If Windows Phone Doesn't Make It, This Is Why

[tompkin]

As I write this, on Verizon's main screen is an advertisement for a Galaxy S6. Many will argue the good points and bad points of phones like this. IMHO, this and other phones are quickly not becoming the issue.

 

On another page, in an area called "Internet Devices", a new product has been announced for sale. A new home security device. As you can see from the add, it says that it connects to your smartphone.

 

If you read the fine print, it says that it will connect to the iPhone and Android. Windows Phone is not mentioned. As these new devices hit Best Buy and Amazon, if Windows Phone is not compatible, WP will never make it. Just my opinion.

 

 

[spaceelf]

Devices most people don't want or need is your reason?  Really?  Lack of general support is already well known and this falls under that category, but calling out specific new devices that aren't even as popular as Windows Phone is like...huh?

[theyarecomingforyou]

I wouldn't assume that it's not compatible with WP, it's probably just not mentioned because of the tiny market share. But that's part of the problem, as it isn't taken seriously as a platform. It also doesn't help when major US banks drop support for the platform.

[tompkin]

Devices most people don't want or need is your reason?  Really?  Lack of general support is already well known and this falls under that category, but calling out specific new devices that aren't even as popular as Windows Phone is like...huh?

It's the called the Internet of Things. It's here. Really? Yep.

 

They are going to be everywhere. In your home, in your car, and in your phone. TV's, thermostats, health equipment.

 

So, in answer to your question. Really.

[tompkin]

I wouldn't assume that it's not compatible with WP, it's probably just not mentioned because of the tiny market share. But that's part of the problem, as it isn't taken seriously as a platform. It also doesn't help when major US banks drop support for the platform.

This device may or may not be, I don't know. But if you look at the devices that are coming out, they are going to be irresistible to the average person. Who really needs a smart watch or a health band? Very few. But they will eventually sell a ton of them. People will start wanting things to be "connected". When they do, they'll look to see if the device their looking at is compatible with their phone.

 

That's all I'm saying. It's vitally important that WP be in the running.

[spaceelf]

It's the called the Internet of Things. It's here. Really? Yep.

 

They are going to be everywhere. In your home, in your car, and in your phone. TV's, thermostats, health equipment.

 

So, in answer to your question. Really.

Sure, maybe in five to ten years they'll be everywhere...if you want to pay the premium prices.  Maybe they won't.

 

Want to throw more buzzwords at me?  I got the time.

[Ian S.]

 

As I write this, on Verizon's main screen is an advertisement for a Galaxy S6. 

 

As opposed to what? An iPhone 6? Windows has had no flagships for a long time and the 640 isn't even out yet. Besides Verizon has ALWAYS been the worst at supporting or promoting anything Microsoft.

 

 

 

If you read the fine print, it says that it will connect to the iPhone and Android. Windows Phone is not mentioned. As these new devices hit Best Buy and Amazon, if Windows Phone is not compatible, WP will never make it. Just my opinion.

 

Just because it is not mentioned, doesn't mean it isn't compatible. Also, why are you basing this a this assumption off of an obscure device won't sell that well?

[theyarecomingforyou]

This device may or may not be, I don't know. But if you look at the devices that are coming out, they are going to be irresistible to the average person. Who really needs a smart watch or a health band? Very few. But they will eventually sell a ton of them. People will start wanting things to be "connected". When they do, they'll look to see if the device their looking at is compatible with their phone.

 

That's all I'm saying. It's vitally important that WP be in the running.

I agree, it highlights the credibility issues facing WP. Everybody knows when they buy an Android or iOS device that it will be well supported but that isn't the case for WP. Microsoft didn't help things by placing so many restrictions on the platform.

[Ian S.]

It's the called the Internet of Things. It's here. Really? Yep.

 

They are going to be everywhere. In your home, in your car, and in your phone. TV's, thermostats, health equipment.

 

So, in answer to your question. Really.

Everyone here (for the most part) is familiar with the "Internet of Things" especially with Windows IoT coming. What we don't know is if/when/how/who's gonna make, this idea is going to take off.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

It's the called the Internet of Things. It's here. Really? Yep.

I suggest reading up on how the Internet of Things works/will work. If your phone has an Internet connection, GPS and NFC abilities then the only reason it wouldn't work completely with devices is if those devices had companion apps for mobile devices, and the developers didn't program for that OS.

