The slow death of Windows Phone: how Microsoft lost the battle for smartphones. Pros and cons of the system

In this article, we look at the Windows Phone 8 operating system, its features, applications for WP8 and the operation of devices that use it.

Here we will not conduct a detailed review of its interface or share impressions of the operation of this OS. The purpose of the article is to understand the features of both Windows Phone 8 and the devices on which it is installed. And also sort out the main nuances and distinctive features of smartphones running Windows Phone 8 that are not obvious at first glance. This operating system came out several years later than the boom of touch-screen devices and now remains in the shadows, partly because it is simply unusual for most users.

Features of Windows Phone 8

The WP8 interface is very different from its competitors, although this platform provides users with an almost identical set of functions. For most smartphone users, it’s a little unusual to work with this OS, but they say you can get used to it in just a couple of days. WP users point out the exceptional convenience and “smoothness” of the OS, while users from the other camp are perplexed.
Among the striking differences of WP8 are, first of all, high stability and speed of operation (even on weak devices) and, at the same time, limited possibilities for customizing and customizing the operating system. Yes, WP8 is faster than iOS and gives users less flexibility in terms of interface customization.

Pros and cons of the system

Let's first look at the pros and cons of Windows Phone 8 relative to its competitors solely as an operating system, without taking into account applications and devices on WP8 for now.

Pros:

• As noted above, WP8 works stably, without freezing or rebooting - there are always enough resources for applications.
• WP8 is well optimized and works quite quickly. And those moments in which it can slow down are smoothed out by animation.
• Due to the closed nature of the OS, there are no viruses for it.
• Integration with social networks at the operating system level. Contacts from networks are combined with the phone book, and Facebook chat is implemented in the same format as SMS correspondence.
• The ability to fully control the device remotely from a computer.
• Built into the OS is the ability to use it at the corporate level: encryption, remote data wipe, etc. In this regard, WP8 is more functional than iOS and more secure than Android.

Minuses:

• Limited interface customization options.
• A closed file system, which imposes small restrictions on the operation of applications. The following cannot always be implemented: sending files, managing media content, etc.
• Lack of a “notification center” or, in common parlance, a curtain. On the other hand, all the features provided by iOS or Android in this way are compensated by other OS features.
• Inability to use most Google services (more on this below).
• Some users are not satisfied with the format for adding and editing contacts in their phone. On the other hand, this is compensated by the versatility of the contact system.

Windows Phone 8 and Google

Google, for various reasons, is not going to release mobile applications for WP8 for its services. Rumor has it that this is due to marketing strategy.
Most notably, on WP8 you can't sync your calendar with Google Celendar, there's no authentic Google Maps, and there's no separate app for Gmail. Access to YouTube for Windows Phone apps is also blocked.

Applications in Windows Phone 8

In the first time after the release of WP8 OS, it was significantly inferior in terms of the number of applications in the market. After some time, the situation leveled out, and now applications for most popular services are available on the Windows Phone Store. On the other hand, small companies and startups rarely release applications for Windows Phone.

The operating system from Microsoft uses MS Office (free mobile version) and Internet Explorer. There are no worthy alternatives to the native browser on this platform, but it almost always works quickly and adequately. Nokia devices also come with Nokia Maps, which, according to some reviews, is better than Google's.
Among other things, the so-called “Rooms”, within which users are in constant contact, receive notifications from social networks about the activity of other room participants, can use multifunctional chat, etc.

Censorship inside the WP Store works almost as strictly as in the Apple Store - the number of frankly lousy applications in the marketplace is reduced to almost zero.
Also, developers for Windows Phone are officially recommended to create applications using a uniform design and standard navigation methods for all. Which gives its results: applications on Windows Phone look much less varied than applications on other OSes, and users always know what to expect when they swipe/tap on the screen.

Windows Phone 8 devices

A few facts:

• This OS can only be found on smartphones: for tablets, either Windows RT or full-fledged Windows 8 is used.
• According to Microsoft policy, any device running WP8 is guaranteed three years of support for operating system updates.
• Since Windows Phone is a proprietary and paid OS, the range of manufacturers of such smartphones is extremely limited.
• Windows Phone smartphones become significantly cheaper when newer devices are released, unlike Apple or Samsung products.

