[cbaleanu]

So much hate for Microsoft. I'm at awe. Like one commenter on the article's page said, If Apple would do that kind of launch experiment, everybody would praise them for how revolutionay they are.

Microsoft has a real chance of claiming a big chunk of the market, not from Apple, but from the messy Android ecosystem, with a clear brand and a simple product lineup.

[rsl7]

It's not hate, it's a big sigh. Like -- jeeeeeeez. Some cool stuff bubbles up in Redmond once in a while, and it gets squashed, hobbled, cancelled, thwarted, squeezed, hidden.

[lawdawg]

People said the same exactly thing w.r.t Android when Windows Phone 7 was released. I think history speaks for itself.

[cbaleanu]

The WP7 was a flop indeed. They launched it almost without any backup. With the W8 product line however, they rebranded everything, creating an unitary brand image, much like Apple did a while ago. And that's why I did the Android statement. They provide to all the predominantly tech savvy users of Android an unified experience that is not Cupertino flavored.

[css771]

The tech savvy Android users? They would be the last people to switch to WP. That thing does not have a viable way to run unsigned applications. No proper multitasking, no proper notifications. What exactly about WP is supposed to attract tech savvy users?

[meaty]

Tech savvy user WP user here. I just bought a lumia 800 for very little cash over a galaxy s2. Why? It's actually less clunky than stock android or touchwiz. I haven't found a use for multitasking on the phone yet. Notifications are fine - I have no idea what you are talking about.

The lumia is actually to be as blunt as possible, fucking marvellous.

I doubt you've used one.

[css771]

I have used a friend's Lumia 900 running WP 7.5 actually.

I hate the fact that apps are not retained in memory long enough. They always start over. Also, launching an app from the home screen launches a new instance instead of resuming the current instance.

Notifications are even more terrible. There's no way to access previous notifications. There's no central place where all notifications live. You can't access them from the lock screen.

Yes, all these are quirks I've found as a tech savvy user. Because of these reasons, I cant see myself ever using WP.

Besides, just the fact that you cant run unsigned applications (and there's no viable "jailbreak") is an instant turn-off for power users. So, to suggest that these people will leave Android is hilarious at best.

[meaty]

I haven't experienced the retention issue myself. My pattern of usage is to only open from the tiles. I tend to use the back button to navigate through previous contexts (hold it down and then slide left/right to pick a task/open application).

Regarding notifications; you know about tiles right? They have status on them i.e. unread count etc. A notification is pretty just a poke in the ribs to check the tiles rather than a queue of things to do.

Jail-break and run unsigned apps? Yes there is for nearly all devices - see xda-developers.com. I really don't care about this myself though. Mobile telephones have never been open platforms. Even Android is a fragmented minefield in this respect.

It's just different.

[drivebyacct2]

How is it "less clunky" than stock Android?

[meaty]

Its more consistent, responds instantly to everything, 100% intuitive, never requires reference to a manual, silky smooth and everything was blatantly obvious, configuration was beyond easy for everything and everything works flawlessly straight away.

I spent 2 days with a loaned galaxy s2 first and it had none of the above. It was slow, clunky and inconsistent and pretty damn hard to get it to sync with my pc. It also lost outgoing emails when plugged into exchange.

The three other people I've shown it to (android users) remarked at how it is quite better than the diatribe against it and they found it intuitive.

[Joeri]

I bought a galaxy s2 for all of those tech-savvy reasons, to find out that one year later I don't actually use any unsigned apps and don't want to run down my battery with multitasking.

My wife got a lumia 710, and in many ways it's a better phone than my s2, the quality of the software is noticeably better (even of the 3rd party apps). My next phone is probably going to be a lumia.

[cbaleanu]

I would be delighted if you were to describe the proper multi-tasking in Android. I thought we had something called activities.

[css771]

What I meant by that is that, in WP, if I leave an app running, and then come back to the home screen and tap on that app's tile, it will start a new instance; not resume the old one. Also, WP closes apps way too early in the background.

[drivebyacct2]

I assume (s)he's referring to Services.

[vetinari]

I think that you are missing the factors why tech savvy users of Android use Android and not iPhone. It is not the vendor of the tech, it is what you can do with it. With WP8, Microsoft copied from Apple exactly those things, that Android users do not want.