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by Joe Levi | May 17, 2013 12:01 AMRead OnYou may be hearing about Intel's missed opportunity to put their chip inside the iPhone. But what about Microsoft's lost opportunity? It seems like quite a while ago, but it hasn't been that long. Microsoft was on top of the world. They were quickly approaching their goal of a computer on every desk and in every home -- and were pushing boldly outward, finding a welcome spot in briefcases and backpacks. Then they decided to "go smaller". Windows CE Some of you may recall Windows CE, Microsoft's "compact environment" (though they claim that's not what "CE" stood for. Microsoft pushed ...
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by Michael Fisher | May 16, 2013 1:47 PMRead OnLast we checked, there are 52 weeks in a year - but you wouldn't know it, given the announcement schedule of some major players in the tech space. Companies vying for the attention of fickle consumers often stack their events one right after the other in a strategic attempt to undermine competitors, sometimes hosting major announcements just days -or even hours- apart. Sometimes, it's all a tech podcast team can do to keep up. Such a thing happened this week, with Nokia preempting Google's annual I/O developer conference with an announcement of its own: the Lumia 925, a mid-cycle Windows ...
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by Taylor Martin | May 14, 2013 4:18 PMRead OnIn the mobile space, while most hardware OEMs are multi-million dollar corporations with tens of thousands of employees, only a select few are turning a profit and thriving. Even some of the most reputable brands in the industry – HTC, Motorola, LG, Huawei, etc. – are struggling to get a foothold in the smartphone realm. With major re-branding and a fresh start in 2011 and the beginning of 2012, we didn't exactly expect Nokia to recover from years of turbulence overnight. But we did hope it would impact the company … positively. Now, over one year later, the company is still slipping ...
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by Michael Fisher | May 14, 2013 1:10 PMRead OnWell, we're about six hours past the announcement of the latest Windows Phone out of Finland, the Nokia Lumia 925, so it's about time to start armchair quarterbacking. Everyone ready? Good. Let's hit it. What do you do when your flagship Windows Phone (indeed, your only flagship phone, period) is well-received by the marketplace, but draws criticism for a few elements of its design? Well, you correct those deficiencies in the next flagship, of course. But what if you want to address those concerns sooner, while also broadening the number of carriers which offer your device? Answer: you ...
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by Adam Doud | May 14, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnAhh the great debate. Memory card slot vs. no memory card slot. HTC One vs. Samsung GS4. Lumia 920 vs. Lumia 820. We've heard over and over that a memory card is or isn't important when it comes to a device. The main reason for being anti-memory card is, “It doesn't really save you anything because apps can't install to anything but the primary drive. And that's all fine and good if you choose to not explore the full capabilities of your phone. Recently, the Pocketnow staff wrote opinions on whether we felt the HTC One was a better device or the GS4. To a man, we almost all agreed that ...
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by Adam Doud | May 13, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnOn the eve of their big London announcement, Nokia might have a problem. Once, far and away the favorite to take Microsoft on a ride of profit and swing dancing, Nokia has failed to take advantage of it's position as Fresh Prince of Windows Phone to gain any significant market share. Windows Phone still finds itself an uber-distant third in the smartphone marketplace and while Nokia has done an admirable job making quality hardware, it hasn't quite gotten the job done in the flying off the shelves department. Now Microsoft might have to take the reins and ride this horse to the finish ...
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by Adam Z. Lein | May 10, 2013 6:36 AMRead OnEvery time Nokia announces another "Asha" low-end phone there are always people out there trying to extrapolate that into an indication that Nokia is giving up on Microsoft and abandoning the Windows Phone operating system that they are supposedly so committed to. *cough*VentureBeat*cough*TheVerge*cough* The truth is that Nokia has never stopped working on low-end inexpensive phones running their s40 operating system and have consistently been releasing new versions of these types of phones the whole time. Back in 2011, during the Nokia Windows Phone announcement, they said outright ...
