Nokia's PHAB-ULOUS comeback attempt: Huge WinPho 8 mobe rumoured Nokia plans to join the phone-cum-tablet "phablet" craze from next month to add to its Lumia line-up. Sources whispered to Reuters that the Finnish goliath's engineers have created more than one new device for a launch in late September. The new kit will include a thin phablet - a phone with a screen more than five inches …
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Normally you jump on a fast moving, successful appearing bandwagon.
Not one where all the wheels have already dropped off and the driver has legged it because you're in a bad part of town.
Windows RT? no need to develop a device surely, take some of MSFTs spare RT tablets and just paint them a silly, bright, colour or simply re-box them in that bright plastic composite stuff.
Oh, because there's no fragmentation in WP? Tell that to the WP7.x victims or even the WP8.x people with so little memory/storage that they can't install the bigger applications/games in the store, thanks to 512MB RAM and some handsets with ~2.8GB available storage from factory.
Note that I'm not aware of the issues personally, as I don't know anyone with WP. I used to be a WM user though and I do listen to the AAWP podcast (to get a balanced view of what's available) which is pro-WP and still mentions these issues.
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"people with so little memory/storage that they can't install the bigger applications/games in the store, thanks to 512MB RAM and some handsets with ~2.8GB available storage from factory."
That's hardly the fault of the OS though.
No. it is the fault of the OS developer not properly anticipating application requirements and communicating meaningful recommended specifications to manufacturers and end users.
Since the dawn of time people have needed to upgrade to be able to install the latest and greatest applications on pretty much any system. Whatever you buy, you're going to run out of something (memory, storage, friends, etc) sooner or later.
True enough. But Windows Phone 8 isless than one year old. By contrast, your girlfriend's Google Nexus originally came out in 2010 -- making the specification for it over 3.5 years old. That's a pretty common timeframe for an upgrade cycle in the smartphone world. <1 year is just absurd.
Actually its no one's fault. The OS developer has to balance out a wide ecosystem. Not everyone can afford the Galaxy S4, iPhone 5 and Lumia 920. The Lumia 520 is the big marketshare grower for Microsoft and its the Android landfill phones that pushed Google to the number one spot.
Microsoft tried the higher RAM road when WP7 first launched when 512MB was the minimum requirement, Microsoft had to release the Tango update just so that OEMs could put in as little as 256MB to sell them at budget prices to compete in the emerging markets.
High specs gets you games and website articles, low specs get you sales.
2 WP OS versions is hardly comparable to the hundreds of flavours of fragmented Android....
See http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/17975_What_apps_are_incompatible_wit.php
"Out of 149,078 currently live (active) content items that we are currently tracking in the Windows Phone 8 Store, 331 (0.24%) are not compatible with 512MB devices. When just looking at the games category, which has the highest proportion of incompatible content items, these figures are 65 out of 17,029 items (0.361%)
"That seems to be the usual response from people I know who have either had a play around with a display model or a mate's handset, or are given one as a work phone.
"It's kinda nice, but not really for me""
It's far worse than that. It's fairly useless as a professional coms-tool. Compared to Windows Mobile which had the following features that Windows Phone lacks.
- Full bluetooth filetransfers with capable file-manager
- 2 way call recording
- full local/BT Outlook syncing including contact-categories
---> in Activesync 3.8 you could even sync over wifi
- file manager had SMB/CIFS capability build in
Plus for power users you were able to "sideload" EVERY app. Sure for dumbtwats with too much money in their wallets a central software repository is a godsend. But I loved the freedom of WM.
The problem is that these advantages were also apparent in Nokia's Symbian. Call recording was even easier, more consistent across different devices and of much better quality too. Outlook categories were converted to contact groups which is fine as well. Symbian too had a file manager with full bluetooth transfer (or alternatives with SMB/CIFS). It previously (S^3 ANNA) even had webdav for sharing data with your PC.
Windows Phone is severely crippled compared to this. So no wonder that WP runs with a smaller footprint as the "others". Most basic features aren't even build-in. There isn't even a file manager build in. there's no memorecorder-app. WP is a very basic walled-garden phone with the added value of "apps" , itonly uses faster cpu's and higher resolution screens than WM.
I'm not convinced that this wil save them (just like so many people except the morons at Nokia itself)
@ac
What is the use of sync with Outlook? The WP units can sync with Exchange they do not need to use a client to speak with the server.
BT file transfer? Why in the days of WLAN?
Walled garden? Maybe but at least one with a gardener that takes care of the plants for more than six month. Better than the "Hippy garden" where no one looks after the stuff and more choice than the fruitpacker company
Not everyone uses Exchange and the point of direct Outlook sync would be synchronization without some other party, like cloud or server.
How exactly do you transfer a file over WLAN? Assuming you could access a random file, which you can't.
