Windows Phone 7/8 Catch All

I wonder if Microsoft is unhappy with Nokia's exclusivity with AT&T. I'm sure MSFT knows that for them to succeed in the US (arguably the most important market for phones) they have to have a flagship model available on all carriers. With Nokia having their flagship exclusive to 1 carrier I understand why Microsoft would turn to someone else for their premier partner. I mean, why would you want your premier partner's top device to be exclusive to one carrier. Now rumors of a Microsoft phone are swirling. Again, I think if Nokia was not exclusive to AT&T Microsoft would have much less reason to release their own phone. Nokia already makes fantastic hardware. I can't see Microsoft making a better (more desirable) phone. If anything it will likely be pretty vanilla. But I also don't see them being satisfied with the small market of a single carrier.

If Microsoft releases their own phone and they do it in the same manner as Google (though not having it exclusive to any one carrier) I can see it being a symbiotic nature. The device maker gets guaranteed sales and MS doesn't have to hire a team of designers and engineers. If they do do a phone in house I hope they get the same innovation and quality that they get from their natural keyboards. Mine is awesome. The arc line looks nice but I haven't used them. I believe those are proof that MS can do hardware (though they are a lot different than a phone).

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Aaaaand it was announced this morning that the 920 is exclusive to Rogers in Canada. My employer uses Bell so if we do end up switching to Windows Phone, it will have to be one of the Samsung or HTC models. My girlfriend's also bummed because she's on Rogers now but she travels up to Nunavut a lot and only Bell and Telus work up there so she was hoping to switch. So now she's debating either getting a different phone or living with having no service up north. Stupid telecartels. I know they're probably paying Nokia lots of money for the exclusivity but substantially limiting your potential audience is not how you claw your way out of a very distant last place. Microsoft should have told Nokia "Whatever the carriers are paying you, we'll double it to keep you from going exclusive."

This.. Nokia taking some extra cash isnt going to save them long term.. if they are in bed with MS then the only way this will work if by getting their phones on as many carriers as possible.. Given how little mindset Nokia has with Verizon this seemed like the perfect opportunity to ride some positive press and finally get one of their flagship phones on the largest US carrier.

Dumb and Dumber..

In a way, I'm kind of happy that the Nokia is only on AT&T. I'm on AT&T now and I don't want the hassle of switching carriers. I've never had any issues with AT&T really, plus I'm on wi-fi most of the day anyway.

All we need now is pricing. This slow, slow trickle of information from the carriers and Microsoft is killer.

T-Prime wrote:

In a way, I'm kind of happy that the Nokia is only on AT&T. I'm on AT&T now and I don't want the hassle of switching carriers. I've never had any issues with AT&T really, plus I'm on wi-fi most of the day anyway.

All we need now is pricing. This slow, slow trickle of information from the carriers and Microsoft is killer.

hmm..not sure how having the 920 on multiple carriers (including AT&T) is somehow worse for you than having it just exclusive to AT&T

Carrier exclusivity stuff is the devil, especially for struggling OS phones. WebOS anyone?

I understand they probably get paid for the exclusivity and reduce support costs by reducing carriers, especially in the US where you have a mixture of GSM and CDMA. But it still just seems to hurt overall sales.

It may, but phone sales are just a tool to sell the real product, phone service. Most people get 'free' phones, tying themselves into long contracts to do so, and incidentally paying far too much for their phone in the process. Few people buy phones directly.

The end result is that the primary sellers of phones don't particularly care about selling phones. They want exclusives and status, not volume for any particular piece of hardware.

For AT&T phone sales are a tool. For Nokia it is their livelihood. It is possible that AT&T forced Nokia into an exclusive to carry the phone. AT&T isn't going to lose a large group of customers if they don't carry the 920. AT&T is the biggest provider so I think they have more leverage at this point. HTC has android sales so their sales are not tied to Windows. I think Nokia should be looking at branching out into Android and Microsoft should do what they have to to keep them from doing that. An android version of the 920 would be very tempting.

bizare...will no apps actually be working on launch day?

There will be apps, but only from the tier-one companies: Facebook, Twitter, *cough* Vimeo, Foursquare, etc.

As long as there's an Instagram app, I'll be golden.

To what, take pictures with filters using your computer?

That you can't even set which stocks you care about in the Stocks app is...frustrating.

This isn't the Windows Phone thread? Oops.

This is the road we're heading down.

Uh, I'm old and the interwebs and Metro confuse me?

Actually I legitimately was confused because I have the Windows Phone and Windows 8 catch-alls set as favorites. Please don't confuse my confusion for sarcasm, for once!

i see no reason to have a twitter or facebook app. Both sit untouched on my phone 99% of the time since the native OS integration is so good.