That is where WP is lagging, developer support. But for the IoT to truly take off, they want to drop the idea of individual apps for every device you buy. People don't want to scroll through hundreds of apps just to find the one app that will get their coffee machine to turn on in the morning.

That's my thinking, anyway.

[spaceelf]

That is where WP is lagging, developer support. But for the IoT to truly take off, they want to drop the idea of individual apps for every device you buy. People don't want to scroll through hundreds of apps just to find the one app that will get their coffee machine to turn on in the morning.

I think HTML5 may start making apps a completely moot point.

 

Would you prefer a device you can use from anything you like or something you can only use from a specific OS?  Seems kind of like crippled functionality to me.

[tompkin]

Everyone here (for the most part) is familiar with the "Internet of Things" especially with Windows IoT coming. What we don't know is if/when/how/who's gonna make, this idea is going to take off.

Well, first and foremost, this is all my opinion. But I try and keep up, not just with Microsoft, but with other companies like Google, etc. (Like I'm sure a lot of people do.) What I'm saying is that the writing is on the wall, so to speak. 

 

If you look at the Amazon Echo, it doesn't connect to a phone (yet) but it is a home device and it's a hint as to what's coming. It is about $99.00 last time I checked. It's kind of a "super-Cortana". It has a decent sounding stereo inside it, but most importantly, it's a data collector. It learns your likes and dislikes. It stores what you like to play, what you ask about. This is what I'm saying is where it's headed.

 

Not long ago, as some of you may have read, Samsung got "called on the carpet" because their SmartTV has an actual warning in their Terms of Agreement not to discuss personal information in front of the television because it could and would be recorded. The information it collected would be sold to third parties.

 

My point is not about a particular single device. I merely used the Verizon device as an example as to the direction things are going in. Smartphones are going to initially play a key part of the connectivity to many of these devices.

[Dot Matrix]

WP won't make it due to Microsoft's own MIS management. Whoever thought to flood the market with numerous, numerous, and numerous bits of low end hardware should be fired.

[tompkin]

I think HTML5 may start making apps a completely moot point.

 

Would you prefer a device you can use from anything you like or something you can only use from a specific OS?  Seems kind of like crippled functionality to me.

Well, this is true. What ideally you would want is for everything to connect together. My fear, is that initially whoever gets out to a big start on the smartphone controlling these devices is going to have a lot of sales because of the connectivity. People will be satisfied with their cameras and will then be interested in how "connected" it is. Just sayin'.

[PGHammer]

I think HTML5 may start making apps a completely moot point.

 

Would you prefer a device you can use from anything you like or something you can only use from a specific OS?  Seems kind of like crippled functionality to me.

chaosinfected - the very idea of an OS you can use on anything is different from what folks are used to - that is why Windows 8+ is getting whacked, in fact. Instead, folks are TRYING to insist on hardware with formfactor-specificity - "a place for everything and everything in its place". However, another part of it is, actually, the tepid economic growth - these same people are quite aware that multifunction devices will keep growth tepid - instead, they want to artificially inflate production with separate devices - even if they aren't needed. Look at the Apple iOS devices - all of them; could their various functions be reduced to three devices (or even two)? Of COURSE it could - an iPad with phone functionality could do everything (and I mean everything) the iDevice constellation could do. However, does such a device exist? No - the iPhone 6+ is too small, and no iPad (of any size) supports VoLTE. (For a large part, the same is true of most Android ODMs; ne OS, but multiple overlapping devices - why?)

However, one part of the problem with device-specificity is where new devices (tablets and slates, for example) are, in fact, an evolution of existing devices (laptops and notebooks). Other than input method, the ONLY separation between tablets/slates and laptops/notebooks is screen size. Yet laptops and notebooks have been using desktop (or even server) OSes for years. So if you build a tablet or slate that can be a laptop or notebook replacement, why gimp it with a niche OS (compared to a desktop or server OS)? (That is the problem facing ODMs of tablets and slates today - especially those with x86/x64-ready CPUs - Microsoft, Acer, etc.) To an extent, it faces not just the remaining laptop and notebook ODMs, it faces OWNERS of laptops and notebooks - even legacy owners. How many of us have one-generation (in OS terms) or two-generation (in OS terms) laptops and/or noteboooks where the ONLY flaw is the OS on them? Throwing them away would be silly - these same laptops and notebooks still have lots of mileage left. Then there is the environment problem - landfills are, in fact, bursting at their seams - so are recycling centers.

