8 replies to this topic

[thesisko]

Hi all,

I'm going to buy a WP8 as soon as they are released. I'm a massive Samsung fan boy (got focus S WP7) because of their AMOLED screens and screen size. I'm seeing that recent Samsung WP8 hardware leaks are not that great in relation to Samsung S3 being better hardware and screen size and been out for a few months already.

Samsung S3 - 4.8 Super HD AMOLED Screen and quad core
Samsung Odyssey WP8- 4.65 HD AMOLED screen and dual core

Thing that gets up my nose is that you'll pay the same if not more for the wp8 phone. I would say that they might pay tops $50 for the OS. Also, the amount of development that they are putting into ICS and Jellybean would be possible cost $$ per handset.

Come on Samsung.

I'm hoping that Samsung will have WP8 on the Galaxy Note II.

Edited by thesisko, 31 July 2012 - 04:04 AM.

[logifuse]

Does the Odyssey have LTE? There's some issue with LTE & quad cores. For LTE in the Galaxy series, there's an updated S2 (dual core).

The S3 is very nice. I went from an S which I had custom rommed, etc & I thought it was pretty good. With the S3 all I've done is rooted & it's superb. Makes the less than 2 year old S seem ancient.

I posted a quote a few weeks back from late 2010 about Samsungs projections of numbers of WP handsets compared to Android. It couldn't have been further wrong (they were expecting to ship more WP than Android). You wonder if they've decided to just fulfil their WP obligations having decided that Android is the way to go.

Justin

[dgaust]

I wouldn't touch a Samsung WPx phone with a barge poll.... experience with the Omnia 7 and Focus have left an indelible mark on my soul. Not even a fan of the Samsung SAMOLED tech (especially as they're using the pentile version).

For me, I'll be waiting to see what Nokia bring to the table. I have a Lumia 800 now, and it's brilliant. The screen is by far the best screen I've ever used on a smartphone (including the iPhone 4 & aformentioned Samsung WP7 devices). While it's still a pentile matrix, the matrix is much less pronounced in the Nokia (possibly due to the smaller screen size) but it's the clear black technology that makes it. I can actually view the screen in direct sunlight with no problems, unlike the samsung or apple screens.

Add in the Nokia exclusive apps, the fact that Nokia are betting their future on WP8 as their sole smartphone platform (unlike Samsung who have Bada, Android and WP) then there should be interesting stuff coming from them.

HTC on the other hand are rubbish, even the top of the line phone (that's been leaked) only has a Super-LCD screen. And I always find their hardware + software offerings lacking.

[logifuse]

The high res (1280x720) of the new screens eliminates the pentile matrix issue (by sheer number & smaller pixel size). The S3 is great in full sun, but the S wasn't too flash.

The thing that would concern me most about getting a WP is how far behind it is in the aps department. Not talking about the core things, but aps from vendors of other things. Australian vendors are already behind in the Android dept, so what chance has WP got? e.g. the ABC has finally brought out an ABC Radio app that has parity with the iOS version, but the main ABC app for Android is miles behind iOS. Remote apps for specific hardware (e.g. Sonos controller), banking apps, Foxtel (their Android Olympics app is almost equal the iOS version, but is severely hardware restricted - managed to get it working on my S3 anyway), transport apps (especially gov't sourced ones - e.g. if the NSW Gov't ever get their act together in that dept).

We're such a small market, so if you're going to make an app for a specific geographic area (e.g. a Sydney Transport real time app from the NSW Gov't), you're going to do iOS & Android in parallel at this point in time (maybe even iOS 1st still). Could you justify WP for such a small market?

With Nokia behind it & the Windows 8 tie-ins, it should get a good push along, but the market is a bit catch-22. To get people in, you need the apps. To develop the apps, you need the user base. I dunno, is WP going for an overall market (competing with $49 Huaweis through to S3s), or a higher end market (i.e. iPhone land)? The latter is going to be very hard to crack.

Justin

[dgaust]

The thing that would concern me most about getting a WP is how far behind it is in the aps department. Not talking about the core things, but aps from vendors of other things. Australian vendors are already behind in the Android dept, so what chance has WP got?

Probably a lot more than you think. The difference between WP7 and WP8 is that the WP8 kernel is the same as that used by Windows 8. With Metro coming to Windows 8, I can see a lot of companies wanting to build apps for it (SBS have already done so). The step to migrating an app from Win8 to WP8 is far far shorter than creating an android or iPhone app.