Does viewing tweets show the conversation for you? That's a major reason to keep a real client around, assuming it's not just me.

I wonder if AT&T will let 900 owners upgrade with a new 2 year contract for $150. I would totally be on board. The subsonic app on WP7 is terrible but WP8 might allow for a good one. I want a yellow one.

I like a lot of the things they announced. The integration with Xbox, Windows 8, and WP8 are quite nice. I am intrigued by the kid locking features. What I want to know is if it will restrict IAP. One of my concerns now is that IAP can't be password protected. Of course, the re sizable tiles are something I am very much looking forward to. The new rooms feature is something I was looking to do just a week ago when I wanted to send some text to my immediate family. Love the idea of the live lock screen. I think that the metro (sorry, modern) UI in Windows 8 (and RT) are really going to help the app ecosystem. They instantly give developers a very large install base that just would not be there with WP8 alone. The wireless syncing of music, images, etcetera are necessary and should be useful. I hope they improved the ability to make playlists on the phone itself.

The data sense is intriguing. I hope it is something like the battery saver as well as hoping that it allows you set higher frequency updates on wi-fi vs cell data.

Still disappointed in no 920 on Verizon. The 8x is a nice phone but not the 920. Tried going to the AT&T coverage map and I can't get it to pull anything up. I didn't see the Samsung ATIV on any carrier nor did I see a single phone on Sprint. I'll have to have my wife talk with friends at work and see what ATT is like for her there.

Some good reviews (including video) hitting on the The Verge.

WP8 gets an 7.9, in a very positive sounding review.

HTC Windows Phone 8X get a 7.8 in another review where it gets lots of love.

They also do a comparison of the iPhone 5, Nokia 920, HTC 8x, and the Nexus 4.

I didn't see a proper review of the 920 yet.

Also, I have not hard when we might see the WP7.8 upgrade that is supposed to tide us over until ur contracts are up.

http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-78-probably-coming-late

No specific date but it looks like we have a few more weeks to wait.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/31/n...

It isn't the 920 but it doesn't look half bad...I might get this and hope down the road the 922 shows up as well...but I figure Verizon is the kind of company that will put a lot of weight on initial sales of Windows Phones before committing fully.

I have not seen the Samsung Ativ on any carriers, yet. It is kind of intriguing since it's basically just a Galaxy S3 (I believe engadget mentioned that). I'm also going to try to wait until I see what US Cellular announces. The only stuff I can find is an article from June where they (USC) says they will carry a windows phone. I also read on a US Cellular form that they'll announce something on the 8th of November.

TheGameguru wrote:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/31/n...

It isn't the 920 but it doesn't look half bad...I might get this and hope down the road the 922 shows up as well...but I figure Verizon is the kind of company that will put a lot of weight on initial sales of Windows Phones before committing fully.

It looks decent. I didn't see any mention of the F stop of the camera. The camera is an important part for me. More so than the speed or memory. Is the HTC 8X not something you are interested in? I think it looks like a very good phone and arguably the second best (behind the 920) WP8 phone around (thought I'd put the Ativ up there pretty close and higher if storage is important).

EvilHomer3k wrote:

It looks decent. I didn't see any mention of the F stop of the camera. The camera is an important part for me.

Looks like the official spec sheet is up. F stop of 2.2.
http://www.nokia.com/us-en/products/...

Anyone got much experience with T-Mobile? Finally getting away from my old Capt. Kirk clamshell phone and have all but decided on the HTC 8X and it seems like I'd get a better deal from them than from ATT or Verizon (more concerned about the month to month than the upfront cost). Of course, sometimes you get a better deal for a damn good reason, so I'm wary.

I had T-Mobile and a Dell Venue Pro.

For where I live (North Texas), T-Mobile SUCKED. Their coverage outside of major interstates was terrible once you left the population centers. Even then, you'd wind up with very spotty coverage.

After my wife's DVP bricked and they wanted $200 to replace, we paid an early termination fee and went to AT&T and got Nokia Lumia 900's. In the past, I had sworn that I would never do business with AT&T, but I have to say that I have been pleased with their coverage (LTE is fantastic) and the phones. I'd really like to get the new WP8 Nokias, but am pleased enough with the 900 that I can wait.

T-Mobile now owes me $9.00 due to me overpaying for my final bill and instead of cutting me a check, they just keep sending me these massive, bulky statements saying that they owe me $9.00. I'm going to allow them to do that until I feel like I've got my termination fee out of 'em.

TexasRay wrote:

I had T-Mobile and a Dell Venue Pro.

For where I live (North Texas), T-Mobile SUCKED. Their coverage outside of major interstates was terrible once you left the population centers. Even then, you'd wind up with very spotty coverage.

Voice coverage around Raleigh NC seemed fine, but data coverage above Edge was often lacking outside the city.