And if you think that these one-generation and two-generation laptops and notebooks are suddenly to be put out to pasture (due to lack of usability), please - my HP Pavilion dv4-2045dx would like several thousand words with you. Despite dating back to Windows 7 (early Windows 7 Home Premium x64, that is) - this two-generation small-screened (thirteen inches) all-AMD (Turion II mobile CPU, Mobility Radeon HD4200 mobile GPU) legacy notebook has new life - as a MOBILE development platform, thanks to the no-cost tag-team of Windows 10 and Visual Studio 2013 Community, and replacing the dead battery ($11USD via Amazon). It has a smaller screen than my "other" legacy notebook - an HP Pavilion dv9700; not knowing about the Hyper-V capability, I was looking at this one as a tablet alternative - especially since I knew it could be restored for "chimp change" (replacing the battery - not a thing else was wrong with it hardware-wise). How many THOUSANDS of such notebooks (not to mention laptops) are out there, sitting on shelves, waiting to be dusted off and brought back to working order?

Are we THAT desperate economically that we have forgotten the PURPOSE of operating-system upgrades for existing hardware?

[tompkin]

@PGHammer: Well, with what your saying, I agree whole heartedly. Back when all we had was desktops I would advise my friends to get the best desktop they could afford because that desktop would last a long time. The desktop I have right now started as a Vista 32-bit machine and is now running Windows 7 64-bit. I'm sure it would have run Windows 8.x and if there aren't any motherboard incompatibilities and there were drivers would PROBABLY even run Windows 10. (I'm not going to try that because that's really pushing it but the principle that you are talking about is there.)

 

Back when Microsoft came out with their IoT program, I signed up for it hoping I could get one of those Microsoft "approved" boards that are kind of like Raspberry Pi boards. (They were sending a limited number out for free.)I think they had a Visual Studio plugin for it and you could program it to turn a light on the board and things like that but I thought it would be a start in learning how to program devices. Of course I didn't get one, been looking at this devices thing for awhile.

 

From what I can tell, "overall", one of the ways it could work is that there would be something akin to a router (let's call it a hub) in the home that all the devices would connect through. From that hub, you would go through the wi-fi router to the internet. The real justification for that hub would be security. If we think we've got security problems with our current wifi configurations, just think the nightmare if you have 30 or 40 devices connected to it. Again, this is just  my humble opinion but what I think what eventually will happen will be that things that you buy will just come with it. Like, we have a stair climber. If you go out and buy a stair climber in 5 years, it will just come with it. You might store your exercise data in your smartphone and take it to the doc, or (if your a trusting sole) have it go straight to the cloud where the doc can access it from there.   

 

But security is still the Achilles' heal of the above configuration. I was watching a video of one of those black hat security conventions a couple of years ago where they were showing how easy it was (in a comical way) to break into devices in the home. Hopefully, with the corporate breaches we've had the last couple of years that cooler heads will prevail and the companies will be more careful.

 

But back on topic, I just hope that MS will either (u know what) or get off the pot with windows phone. If their going to keep it their going to have to have, at the very minimum, "rock solid" Office apps. The main social media apps have to be there. They don't have control over that, I realize. Their supposedly coming out with some new game announcements or something like that at Build I think. But really, why drag this out? I didn't mean to make my original topic "click bait" but what I was mainly meaning was that they have to decide what role they want their phone to play in the future? If you think back to when we all had regular cell phones and then we got smartphones because they had all these new capabilities. I think the same thing is going to happen.

 

EDIT: If I might just respond to one thing someone said. Five years might seem a long time out but if you think about it, a lot of people buy phones every 2 years because their on contract. For them, (and me) that's just two phones away!

[Arachno 1D]

It would seem that a windows app may have not been written for the device yet but given the notion that windows may soon support android apps that may soon be a none issue.That said the reviews are not kind to this device

http://securitygem.com/canary-vs-ismartalarm-vs-piper-home-security/

 

 

Canary became available on Amazon.com on March 25, I think. Within a few days it had over 90 reviews, most of them 5 out of 5 stars and most of them NOT from

[Bryan R.]

These devices are gimmicks that don't last. Companies trying to cash in on tiny niche markets with sub-par features. This is not an example of a device in the Internet of Things. Wait for the real stuff. That's my humble opinion.