I disagree, better a hippy garden with a frackton of plants in it than a walled garden, which is almost empty and inconsistent and the plants that it has are too young to be shown (used) or too simple.
WP8's GUI probably won't scale to tablet just like Android's didn't initially. I've got so confused by Microsoft's strategy but I think that RT is WP8 for tablets (ARM architecture, all kinds of code and app restrictions).
Can't see Nokia funding a tablet themselves. But the "Surface 2" could be be badged and rebranded as Nokia as MS tries to get away from the tarnished image. In that case expect the OS to get a lick of paint at well and be either WP for tablets or some such, even if it is RT 8.1.
Wait and see, I guess. But it's going to be increasingly hard to catch up with Samsung's UI innovations on large phones / tablets: split screen is probably already patented.
" Windows 8 is supposed to scale from phone to tablet to desktop. What would be the point of Windows 8 if it cant do that ... oh wait!"
The Window 8 KERNEL does scale well from phones to multi-hundred core servers. And it's miles more secure, responsive and efficient than Android - and works better with low memory amounts...Well over 99% of WP apps and games will work even on the handsets with the smallest amount of RAM....
And it's miles more secure, responsive and efficient than Android - and works better with low memory amounts...Well over 99% of WP apps and games will work even on the handsets with the smallest amount of RAM....
Oh do fuck off! NT scales no better than any other modern OS, it's not more secure and, as a kernel it uses more memory. Android can use more resources because it can put an app in a VM. This makes the whole system more secure but all systems are open to abuse.
Actually the Windows kernel IS more secure by design - It is a modern hybrid microkernel based design as opposed to the legacy monolithic Linux one. This means that you can properly isolate device drivers from the kernel for instance.
WP is demonstrable proof that the kernel scales better on a mobile device in terms of performance, responsiveness and latency than Android.
The same is true on the desktop (e.g. Windows 8 outperforms the latest Ubuntu in most benchmarks) and also on the server stack (e.g. Hyper-V Server 2012 significantly outperforms Linux as a hypervisor, and Windows Server 2012 outperforms Linux as a fileserver - including as an NFS server!)
Android is not Linux. You are comparing apples with moonrocks.
If it's so compact why isn't Windows NT running on my television, my router or my Raspberry Pi? Because the Linux kernel although monolithic, incidentally just like NT since v 4 IIRC, can be stripped down and optimised for a particular hardware configuration. Why is Microsoft still peddling Windows CE for embedded devices if NT is a low memory solution.
Of course, Symbian stomps on both Android and WP when it comes to running a full multi-tasking OS in little memory. As does QNX when it comes to it.
Imagine a phone which ran full Windows 8. Now *that* would be an interesting device. It might have a 6" display and metro for phone / tablet behaviour but dump it in a dock and suddenly it's a computer too.
That's far more useful than sticking poxy RT on it.
Depnds on what the Baytrail units deliver when they come out. IF they got 4GB of memory and a decend boost in graphics and cpu speed they can replace the average privat/office system except for games. Current gen C-Trails are restricted by their 2GB and "pseudo SSD" limitations, both gone on Baytrail
OTOH as soon as I go above 5inches I need a bag/attache case for the unit anyway (unless you are into cargo throusers). And if I get at that point units like the Sony Vaio Duo (13 or 11+Sheet) or Lenovo Helix look very tempting.
"So that you could plug in a monitor and a keyboard and only need one computer?"
Yes. The dock could be a port replicator.
The concept isn't new either - the Oqo and other computers tried it but didn't have the benefit of low power CPUs or a UI which was designed to work with a touch screen.
"(I doubt this will ever happen, especially with Atom chippery, but it's a potential reason)."
It's already possible. The latest generation of Atom processors are capable of powering tablets and phones with similar performance envelopes as ARM.
Now remember that sales only crept upward when Lumia prices shot down with multiple budget builds. Nokia already played the 'budget' card and it's moved them from 'totally insignificant' to 'insignificant' in the smartphone market.
At some point it's time to give up pretending Nokia can compensate for the buyer repelling use of Winphone with better hardware and lower prices. It's visibly not working for them.
Nokia need to get out of the budget smartphone market where they are losing money on every sale (negative 3% margin according to most recent financials, and likely to increase as the ASP sinks lower) unless they can start shipping MediaTek or Rockchip based hardware.
Relying on relatively expensive Qualcomm gear to stuff into your budget Lumias is commercial suicide. Of course this requires that Microsoft introduce platform diversity, and since this doesn't seem likely any time soon it leaves Nokia up a creek without a paddle.
It seems like a perfectly nice smartphone OS that's bright, attractive and responsive. It also runs admirably on low-end hardware, better than some of the Android crap.
It could have been a runaway success if it was released around the same time as Android. But it wasn't. So it's fucked.
Most people are already tied to the iOS or Android masts (or both like me.) What would persuade me to jump to a new ecosystem? Nothing I've seen. Being as good as, or even marginally better than, existing systems will not persuade any great numbers to jump ship. Indeed, the ship has sailed (to switch nautical metaphors clumsily.)
