Eh? Microsoft and Windowsphone basically killed the only real alternative to Android and iOS when they did their hostile takeover of Nokia, and Windowsphone itself was an atrocity that luckily died rather quickly.
My first phone was a Windows Phone. It could send and receive calls and messages, and it had a crappy but functional web browser, but it didn’t have any of the fun apps my friends’ phones had.
Did you use Windows Phone or a phone running Windows Mobile?
There were very few Windows Phone devices. Windows Mobile, however, had a bunch. It was a PDA operating system that pre-dated iOS, Android, and Blackberry. It was a competitor to PalmOS.
It was faster than Android or iOS, better optimised, had massively better features (like People Hub, Message Hub, etc), and the best cameras on the market at the time.
But, yeah, it was an “atrocity” because you couldn’t install Snapchat…
Rudy Huyn. Ended up working at Microsoft. He was doing a bunch of apps, but I think you might be confusing Snapchat for Instagram. His Instagram app worked for a year or two, but Snapchat killed any attempt at a third party app immediately, as soon as they realised what’s going on.
“Tell me you never used an N900/N9 without telling me you never used N900/N9”
There, fixed it for you 😅
The Meego phones that Nokia had were miles ahead of WindowsPhone. I am not even talking about iOS and Android (Android was indeed also pretty bad back then).
No, my argument is that is was really bad compared to what it replaced on Nokia phones. The first Nokia WindowsPhones basically used the hardware of the N9 but with this horrible OS no one other than the Microsoft execs wanted.
Nokia never had a sliver of the smartphone market. It was always iOS vs Android.
Windows Phone (8, granted, but still) had around 21% in Europe at its peak.
So, not “only MS execs wanted it”, 1 in 5 people in Europe wanted it. And, if I remember right, in the US it was around 10%, which is still not bad considering Google, Snapchat and Facebook were actively attempting to kill it in the crib.
Nokia had an iOS killer with the N9 and Meego, but Microsoft bought Nokia’s phone subsidiary before it entered the market and subsequently killed it off after a very limited release. Windows phone was an atrocity compared to it and was only able to get some market share because Android was also pretty bad back then, and Nokia’s brand and excellent hardware continued to pull it along for some time despite the horrible OS. Especially in Europe the Nokia brand had real pull back then, which is why Microsoft spend billions on it.
I think your remembering might be biased.
The press reviews about Meego was dithyrambic and it was described as a serious challenger to Android and iOS.
The fresh new CEO Stephen Elop, who was coming straight from MS with a single task: get Nokia aquired by MS, was at length saying anywhere and everywhere before the launch that the N9 would be the very last ever hardware to run Meego even if it was be the best selling phone in the world historically! And he was adamant he would work to kill its support as quickly as possible, while some inner Nokia were vowing to support is. He got too late to stop the release, but he worked very hard to shoot it down!
So no, it didn’t have the market share, because the project was literally sabotaged by the CEO of Nokia himself!
We know the rest of the story: Nokia’s phone division got aquired by MS, Elop joined back MS (keep in mind Nokia was not just phones, but he didn’t care: his “job” was done).
The only mystery here is whether Elop tricked Nokia’s board by omitting that the phone part of the business being “aquired by MS” meant “burn it down until it’s cheap enough for MS” or if they were all in in that trick plan.
There should be a special hell for people like him.
Eh? Microsoft and Windowsphone basically killed the only real alternative to Android and iOS when they did their hostile takeover of Nokia, and Windowsphone itself was an atrocity that luckily died rather quickly.
“Tell me you never used Windows Phone without telling me you never used Windows Phone”
Eh never liked it.
My first phone was a Windows Phone. It could send and receive calls and messages, and it had a crappy but functional web browser, but it didn’t have any of the fun apps my friends’ phones had.
Did you use Windows Phone or a phone running Windows Mobile?
There were very few Windows Phone devices. Windows Mobile, however, had a bunch. It was a PDA operating system that pre-dated iOS, Android, and Blackberry. It was a competitor to PalmOS.
Both? Pretty sure I had this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_520
Looks like it ran the mobile version of Windows 8.
I have used WindowsPhone and it was strictly worse than Nokia’s Meego running on a N900/N9.
It was faster than Android or iOS, better optimised, had massively better features (like People Hub, Message Hub, etc), and the best cameras on the market at the time.
But, yeah, it was an “atrocity” because you couldn’t install Snapchat…
It got Snapchat in the end, there was some guy who made a whole bunch of missing apps, including a tinder app which worked better than the original.
Rudy Huyn. Ended up working at Microsoft. He was doing a bunch of apps, but I think you might be confusing Snapchat for Instagram. His Instagram app worked for a year or two, but Snapchat killed any attempt at a third party app immediately, as soon as they realised what’s going on.
There, fixed it for you 😅
The Meego phones that Nokia had were miles ahead of WindowsPhone. I am not even talking about iOS and Android (Android was indeed also pretty bad back then).
Soooo… Your argument for “Windows Phone was an atrocity” is that a completely different OS was better?
Make it make sense.
No, my argument is that is was really bad compared to what it replaced on Nokia phones. The first Nokia WindowsPhones basically used the hardware of the N9 but with this horrible OS no one other than the Microsoft execs wanted.
It’s such an insane comparison, Christ…
Nokia never had a sliver of the smartphone market. It was always iOS vs Android.
Windows Phone (8, granted, but still) had around 21% in Europe at its peak.
So, not “only MS execs wanted it”, 1 in 5 people in Europe wanted it. And, if I remember right, in the US it was around 10%, which is still not bad considering Google, Snapchat and Facebook were actively attempting to kill it in the crib.
Nokia had an iOS killer with the N9 and Meego, but Microsoft bought Nokia’s phone subsidiary before it entered the market and subsequently killed it off after a very limited release. Windows phone was an atrocity compared to it and was only able to get some market share because Android was also pretty bad back then, and Nokia’s brand and excellent hardware continued to pull it along for some time despite the horrible OS. Especially in Europe the Nokia brand had real pull back then, which is why Microsoft spend billions on it.
I think your remembering might be biased. The press reviews about Meego was dithyrambic and it was described as a serious challenger to Android and iOS.
The fresh new CEO Stephen Elop, who was coming straight from MS with a single task: get Nokia aquired by MS, was at length saying anywhere and everywhere before the launch that the N9 would be the very last ever hardware to run Meego even if it was be the best selling phone in the world historically! And he was adamant he would work to kill its support as quickly as possible, while some inner Nokia were vowing to support is. He got too late to stop the release, but he worked very hard to shoot it down!
So no, it didn’t have the market share, because the project was literally sabotaged by the CEO of Nokia himself!
We know the rest of the story: Nokia’s phone division got aquired by MS, Elop joined back MS (keep in mind Nokia was not just phones, but he didn’t care: his “job” was done).
The only mystery here is whether Elop tricked Nokia’s board by omitting that the phone part of the business being “aquired by MS” meant “burn it down until it’s cheap enough for MS” or if they were all in in that trick plan.
There should be a special hell for people like him.
Windows phones were underrated.
Which one 😁