WP8 devices are most popular in developing countries due to the availability of high-quality budget models. In addition, some organizations are implementing WP8 devices at the company level due to system security and enterprise features.

via Alexandr Mikhaylenko, Windows Phone user

MOSCOW, July 29 – RIA Novosti, Natalya Dembinskaya. In mid-July, big news came from Microsoft: the company officially stopped supporting the Windows Phone mobile operating system, which still powers millions of devices. The corporation had to admit: smartphones do not bring it any profit. Windows Phone's market share has been steadily declining in recent years, and has now almost bottomed out at 0.1%. Why there was no place at all for the operating system in the market, why defectors to Android blame Windows Phone, and whether Microsoft will be able to take revenge from Google and Apple - in the RIA Novosti material.

Not a bad start

Immediately after its introduction in 2009, Windows Phone managed to take a significant market share - almost 10%. At that time, the mobile market was dominated by Symbian, on which the first Nokia smartphones ran - it occupied more than 50% of the market, the second largest player was the RIM mobile OS of the then popular manufacturer Blackberry - the famous phones with a full qwerty keyboard (20.9%). Android was just trying to find its place in the sun, occupying only about 4%.

Just in case, Google bought the unprofitable startup Android Inc., which was developing an operating system for wearable devices, back in 2005 and only remembered it in 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the first Apple iPhone.

Google quickly realized: the smartphone market is almost empty, and expensive Apple devices will not be able to fill it entirely.

Android's meteoric rise

At the end of 2009, confusion began in the smartphone market. Nokia by that time had already slowed down the development of Symbian and relied on Windows Mobile. And Google, in turn, reached an agreement with the Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. The first device running Android was the HTC Dream smartphone, which was a resounding success.

iOS and Android began to develop rapidly, but Apple's position, which prohibited third-party companies from using iOS, did not work in its favor. In 2011, with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, Android was already called “the most advanced operating system”; smartphone manufacturers Samsung, Alcatel, Philips, LG began to migrate en masse to the new promising platform. As a result, Android took almost 50% of the market, displacing all the old-timers in one fell swoop. Analysts began to consider the rapidly falling share of Symbian and RIM together in the “other OS” category.

On the battlefield, Android, Apple and Windows Phone were practically the only three left. The latter confidently stayed afloat - largely thanks to the release of the popular Nokia Lumia smartphones, which gave a second life to the Finnish phone manufacturer itself.

LG also produced devices based on Windows Phone.

Nokia got mad at Microsoft

However, the Finns soon began to show dissatisfaction. In 2013, Nokia vice president Brian Biniak blamed Microsoft for the lack of competitive apps for the Windows Phone platform. It is for this reason that sales of Nokia Lumia have declined, he assured.

The irritation eventually resulted in the transition to Android. So far, some HP and Acer models are running the latest version of the Windows Mobile 10 platform (its support, observers believe, will be discontinued soon, and Windows smartphones will finally die by 2021).

In 2015, the new head of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, officially admitted the failure of Windows Phone.

“The smartphone boom has shown that Windows Phone is significantly behind Android and iOS, and we are late for that train,” Nadella said.

Closed file system

What exactly led to manufacturers and application developers starting to abandon Windows Phone and opt for Android?

Ballmer believes Nokia acquisition will accelerate Windows Phone growthSpeaking about the recently announced deal to buy Nokia's smartphone business, Ballmer said it would "accelerate the growth of Windows Phone and strengthen the overall device ecosystem."

Experts consider the main disadvantage to be primarily the underlying closed file system, which causes compatibility problems for applications and prevents their full operation. Unlike Android, the interface of Windows Phone and Windows Mobile has limited options for customizing applications. The smartphone does not have Google services, which makes it inconvenient to work with setting up contacts. And finally, there are many fewer applications for this platform compared to Android.

“Success is a terrible teacher,” Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said. The corporation itself, a long-time leader in the PC operating systems market, has stepped on the same rake. As it turned out, Microsoft was not ready for the advent of the post-computer era.

