posts of frustration with android in the same forums. The fact that this moron supposedly can’t control himself and start throwing things around like a three year old says way more about him than it does wp7. The funny thing is, I have an galaxy s but simmons is just an embarrassment to tech writers everywhere.
>This kind of quality control, in my mind, makes it a Microsoft issue too in terms of who failed.
Absurd. The logic is that if you make no effort to tighten restrictions than you aren’t responsible for poor hardware. Truly amazing leap into circular logic and stupidity.
>, I write for one
Yes but see, you suck at it.
You know who sucks at something? Microsoft copying Apple’s carrier and hardware uniformity strategy (among other things), try as they might.
Rock on Simmons! That’s one unsubscription declaration today by my count!
Fruits.
I’ve had my phone for 24+ hours now and I have to say, I love it! Not being able to connect to a hidden network isn’t a big deal since my work and home network SSIDs aren’t hidden. And if this guys work IT guy has hidden there SSID then he should be fired for not knowing how the 802.11 network should function. Here’s an interesting tidbit for you, our wireless network (which isn’t hidden) uses domain certificate authentication. Guess who can connect to that out of the box?….Three guesses, two are right and one is wrong….Sorry android, your not invited to this party!
Not sure what this guy is talkin about with points system since the entire market is using cash now. Every app and game I’ve bought (there are some good ones, and a few bad ones, but I guarantee android and iOS have their fair share of crap apps too) I paid money, not points for.
I’ve had two iphones, a 3G and 4, both were returned. Wife has a captivate and this is a beautiful phone, just wish Samsung would move along with that froyo update! And now I have the focus. I bought the focus, because the surround is crap in my opinion. Now if they could have included a slider qwerty on the other side, then they would have had a competitor. But nothing beats the Super AMOLED display!
@Doug Simmons:
Doug,
You really need to get a life, The hate you have for M$ is just pouring out is every post you make, or is just the need to be rite? How do expect people to take you serously, you just become laughable after a bit. In any case if try to take a more objective route in lue of trashing M$ in every post you might get a few more bites.
If we have any comon sense, we should expect the bashing and the na sayers from the opersite camp to be all over WP7 picking at every issue. We should consider it a compliment as they consider the OS a real threat.
On that note, I am still waiting for my focus to arrive, it is expected tomorrow or Thrusday. Good news is if it is a device issue, I can choose another( last check we have 6 or 7 devices). If it is a OS, I expect M$ to come out with a patch fast as they have a lot riding on this one. I have been around the block a few times with Plam II,III, Philip Nino, Ipaqs, Tosh 750’s and so on. There are always going to be issue, the question is are they deal breakers.
For now I am just going to enjoy the ride.
@who dis?!: How many carriers in the U.S. carry the iphone? And having MS drive some of the hardware requirements is still better then no requirements at all.
Paul Thurrot discussed the Hidden Wifi thing like two or three months ago.
It’s seriously not news.
I guess thats part of the rub with WP7 at the moment. It’s been said many times that WP7 is intended more for the consumer – “It just works” crowd and not necessarily for the technophiles and phone tweakers (us). But in typical MS fashion, they put out a not quite ready for prime-time OS. Just like they’ve time and time again with PC’s and PPC’s throughout the years. I have no doubt that in time with a couple of service pack type updates, they will eventually get closer to “it just works” but they ain’t there yet.
Now Simmons you’ve stirred the WP7 pot enough for today, don’t you have other things your supposed to be doing 😉
In fairness, not everyone (probably most) who are planning to buy a WP7, are not reading Paul Thurrot regularly (especially given that he can be woefully wrong at times), let alone know who he is.
Some of the criticisms are indeed valid, most of them not dealbreakers, and most of them (that are OS-driven) that I would bet will be addressed via OTA update soon.
Of course, once the critical bugs are fixed and enhancements made, the flamethrowers will elevate the most picayune of niggling WP7 issues as gauntlet issues and/or will figure out some other angle to try to take down MSFT.
Hey Doug.
I always enjoy reading your articles. Keep it coming!
It would surely be boring if all mobile bloggers still were satisfied with WM6. If they did, we wouldn’t have seen the iPhone or Android mobiles. And therefore not WP7.