[tompkin]

These devices are gimmicks that don't last. Companies trying to cash in on tiny niche markets with sub-par features. This is not an example of a device in the Internet of Things. Wait for the real stuff. That's my humble opinion.

That is my humble opinion, as well.

[chrisj1968]

I suggest reading up on how the Internet of Things works/will work. If your phone has an Internet connection, GPS and NFC abilities then the only reason it wouldn't work completely with devices is if those devices had companion apps for mobile devices, and the developers didn't program for that OS.

That is where WP is lagging, developer support. But for the IoT to truly take off, they want to drop the idea of individual apps for every device you buy. People don't want to scroll through hundreds of apps just to find the one app that will get their coffee machine to turn on in the morning.

That's my thinking, anyway.

 

let's not forget the unified code mentioned in the windows 10 webcast. the code base will be the same across all MSFT devices. I think the major problem before this was, the hassle of different OS systems. 

 

Now with the prices of lumias going down and being able to game our xbox games on all devices and the code base.. It might just get more popular. this is better implementation. with WP7 and 8, those teams are finally gone

[helpifIcan]

My 1.5 cents worth I have the WP, win8.1 tab & WIn7 desktop. I will upgrade them all to Win10 when available.

I have been running WIN 10 test for 4 months now and it is what 8 should have been. To have compatibility across all my platforms is more important than an App to start my car or what ever.

[PGHammer]

That is, in fact, WHY I added my two notebooks to the test pool - I actually dared to think in traditional (as in back to 9x) OS-upgrade terms.

 

You remember Windows 95 - the first mostly-GUI OS for the masses.  Why did it sell (upgrade market, mind you) more than any other software product in history up to that point?  Because it covered the widest range for any OS up to that point - that's why.  Lost in the anti-8 zealotry is the reason for Multiplatform Windows as a vision - making a migration curve largely moot.  Merely with 7 (which was not exactly a unifying OS), the multiple-device problem had already reared its head - and it proved ugly enough to threaten to turn Medusa to stone. (Remember, that is EXACTLY what did her in - her reflection in that mirror-finish shield.)

Still, those that had multiple devices - with different UIs and UXes - found their coping methods - and promptly got complacent.  It is as if they suddenly forgot the very reason they complained about "device overload" in the first place.

I also saw another threat in the diatribe about smaller screens (formfactor-bias) - it wasn't just tablets and slates under the gun, but the very hardware they targeted for replacement - notebooks and laptops, and especially the two-year-old-plus notebooks and laptops running Vista and 7.  These same notebooks and laptops run existing Windows software, AND they fit in the Windows 8.x - or even 10 - range-gate in most cases, they have the same size or even slightly larger screens (in the case of the smaller notebooks) or larger (in the case of higher-end notebooks and even some laptops) - thirteen inches at the bottom to seventeen inches and larger at the highest end.  At the absolute minimum, they can be bargain content-consumption devices - and without having to frigging squint.  (Thirteen inches is larger than ten inches - typical of the phablets - no matter how you slice it.)  Besides - who knew how else the older OS underused the hardware?

 

The first such notebook to get the remove-and-replace treatment saw my last statement about underused hardware prove scarily prophetic; the second was a shocker - even to me.  It's one thing to be right - however, even I didn't expect to be proved right to THAT large a degree.  Result - I have a desktop and two notebooks.  Different uses, but ONE operating system.  Learning curve between them - none.  And I'm not contributing to the bursting of the seams of either my local recycling center OR the local landfill.

[+Raphaël G. MVC]

 

As I write this, on Verizon's main screen is an advertisement for a Galaxy S6. Many will argue the good points and bad points of phones like this. IMHO, this and other phones are quickly not becoming the issue.

 

On another page, in an area called "Internet Devices", a new product has been announced for sale. A new home security device. As you can see from the add, it says that it connects to your smartphone.

 

If you read the fine print, it says that it will connect to the iPhone and Android. Windows Phone is not mentioned. As these new devices hit Best Buy and Amazon, if Windows Phone is not compatible, WP will never make it. Just my opinion.

 

 

Then too bad for that "Home Security" company. That's again another device/service I won't be buying/using. And by the way: to everyone's surprise, Windows Phone is going to make it. And lots of companies will be late to the party. I'm looking at you SnapChat, I don't care about you, but I hate your CEO's attitude.

[tompkin]

Perhaps you would like a wireless home speaker system?

 

http://www.sonos.com/system?r=1