"Google and Apple moved forward with modern operating systems, while Microsoft continued to treat mobile devices as a third-party by-product," observers say.

Lack of change and sluggishness

Experts point out that there have been no changes since the advent of Windows Mobile 6.1. iOS and Android updated their design and functionality every year. There was no talk about this in Windows Phone - the system remained monolithic and static.

“What kind of personalization? This is the eternal strict office style, the Explorer web browser and the permanent cut-and-paste function,” ironically notes the technology portal Quora.

Application developers quickly realized that their products looked much more attractive on fast-growing platforms than on Windows. Currently, there are only about 165 thousand applications in the Windows Phone Store catalog. For comparison: there are about 900 thousand of them in the AppStore, and almost a million in Google Play.

With the advent of Windows Phone 7.5, Microsoft tried to catch up, but it was too late. As a result, Microsoft found itself in the dust with Windows Phone 8: even Nokia’s high-quality hardware did not help, observers say.

What's next

IDC analysts have scheduled the “funeral” of Windows Phone for 2021 - by then it will completely disappear from the market, including the latest version of Windows Mobile 10. In the meantime, Microsoft does not intend to say goodbye to it and is releasing Microsoft Lumia phones based on it (in 2014 it bought Nokia's mobile devices business for €5.44 billion).

However, in the near future, Microsoft is going to “kill” Lumia and release its new Surface Phone smartphone with the same tiled interface. In April of this year, the company assured that it would reconsider its strategy and return to the mobile market with a new vision and new ideas. The market, however, has no doubt that Microsoft will not be able to step into the same river twice.

Windows Phone is the operating system of the software giant Microsoft, created specifically for mobile (laptop) computers - tablets and smartphones.
Windows Phone 8.1, a new and improved version of this operating system for portable devices, was released about a year after the release of the original version, Windows Phone 8.
What changes await users in the new version, how well has Microsoft taken into account the wishes of ordinary users and corrected the errors? We will try to answer all these questions in this article.

Updates to the Windows Phone 8.1 Start screen interface

The first acquaintance of the owner of a smartphone running Windows Phone 8.1 with this updated OS naturally begins with the desktop on his display (start screen). At first glance, there is nothing radically new here – it’s still the same tiled interface. But once you start using it, you quickly discover a number of convenient innovations.

This operating system provides 4 types of sizes for icons (shortcuts) of built-in programs. The largest icon display size allows you to view detailed information about applications and files. The layout of the start screen is designed to place shortcuts to folders and applications in 3 columns. With the minimum size of icons, 6 icons will fit in one column.

In Windows Phone 8.1, it became possible to select icons in groups so that you can later move them to another area of ​​the screen, delete them, or simultaneously change their size.

The situation with desktop wallpaper is simple. Since the screen is cluttered with icons, and in Nokia smartphones they all also have an internal fill, the wallpaper picture is barely visible. There is, however, an interesting feature - you can set the desktop wallpaper to change according to a schedule. It is also possible to make the fill transparent - then the desktop background will be clearly visible.

Among a number of useful innovations in the work of the start screen, it is worth noting the direct download of files to it by default, which frees you from the need to search later for where the downloaded file was saved.

It has become possible to synchronize desktops on the screens of all your devices running Windows Phone 8.1.

Microsoft programmers have returned the Start button, which was missing from the first eight. True, it has almost nothing in common with the functions of a similar button in Windows for PC. Here, in essence, it is just a shortcut that is assigned the option to go to the list of applications.

Functional changes in the interface

They affected, in particular, the mechanism for controlling fingers and buttons, typing, and accessing applications from the lock screen.

The status bar at the top of the display now shows more detailed information about the battery charge in percentage, an icon for mobile Internet connection (EDGE, 3G, 4G).
If you pull the curtain from top to bottom (by clicking on the status bar and sliding down without releasing your finger), then under the fixed line you will find a widget for controlling auto-rotation, backlight brightness and wireless communications.

Below here, as expected, is the notification center, which displays various notifications from applications - about incoming messages, letters, calendar events, available application updates. Android users have long been accustomed to all this. It's a pity that Microsoft realized this so late.