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by Joe Levi | May 9, 2013 10:59 AM
Read OnAny respectable company wants to grow its user-base. Companies can't stay stagnant, they have to grow, or they will be eaten up by their competition. Microsoft isn't going to be eaten up any time soon, but their smartphone platform isn't growing -- at least not compared to their competition. It shouldn't come as a surprise for anyone who has been following the news: Windows Phone is still a distant third in the smartphone race. What's a mega-corporation like Microsoft to do in this situation? Try to steal Android users, of course! Android and iOS dominate the market, and Microsoft knows ...
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by Michael Fisher | May 9, 2013 7:01 AMRead OnMost new-device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review. Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity. For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not ...
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by Adam Z. Lein | May 9, 2013 6:22 AMRead OnAn updated Foursquare app for Windows Phone has been awaited for a long time and it's finally here. The previous Foursquare app was pretty much unchanged since it's first release around the original launch of Windows Phone 7 a few years ago. With version 3, Foursquare sees a complete overhaul that brings it up to speed with the mobile apps on other platforms and surpasses them in some ways. The feature I was most excited about; speech UI integration, was unfortunately not implemented as nicely as it could have been. The "Foursquare check in" command only brings you to the ...
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by Taylor Martin | May 7, 2013 4:11 PMRead OnSmartphones today are capable of much more than they were just two or three years ago. It's no secret. Advancements in technology and software have made that possible. It's those very improvements and expanded capabilities that have forced us to reevaluate how we weigh our smartphone purchases. What was important to us in a phone two years ago may not be today. For example, excessive lag was a major problem in 2008 through 2011, particularly for Android smartphones. But Jelly Bean was the beginning of the end of intermittent lag and performance hiccups for Android flagships; although still ...
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by Adam Doud | May 7, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnWindows Phone has built it's brand for being the phone built around you. But Windows Phone customization is severely lacking, once you move beyond small, medium and large tiles. Fundamental operating system tasks have been locked into Microsoft's own provided services and there are either better options that can't be used or in more cases zero other options for everyday tasks in Windows Phone. Not long ago, when Facebook Home made its triumphant debut, I switched from Windows Phone back to Android. Since then circumstances have forced me to remain on the big green bot. I remain enamored ...
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by Anton D. Nagy | May 4, 2013 4:21 AMRead OnApple increases lead over Samsung in the U.S., according to the latest numbers from comScore, referring to the quarter ending March 2013. We've recently seen a visualization of Apple and Samsung growth over time but as far as these two main competitors are concerned, in America, the iPhone-maker is still holding its number-one spot. Apple grew from 36.3% last December to 39% at the end of March 2013, as far as the share of total smartphone subscribers is concerned. Samsung has also seen a growth, slight though, from 21% to 21.7%, meaning Apple has managed to distance itself compared to its ...
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by Adam Doud | May 1, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnMy esteemed colleague, Stephen Schenck, wrote yesterday that by the time Windows Phone 9, or whatever it will be called, comes out Nokia may be the only player left at the Windows Phone blackjack table. It got me to thinking – it's not completely crazy and could easily happen. Nokia enjoys a special relationship with Microsoft – a sort of friends with benefits kind of relationship. Microsoft pays Nokia, Nokia pays Microsoft, Nokia puts together a nice little perk package in Windows Phone 8, most notably Here, the artist formerly known as “Maps”. Nokia has also spearheaded major ...
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by Adam Doud | April 30, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnLast week, I waxed poetic on why Windows Phone can't afford to not jump into the quad core fray. Most of the reasoning behind the opinion was based on marketing, pure and simple. Quad core is greater than dual core in the eye of the average consumer. So, in order to gain that priceless market share that we all know and love, it was reasoned that if you want to win hearts and minds, it will have to be done with four shiny cores resting snugly in the belly on the Lumia 980 Epic Superphone Plus. “Quad Core” is a marketing sign that writes itself. But when it comes down to brass tacks, ...
Posts tagged with: Windows Phone