Microsoft need all the criticism they can get, only to improve and get better. If they don’t get criticized, they tend to sleep when the competition is preparing the next big thing.
So keep up the good work Simmons.
And yes, I picked up my Samsung Omnia 7 on friday and it is the best phone ever… 🙂
Simmons is the most reputable, and by far, the best writter talent wise…on this site.
And this comes from a hardcore WP user. As much as it bothered me to have him turn his back on blownfuze.com and windows, you just have to love the guy. I honestly just scroll through articles in the main page, looking for “by Doug Simmons”.
@Camilo:
How much did you charge Doug for that?
@Joe:
Ditto.
signed, extremely happy Samsung focus owner.
ey simmons porque no se ocupa de los problemitas de android,que es fastante horrible: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/09/rough-edges-cut-deep-android-still-facing-years-old-unlock-scre/
I got mine yesterday, the Samsung i917 focus. I have windows 7 operating system with core i7 920 three SSD in raid 0, I’m not dumb when it comes to computers. This is what I get when trying to connect WP7 to my computer The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28). I have tried everything, no luck. My settings keep going back to default. This phone is driving me nuts. I should just plug it and and it should work, but no such luck.
WERE CAN I GET THE DRIVERS FOR THIS PHONE??????
I have a few contacts, 4 pictures, it won’t let me book mark a web page says oops not enough memory….this is driving me crazy…I don’t have anything on the phone yet WTF is wrong with this phone.
@Oscar:
Just curious, did you find the driver? Also what setting are you talking about?
Settings, ring tone, keeps reverting back to the default. It keeps saying im out of memory to. How on earth could Microsoft release this without the correct drivers. This is insane, im about ready to smash this phone with a hammer.
So my Time Warner Road Runner has been out for two hours and counting. But that ain’t a problem, just plug my system into my phone and hit the tether button (which you could do wirelessly of course), an android 2.2 stock feature or android 2.1 custom. You really appreciate being able to tether when you get jammed up like I would otherwise be now.
Chainfire made WMWifiRouter, the first and best WM (and now, more platforms) tethering program that worked whether your bootloader was still intact with the stock rom, and from time to time it came in handy. I imagine if it would get approval he’d cook up WPWifiRouter and sell that on the MS market, but I just picture Microsoft saying No way. But I could be wrong. That app was truly impressive whether you tethered or not.
I’ll ask Chainfire, whether he will try if he hasn’t already or not or if he’s not going to bother.
@Oscar:
If you are really that unhappy just take it back, why sit here and continue to B%tch and put yourself thru so much pain.
Is it possible that MS pulled back the promotion throttle in anticipation of discovery and reaction to such problems that they already found themselves and others they thought might turn out, using the initial batch of consumers as test subjects?
@Oscar – I assume you installed Zune on your Windows 7 PC (64bit I am guessing), My old XP box w/Zune synced up to my WP7 phone on the first try. Microsoft did make me update to Service Pack 3 first, but that was long overdue.
Regarding your Focus, did you replace/change out the supplied Micro SD card. There have been issues with the device not recognizing low performing cards. My Surround came with 16GB built-in (a card in there somewhere I assume) and I have loaded up about 5.5GB of music, videos and hundreds of photos, without a wimper. Also loaded about 30 apps/games to date. Been using the phone since Monday without powering off and she is still flying.
You either have a phone with a bad card or bad information.
The Samsung Focus has no SD card. I’m trying all the 3 step to re format, I’m not getting anywere. The form at ATT everyone having the same problems with memory.
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Samsung/Samsung-Focus-Soft-Reset-Erases-Data-UPDATE/td-p/2543883/page/4
@Oscar:
Its knid of funny, I recieved my phone last night, synced up fine, followed the steps as specified to add my Sandisk 16GB card and all is working great. My be you have a defective phone?
“O” Doug,
the tethering works great, lets see if they release a front end to it.
Took mine back to ATT store, they said DO NOT add memory to the phone yet. Gave me a new phone, so far it work fine. Having some trouble receiving emails thru windows like. These phone I bet were are for corp with exchange servers.