Screenshots can now be taken by simultaneously pressing the volume rocker and the power button. Separately for volume control - finally, it can now be configured separately for notifications, calls and multimedia!

The keyboard has been modified and improved quite seriously. Typing text and selecting a suggested option from the dictionary is done by swiping (a single touch on the screen, and then, without lifting your finger from it, move over the letters that make up the word being entered). Entering numbers has become possible without switching from the alphabetic to the numeric layout (by long pressing the corresponding key).

Working with mail and sending SMS

Sending SMS has now become an order of magnitude more advanced. Firstly, thanks to the Cortana voice assistant, which allows you to dictate the text of the message itself and the name of the recipient. The text of several messages can now be combined by dragging and dropping and forwarded to the subscriber.

Windows Phone 8.1 - Inbox button on home screen

For some reason, Microsoft decided to remove the ability to send instant messages over the Internet directly from the contact card. Not a big loss, considering that most people prefer Viber for chatting with people from their contact list.

This new operating system now fully supports Google email services and many others. To fully launch and work with them, you need to allow them access in the appropriate settings item.
After updating the old Windows background to version 8.1, you will be asked to log in again or register a new account if you do not already have one. This is most likely an integral part of the policy for collecting information about user activity, which includes some innovations in working with Wi-fi.

Voice assistant Cortana and the ability to search for the information you need

A new voice assistant called Cortana, in addition to the ability to enter text by voice, allows you to ask a search engine a query by voice and receive the results of your query in the browser (or even hear the answer from it out loud!). Yes, yes, you can now talk to the phone!

It is also possible to search for the necessary information on the phone or tablet itself - a contact, an event, or something else. Launch Cortana by pressing and holding the search button, which looks like a mirror, or by pressing the microphone icon.
By the way, the search began to produce more understandable and informative results. Now it displays files and applications found on the device in groups by relevance, so it’s easier for you to figure out which icon means what.
You can start playing audio directly from the list of found files; a link to search results on Wikipedia is also provided upon request.
Cortana can also make a phone call to the person you need or execute another command to control your smartphone. To do this, you can simply tell her what exactly needs to be done.

In general, everything in Cortana is very, very similar to the already familiar voice assistant in Android 5 Lollipop.

If you don't enable Cortana, your Internet search results will be returned to you by the Microsoft-owned Bing search engine.
By the way, it has already implemented a photo search function, and the corresponding application is already installed on a smartphone running Windows Phone. Photo search allows, for example, to scan a QR code and get the information encrypted in it. Or scan the text, make a request from it to a search engine and then see the results. To launch it, you need to launch the camera, click “Photo Application” (looks like a circle depicting the camera lens) and from there turn on Photo Search.

Calendar and events

The calendar has been slightly improved. It now has day, week and month views.
The day view displays the day's date, scheduled activities and events for that day that you can trigger audio alerts for, and the weather.

Contacts

The Contacts application has also been improved, made more user-friendly, the ability to filter contacts without phone numbers added so that they do not interfere with the search for people to call, and its appearance has been improved.

Wi-Fi and wireless networks

A “Wi-Fi Control” section has appeared in the Wi-Fi connections menu. It has a function for remembering the selection of hot spots (access points). In the future, the smartphone will automatically connect to the available connection. By the way, a similar principle is implemented in iOS from Apple.

The Wi-Fi Sense option offers something truly new. It allows you to automatically send saved passwords to Wi-Fi hotspots to contacts from Skype, Facebook and Outlook. Users will not see the passwords themselves, but will be able to instantly connect to access points from their Windows Phone devices.

Microsoft Camera

In the application of the same name, it became possible to take serial photos - that is, take several frames in a row after a single click on the corresponding button.

Many camera settings have been added and it is now possible to use many professional photography functions.

Multimedia management has been divided into separate applications. Playback of audio files is launched from the Xbox Music application, from which you can search, listen and download new songs from the Internet.

Podcasts (audio recordings of any events, television or radio programs) are now also located and launched in a separate application.

The same is done for video and FM radio.

