[OPINION POLL] Will Windows Handsets Rival Android Powered Smartphones by Next Year?

[cereal killer]

We ran a piece on our sister site, windowsphoneforums.net, on how Nokia is going to be placing a slow and steady stream of Windows powered handsets into the market throughout 2012. They will be innovative handsets and promise to deliver a phenomenal user experience.

While we recognize the fact that this site is dedicated to Android enthusiasts, we are very curious as to what the readers feel about the often dismissed ecosystem reemerging once again. The poll ask: Do you think Windows will become a viable competitor in 2013 because, as you well know, it needs a chance to get on it's feet in 2012 and be exposed to the consumer market.

So, to the best of your abilities, set aside any bias and give us your perspective on what you see happening on the OS playground in 2013. Will iOS and Android still reign supreme or will Microsoft reemerge and begin to siphon competitors away? Perhaps you think it will just simply flounder and fade into obscurity?


Source: Windows Phone Forum
image source: toggle blog

 

[justin82]

i think they might be. there are people right now running android/apple that would love a windows phone. it may not be early 2013 but maybe later . will they be as big as android/apple don't think so .

 

[Blacksheep427]

My opinion: they have a shot at gaining in the market. For what it's worth, my first smartphone that was not a BlackBerry was an HTC HD2, a T-Mobile phone with Windows Mobile 6.5. I actually liked it until the phone kept failing. I entered a fail and replace loop, which helped prompt me to go to VZW. And yes, I know it is now Windows Phone. Nevertheless, I'd be open to shop a Windows Phone to at least compare it to Android offerings.

PS: nice name OC. Lucky Charms and friends beware. lol

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[alboboy10]

Windows is dead.

 

[WA_Bob]

It's very hard to write off Mirosoft in ANY market the choose to go into simply because they're such a big company and have the resources to loose money up front if they see a payoff in the long run (the X-Box was a good example). I'll probebly stick with Android myself because I like the openess and customizability of the OS, but I see the Windows phone OS becoming a serious competitor as time goes on.

All things considered, I think it's good for everyone if they do succeed because it'll force both Google and Apple to keep making improvements to compete and we'll all end up with better products in the long run! dancedroid

 

[rubiksc00p]

I think that Windows phone is more like a dumb phone OS. I really like it though and would probably take it over iOS. We will probably see Windows tablets taking over once Windows 8 comes, simply because it is a whole lot more actual computer like.

The whole premise of Windows Phone is wrong for me though! It is to spend less time on your phone. What if I'm in love with my phone and I just want to be on it all the time? WP can get really boring, really fast!

Sent from the best phone on Verizon!

 

[aaf709]

I don't think they should be dismissed and no smartphone OS should rest on their laurels thinking that nobody can beat them.

 

[Sweettooth]

Microsoft is great, and I'm sure at some point, they will literally have to maintain their presence in the mobile market just to keep up with the flow of technology. However I think if at all possible, they should stay in software development. Spend more time perfecting Windows OS's than trying to port it over to a mobile device. I think with Android bum rushing the market with tablets and phones from several different manufacturers, in many different price ranges, and on every carrier, they will inevitably dominate the market. Quantity will almost always beat quality, not to say that Android doesn't make quality products, and also not to say that Apple only makes quality products.

Honestly, in the end I see Android and Apple much like I see Verizon and AT&T - neither of them are going anywhere, and even though Verizon is light years ahead of AT&T, they both still have their following, and leave every other carrier and their fanbase in the dust. Expect to see this trend solidify over the next few years, no bias; Android being number one due to ease of use, ease of modification, and market flood, Apple in the running with a quality product as well known as Mickey Mouse, a solid foot in the ground, and enough capitol to keep up with technological change, and then everyone else...fighting to keep up.

 

[JohnnytheK]

After the lies I was given over 6.5 I'll never get a windows phone.
They abandoned all us 6.5'ers, not sure what they did with 7, and now 8?

 

[Krennel]

I'm not sure about phones, but I'd say that Windows 8 tablets may become very popular.

 

[DF Smod]

The whole premise of Windows Phone is wrong for me though! It is to spend less time on your phone. What if I'm in love with my phone and I just want to be on it all the time? WP can get really boring, really fast!

Sent from the best phone on Verizon!

My thoughts exactly

 

[blacksoxing]

If Verizon embraced the new Nokia or the HTC Titans....I'd have it over the Nexus that I now have

I don't CARE about much things like choice....I just want stuff to work w/great battery life. I do like control over my phone...but I don't care about adjusting kernals or switching roms like a woman switches shoes

 

[illmatic636]

If Verizon embraced the new Nokia or the HTC Titans....I'd have it over the Nexus that I now have

I don't CARE about much things like choice....I just want stuff to work w/great battery life. I do like control over my phone...but I don't care about adjusting kernals or switching roms like a woman switches shoes

IMO the phone you current have is all about customizing and choices. Switching kernels, Roms, themes yet you claim you don't care about choice.

WinMo in my opinion can make a good run with the other OS's. I'll never forget my first experience with Android OS was on a WinMo phone. HYTC Vogue. WinMo just needed to catch up to the user friendly environment in their OS

 

[Nealius]

Voted maybe, but they have the resources and the OS/Hardware combo looks very promising

If they can put together a solid OS on the phone and attack the middle of the road. Between Apples hard line structure and Android openness with hardware that is on par with top of the line phones. Microsoft is big enough to play in this sandbox. They just need to pull there collective heads out of the sand. They made the Xbox work and compete with the PS2&3.

I think Android has more to lose than apple does in this. Plus Microsoft has the advantage of seeing what Apple is doing with lawsuits without trying to react to them. The rules are set.

 

[droid_mike]

Short answer: Not likely

They've made mistake after mistake after mistake in the smartphone market--a market they could have owned outright a decade ago, BTW. Their latest mistake is to target the consumer market. RIM was always on shaky ground, and with them collapsing, Windows could have used it's leverage with MS Exchange to bust into the business phone market and expand from there. But, instead, they **REMOVED** IT friendly features from the phone that were present in Windows Mobile 6.5 making it as useless to big IT departments as the iPhone. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Microsoft has a lousy reputation among consumers, and there is nothing in this phone that would make a consumer go "Wow!" They even screwed up that side of the equation. They talk about integrating the phone with Xbox, but native binaries are not supported, so the games run like molasses on the phone. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It's like they are TRYING to do everything wrong. I won't even start with the outdated hardware and "features".

They are way too late to make any real headway in the smartphone market. Consumers will avoid microsoft products like the plague if they have a choice. Especially if it is branded with Windows. Android has already solidified its place as the anti-iPhone. Microsoft has to offer a lot more to push themselves into that sphere. MS **does** have an opportunity to do something in the tablet market, where the ani-iPad is not clearly defined. Metro is pretty cool and may be a hit, but on tablets, not so much on phones.

In short, the Windows Phone is most likely to suffer the same fate as it's cousin the Kin, dragging Nokia down with it. Actually, it will be like the Zune, with crazy fanboys loving it, but the market, not so much. Anything is possible, of course, when you have Microsoft's money, but it's much harder to buy mindshare. MS has a deficit of trust with non-business consumers, and they have to address that issue before they can make any real gains in any other market.

I certainly do not count Microsoft out, but they are not showing the same ruthless ability to turn things around as they did when Bill Gates was in charge. They have been so incredibly slow and mistake-prone with mobile computing that they are climbing uphill to get out of this massive rut they are in right now.