Acer enters Windows Phone fray with cheap Liquid M220 mobe Acer is entering the Windows Phone market, with a low-end model that will retail for just €79, making it the cheapest mobile in the vendor’s range. The Taiwanese firm announced the Liquid M220 today in Barcelona, on the eve of Mobile World Congress. It has a 4-inch display with 233 pixels per inch, 512MB RAM, 8GB storage, 1. …
"I know this is an entry level device, but those are pretty lousy specs these days. I hope it at least has an SD card slot."
It is entry level, no question. The specs are quite similar to Lumia 520 - released almost 2 years ago. That model is still very usable.
The lack of an SD card slot may not matter since photos can be automatically uploaded to Onedrive. Of course one cannot install too many big games or apps or the world map, but how big of a problem that is to people who are buying a basic phone for €79?
>>"The claim falls far short of reality though, with fewer apps available, and often worse implementations of apps that are on the market"
The first part is meaningless once your needs are met. I don't care about having thirty different apps for maps, I care about having a single good one. Furthermore, apps took off because phones didn't have fully capable web browsers back then. My WP has such a browser. My need for apps is minimal. Like a huge number of people all that I want is to send txts, occasionally make calls, possibly get some emails and definitely good maps / directions. WP has all of this built in. Other people also want to be able to do Facebook, Twitter and various social apps. Some want fitness and food apps. WP also has all of this and handles them fine. At this point, we have covered the majority of the non-technophile userbase.
I've yet to hear any non-niche app requirement that WP doesn't meet. The absolute numbers matter very little compared to that. As to "often worse implementations", sounds nicely vague to me. I really can't believe people are still attacking WP over this. It's like their last best hope to attack it for something. :/
Apps are a problem on WP all right, not as bad a problem as with Android, but definitely an annoyance. The first platform with an app store that lets me set a permanent filter of:
(not "games") and (not "music") and (not "movies")
...is the one I'm waiting for. I'm not in the "phones are only for phone calls" camp, I do use email, web browsers, LinkedIn, maps, camera utilities and so on (all of which both WP and 'droid cover just fine), but I don't want to be bombarded with 853 variants of some nintendo'esque cr@p, annoy the rest of the planet with tinny muzak noises on the tube or watch video on a 5" screen!! I'm sticking with WP for now, but if it degenerates any further towards being a pocket XBox I'm taking another look at BlackBerry.
Most people have a niche requirement that is served only by iPhone or Android. In my case it is the App for my local bus service. Most people in the UK for example, don't live in London, but that is the only city that has enough Windows Phone users for a local transport app.
>>"Most people have a niche requirement that is served only by iPhone or Android. In my case it is the App for my local bus service. Most people in the UK for example, don't live in London, but that is the only city that has enough Windows Phone users for a local transport app."
Well London is the only city in the UK where driving yourself is considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment under the law, but anyway - there is a Transit app for WP called "Here Transit" and it serves the whole of the UK as far as I'm aware and pretty nice it is too. Next apps-based criticism, please?
People with bank accounts do look for an app to do their banking on. Seriously. People who buy things from shops like to use that shops app on their phone. Seriously. What little Windows phone had, is actually shrinking. That Serious enough for you?
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Hmmm, funny that...
AT&T et al bring out a WinPhone Softcard app...
... Google buy Softcard from the carriers...
... and now Bank of America is pulling its WinPhone app.
Knee jerk reaction? Or is it possible that the Bank of America app is based on Softcard and since Softcard is being shut down following the Google acquisition, they are left without any choice?
Feels like a variation on exclusive dealing to me!
>>"Google does seem pretty determined to kill Windows Phone."
Apple has always, obviously, been Android's big competition but Apple only competes at the high-end of the market meaning that Google has pretty much had the medium to low-end as its own private playground. Hence the phenomenal proliferation of Android devices. The issue with WP is that whilst it does high-end devices like the 1020, it also performs exceptionally well at the low-end. That makes it a major threat. Hence all the efforts to kill it in the cradle asap.
I have a Android (Moto G) as a personal phone, and a Nokia Lumia 625 running Windows Phone 8.1 for a business photo.
I honestly prefer the Nokia phone, and will get rid of the Moto G as soon as the one app I'm missing on the Windows phone comes out - an OpenVPN compatible VPN app so I can remote SSH into the work servers.
>> Why is Acer introducing its first Windows Phone, despite Microsoft’s tiny market share?
>> We ship 20 per cent of their laptops. It makes sense to have a complete Windows offering.
It sounds to me that MS made them an offer: Having a _complete_ Windows offering saves Acer their 'partnership discounts'.
It worked for Netbooks.
And it worked for me too. I hooked up that $200. 9" Acer with XP to a 22" monitor and tethered to a Lumia 521 Win-phone, and used it as my primary system for years, preferring it to my Toshiba 17" laptop with Vista. I only retired it when MS ended XP support. Been thinking of upgrading to a Lumia 635 to get LTE, but probably won't till the 521 dies since I blow thru my 5GB limit at 4G T-Mobile allowance in less than a day downloading YouTube history documentaries. Sigh.
...no-one at Google reads El Reg, then
"Razali said that Windows Phone runs better on the same hardware than Android. “It’s not something I can say in front of Google. The truth is that the system is less demanding in terms of hardware,” he told the Reg."
Is this really the best anyone can do?
The desperation is strong in this one.
One mans floor noise is anothers market share.
And look at how well Sony and HTC are doing with Android phones. They may be selling them - but they're not making any money. The only company doing well with Android is Samsung.
Even Google themselves couldn't make money from Android hardware - they flogged Motorola again to Lenovo.
And look at how well Sony and HTC are doing with Android phones. They may be selling them - but they're not making any money. The only company doing well with Android is Samsung.
Xiaomi seems to be doing quite well with Android.
Google didn't buy Motorola to get into the hardware business but to get the patents.
"Xiaomi seems to be doing quite well with Android."
What is your definition of 'doing quite well'?
Wasn't there some news a couple months ago that Xiaomi is selling devices practically at cost with a minuscule profit (couch change), and that only Apple and Samsung make real profit with Android phones.
Had Nokia turned to Android they would have battled with Samsung. Could there have been really space for both of them to do high-end phones or would they both have endured a long battle with altogether less profit than what Samsung now makes since they would be having lower prices and/or even higher spec'd phones?
The Nokia organization was top heavy and reacted slowly to market changes anyway even if the engineers had brilliance. The company was doomed long before Elop developed his coup de grace.
The claim falls far short of reality though, with fewer apps available, and often worse implementations of apps that are on the market. Still, the arrival of the M220 shows that Microsoft is making some impact with its universal app strategy, which will make it easier for developers to target Windows desktop, tablet and phone with the same code.
How many crack pipes did you smoke to draw that conclusion? There aren't any universal apps at the moment. The reason for doing the phone is: they already have compatible hardware; the OS is free; MS will no doubt offer marketing support; and sales of their Android phones are disappointing. This is simply a case of try it and see. The reason every other company stopped making Windows phones is that the sales weren't enough to justify even this minimalist approach to diversification.
> There aren't any universal apps at the moment.
There are plenty. The framework's been in place since VS2013 Update 2 and you can write apps which are compatible with controlled interface changes between Win8.1 and WP8.1 without any extra effort.
Want an example? XBox Video.
The rest of your point stands.
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