A screen reader appears that reads aloud the text displayed on the display.

Games were returned to the general list of applications along with other programs built into the operating system. It can be seen if you swipe your finger across the desktop from right to left.

Problems found in the updated operating system

Software that is not optimized for the Windows Phone 8.1 shell will launch with the appropriate size of operating buttons and elements, which is not always convenient when working on a small-diagonal display. Alternatively, you can rummage through the Windows Store in search of an analogue.

Windows von 8.1 does not allow connecting Bluetooth keyboards to smartphones and tablets.

Conclusion

So, Windows Phone 8.1 revealed its own rather successful discoveries and improvements. Although some shortcomings that distinguish this OS from Android and iOS 9 for the worse are still clearly indicated. Today, this is partly compensated by the updated Windows Store application store with a more user-friendly interface and an increased range of multimedia programs, including browsers for viewing sites on the Internet, and development tools.
Overall, it is a fairly fast and inexpensive operating system. And buying a device that runs on it will be quite profitable for you, since their prices are in the middle price segment (that is, much cheaper than Apple products).
In addition, its improvement does not stop for a minute.

Nokia and Microsoft smartphones are now produced and sold with this OS (prices, characteristics and photos of which are still on the page about Nokia smartphones).

Microsoft officially announced Windows Phone 8 in San Francisco. The new Windows Phone 8 system will offer resizable tiles, customizable colors, and updates, and more. This Windows Phone release will have the Windows kernel. It will be based on the solid core operating system Windows 8.

This will mean that Windows Phone 8 will have common networking capabilities, security issues, media and web browser technologies, a common file system, translation to higher performance, more features, and new opportunities for app developers and hardware manufacturers to rapid innovation.

Windows Phone 8 will support encryption, secure boot, device management, and application deployment. This will be of particular interest to business users. Windows Phone 8 will also support NFC and offer the most comprehensive features on any smartphone.

The new Launch Screen offers a new palette of theme colors and three Tiles sizes, all of which can be customized.

Other Features:

1. Support multi-core processors
2. Larger, sharper screen. It will support two new screen resolutions – 1280?768 and 1280 x 720?.
3. Also supports replaceable MicroSD memory cards
4. NFC wireless sharing.This new cordless phone technology allows things to be separated over short distances.
5. Support Internet Explorer 10
6. Windows Phone 8 has a new Digital Wallet It puts debit and credit cards, coupons, boarding passes and other important information right at your fingertips. And when combined with a secure SIM card from your operator, you can also pay to have your phone connected to you with just one tap. compatible cash register.
7. Better maps and directions with built-in Nokia mapping.
8. Windows Phone Marketplace already has 100,000 applications and games.

Take a look at the screenshots below of Windows Phone 8.

Windows Phone 8 is expected in 2012 Q4 - probably only after the Windows 8 operating system is officially released.

Will Windows Phone 7 users receive the Windows Phone 8 update, and if so, how to update? The answer is No. ButWindows Phone 7 looks too neat! If you liked this post, you can leave a comment in the form below.

P.P.S. If you have any problems or need additional help, don't hesitate to ask. We have a special, dedicated thread installed on our site to combat any questions you may have.

Desktop

Windows Phone 8.1 makes it easier to use your smartphone. By swiping to the right, you immediately get to the list of applications. Swiping left takes you back to the desktop.

The desktop itself allows you to pin anything to the screen. These can be applications, websites, individual letters from mail, contacts, which makes the desktop very visual and easy to use.

Navigation is carried out using three touch buttons located at the bottom of the screen.

The horizontal arrow allows you to return or cancel an action. If you hold your finger on the button, a list of all open applications will appear.

The windows button is a button that returns to the desktop screen.

Search button – opens the browser. If you hold your finger on the search button for a while, the Cortana voice assistant opens.

This is a virtual voice assistant designed to replace the standard search engine. In fact, it combines many functions. Cortana plays music, creates notes, displays reminders, even sends SMS messages.

App StoreWindows Phone

If the basic functions and applications existing on a smartphone are not enough, you can visit the Windows Phone application store and download what you need.