The take up of Windows 8, especially in the tablet space, will be a driver behind metro app development. If a developer creates and app for Windows 8, it will be pretty easy (and almost a no brainer) to convert that app to Windows Phone 8.

Of course, that's the optimistic side of me.

With Nokia behind it & the Windows 8 tie-ins, it should get a good push along, but the market is a bit catch-22. To get people in, you need the apps. To develop the apps, you need the user base. I dunno, is WP going for an overall market (competing with $49 Huaweis through to S3s), or a higher end market (i.e. iPhone land)? The latter is going to be very hard to crack.

Nokia have a strategy of aiming for the low end, as well as the top end with their WP devices. Essentially targeting volume at the low end, and margins at the top end.

They already have a ~$200 prepaid device (Nokia 610), which while obviously not in the $49 league does provide a better experience.

The upmarket segment they do have a chance, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the iPhone in the next few years and whether they can keep it fresh. I know a number of people who have been iPhone for quite a while are looking for something fresh. They don't really consider app lock in a problem, and since Apple removed DRM from iTunes music their music is also able to be transferred (there may still be some DRM stuff floating about).

There's also the segment of people who've never owned a smartphone (or mobile for that matter), capturing those particular people when they enter the market is key.

[logifuse]

That's a good spread ($200 up). The bottom of the market can't have a lot of cream in it.

I sat in on a meeting at a business in Balmain a while back where the customer was shown the options of running the control apps for an automation system on either Android or iOS. The iOS demo tanked & had all sorts of problems, while the Android one went perfectly. The Android based system was also significantly cheaper (it was including the tablets for the system) & the vendor had stated that they were focussing on Android for future development (they're US based). Sold! Not.

This bloke sat there & despite all of that said, "we'll go with the iPads". When one of the guys pressed him about it later he basically admitted that it would be too embarrassing for someone to come in to his house & see "fake" iPads. That's the kind of mentality that you need to overcome to break in to that market among trend setters - I'm not sure the Windows brand can ever get there. It's still fighting the image of Bill Gates doing demos of 95/98 & having BSODs. We know everything has moved on massively since then, but it was at that time they started buying Apple gear. Never mind the small fact that MS Office basically saved Apple.

With the cross-over, it seems like that if Windows 8 takes off, WP8 will too, but if Windows 8 doesn't take off (& people do the "I'll wait for Windows 9" thing), will WP8 reach any heights?

Justin

[thesisko]

Most probably going Nokia. With what i'm reading, Samsung is going skimp on the hardware. I just hope that Nokia will have a large screen on the high end device.

Win8 is going to be a hugh success for MS. Business will jump at their intel tablets and eventually do away with notebooks etc. I don't think MS is too fussed about quick market success for wp8. They are big & ugly enough to wait it out. As long as they are growing year on year they can wait 10yrs for a decent market share. Nokia is more worried about success to the platform due to their woes. Apps will come quickly...and with the apps working across both RT and x86/64 developers will fall over themselves to belt out the apps.

Apple is the new PC guy. If they don't do something drastic with their dated ui, the try hard sheep apple users (upwards of 70%) will move away to android and wp8.

live long and prosper.

Edited by thesisko, 02 August 2012 - 03:28 PM.

[thesisko]

Does the Odyssey have LTE? There's some issue with LTE & quad cores. For LTE in the Galaxy series, there's an updated S2 (dual core).

The S3 is very nice. I went from an S which I had custom rommed, etc & I thought it was pretty good. With the S3 all I've done is rooted & it's superb. Makes the less than 2 year old S seem ancient.

I posted a quote a few weeks back from late 2010 about Samsungs projections of numbers of WP handsets compared to Android. It couldn't have been further wrong (they were expecting to ship more WP than Android). You wonder if they've decided to just fulfil their WP obligations having decided that Android is the way to go.

Justin

Odyssey will have LTE on dual core. Couldn't agree with you more, Samsung is backing Android as their choice OS. I only think they went MS to see if it took off and that google were starting to make their own hardware and the oem's were'nt sure what direction google was going to take. I think that android is worried about Bing on wp7/8, and reassured the oem's that they would develop android for all to use and keep google as the number one search engine moving forward.

Live long and prosper

Edited by thesisko, 02 August 2012 - 03:27 PM.

[logifuse]

Different Samsung model - ATIV S: http://windowsteambl...-this-year.aspx

Looks a lot like a Galaxy S with a brushed aluminium back, but dual core.

Justin