The only way this device could possibly be successful would be for them to dump Vista RT and install Android on it instead.
Stephen E-Flop needs to be sacked, along with all of the Microsoft loyalists at Nokia. Any other action will cause Nokia to cease to exist.
No one wants Vista Phone. No one wants Vista RT. No one wants Vista 8 (or Vista 8.1) on their desktops. It's time for Micro$oft to realize that, and correct their course.
Erm - maybe you havn't noticed but Nokia Lumia sales are growing at over 30% a quarter, Nokia just bought the outstanding 50% of the profitable NSN for a cheap price, and they are forecast to be back in overall profit by Q3 or Q4 this year, and Windows Phone is about to cross 10% UK market share.....
Apple are apparently getting so worried about the seemingly inevitable taking of their Second Place spot by Windows Phone that there are rumours that they are considering trying to compete on price!
Elop has successfully turned Nokia around - unlike Blackberry which is still dying.
I wanted a Windows phone, and had been waiting since last winter to get something bigger than Nokia's smallish phones (by today's standard), only to give up and get the 5" Sony Xperia Z, the main selling points being the 1080p screen, and 13mp camera.
This new Nokia however, would have been perfect. I'm tall, and have fairly huge hands, so the 6" screen would have fit me to a T.
But really, how and why was there ever even a question as to whether a large phone would sell?
Does Microsoft not do the same marketing research that Samsung does?
Well, maybe I'll try out a Windows phone when it's time to upgrade again.
Hopefully they won't be so late to the party again. That's if they're even still in business then.
"while the Finns stick with peddling Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 handsets, which only hold three per cent of the global smartmobe market's interest."
God help us if it were only a choice between SlackApple or WeOwnYouGoogle!
Winphone may have a small market share, but its the most important! I don't want to be like YOU! I prefer to be different and not become borged.
[ I prefer to be different and not become borged.]
Ironic, considering that for many years quite a few associated Microsoft with the borg.
BTW, I'd rather have the one that works best for me, instead of trying to be different. I do many things different from most people, but that's because something works best for me.
...and that's why I'm not even considering IOS or WP and checking each Android device for strong customisation support, both stock and 3rd party replacement.
I'll be sticking to the market with a wild jungle of competition built over a core of compatibility. I choose what my device does and get a damn wide set of choices to make but still get to run all the apps.
People really do need to keep up to date.
Rather than not selling, it's doing almost 10% in some EU countries - and one numbers breakdown from yesterday puts it second to Android in Latin America (yes, above Apple).
It is also quite popular in India and Russia. You know, the kind of places that (along with Latin America) haven't reached phone saturation and so are actually a little more important to the future bottom line than the provincial USA.
Rather than not selling, it's doing almost 10% in some EU countries
However in the markets you mention almost all Lumia sales are of the budget/low end ie. CHEAP variety, on which Nokia lose money for every sale. The high-end Lumia devices make up less than 25-30% of all Lumia sales - globally - with the vast majority of sales coming from the 520/620/720.
This is hardly the kind of healthy and affluent market needed for a 6" phablet unless it's sold at well below cost, although I wouldn't put that past Nokia in their insane, suicidal drive to build a credible market share for Microsoft, even if means their own demise.
This is just getting a bit silly, the Nokia 1020 isn't even available in all major markets yet and they are already working on a new "high end" model?
NNokia is in such a rush to gain market share its going to be tripping over its on feet. Just look at the top end at the moment;
You've got the 920 which is good and all but was a bit bulky and gaudy for quite a few customers so Nokia released the more "stylish" and lighter 925.
Of course neither had the Pureview tech from the 808 so Nokia leaked/announced the 1020, a 920 with some better specs and the best phone camera on the market so those interested in the 925 had to consider this new unreleased phone. Did you want looks or did you want imagery? Instead of giving us both (or the imagery for that matter) they are releasing a more powerful model with a bigger and better screen but a different camera.
Just saying Nokia, would it have been that difficult to release the 1020 in a 925 body and just called it a 1025? And when WP8.1 is released just re-release the existing Lumia's with 1080p screens?
Actually, you'd still have to pay me to use another mobile phone with ANY Microsoft OS on it. Once bitten, twice shy as hell.
The thing that most pissed me off about that phone was how it would lose imported data. I would reimport the data from the non-Microsoft sources, and it would disappear again and again. I still can't figure out if it was deliberate, incompetence, or just indifference to the world outside Microsoft. Not sure when I maxed out on my hatred of Microsoft, but that may have been when.
I'm losing count of how many phones Nokia are releasing.....seems like every month
Problem is Nokia is just cannibalising other Nokia models....and lets face it they all look the same
This is a zero sum game if ever I saw one..........
And damn shame to late to release an Android.....
Oh well...
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