KeyboardWorld Flow

The keyboard allows you to type without lifting your finger from the keyboard, with an auto-correct feature.

Notification Center

Standard for all mobile operating systems, a “curtain” that unifies notifications from various applications, calls, SMS, and so on.

Split volume slider

A separate volume slider allows you to differentiate the sounds of calls and notifications from multimedia and applications.

Branded applications fromMicrosoft.

Branded applications from Microsoft make the OS even more relevant. Windows Phone 8.1 will offer many useful programs already pre-installed:

Office - a set of office programs.

Health and fitness is a unique application for those who lead a healthy lifestyle. The application contains a list of workouts, with detailed descriptions of the exercises; allows you to create a diet; contains a database of medical symptoms for self-diagnosis.

Travel is an application that allows you to plan trips in advance. The application contains information about different cities of the world, with photographs of attractions, and information about hotels, restaurants, flights, and more.

Games is an application that syncs with Xbox Games. The application shows the results as well as a list of achievements.

Sports - the application accumulates a news base of events from various sports, with a selection of photographs.

OneNote is the creator of notes that you can easily pin to your desktop.

Internet Explorer

Data monitoring - allows you to monitor Internet traffic.

Outlook is an email client.

Basic settingsWindows Phone 8.1

Here we describe the most interesting, from the user's point of view, smartphone settings.

Desktop customization

If you go to the settings section, you will notice how it is not rich in customization options. This, in turn, is connected with the “tiled” style of desktop design in WP 8.1: after all, there’s really nothing to customize. However, enough of the lyrics.

By and large, setting up a desktop consists of 4 points:

There are two options here: either white or light background. Depending on the selected background, the font color naturally changes. The dark background of the smartphone screen will correspond to a white font, and the light background will correspond to black.

2. Color of elements (“tiles”).

Here you can choose any color.

3. Desktop background.

Here it is possible to set your own desktop background, which was absent in Windows Phone 8. In this case, the tiles will look transparent - the background of a previously installed picture or photograph will be visible through them. In this case, the choice of photo is carried out not only from photos and pictures located on the device, but also from the OneDrive cloud storage network. However, the downside is that, unfortunately, not all tiles become transparent, which makes the desktop background not very harmonious.

4. Adding a third strip of tiles.

This is done so that it is possible to pin as many more application tiles.

Accounts

This menu configures Microsoft accounts, mail, and social networks.

Lock screen

The lock screen allows you to customize the background, notification apps, short notification apps, and turn off the lock screen and password.

Notifications

The notifications menu allows you to customize notifications for individual apps and settings.

Children's

The smartphone has the ability to set up a “children’s room”. By activating the nursery, parents can select a list of applications, music, games and videos that will be available in the nursery. After this, a password is placed on the standard lock screen so that the child cannot access the smartphone. The next time the child gets his hands on a phone, he will only have access to those applications that were chosen by his parents.

Battery Saving

The smartphone also has a function that allows you to save battery. As soon as the charge level drops to a critical level, usually 10-20% of the remaining charge, the charge saving function is activated. The “Battery Saver” menu also shows the remaining charge time and the time the device was last charged. By swiping to the right, you can get information about battery usage by individual applications.

Pscreen projector

A function that allows you to display the contents of your smartphone on a TV screen, monitor or projector.

Backups

The function allows you to create backup copies of applications, settings, SMS, as well as photos and videos stored on your smartphone.

Synchronization

This feature allows you to synchronize theme settings, applications, Internet Explorer and passwords in the cloud.

In car

In the car mode allows you to configure your smartphone so that notifications, calls, SMS do not distract the driver from the road.

Device information

Shows information about the phone: name, smartphone model, OS version, etc.

Spam filter

Allows you to block calls and SMS from unwanted contacts.

Additionally

Shows the version of the software product.

Conclusion:

Microsoft has released an excellent software product that is suitable for different categories of people, such as students, businessmen or children. Of course, compared to its competitors, the share of devices running Windows Phone 8.1 is small, but it is growing steadily. A very simple and clear design, as well as the quality of pre-installed applications, make interaction with your smartphone even more convenient and enjoyable.