Microsoft says that Windows Phone 8 is secure in its position as the third major smartphone platform and the company is not worried about BlackBerry 10.
According to a report from the Verge, Windows Phone product manager Larry Lieberman spoke at Microsoft’s Build conference saying: ‘We think we’re solidly the third ecosystem right now. That’s a huge announcement in some respects.’
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On the subject of BlackBerry, he added: ‘I don’t think they can bring to the tablet some of the things we have. The fact like we’re delivering across such a different set of price points to such a large audience.’
Of course, Microsoft isn’t content to sit in the third spot behind Apple and Google, with Lieberman alleging the Windows Phone platform is ‘growing faster than anyone else right now.’
There is still a massive gap, however, between Windows Phone 8 and the current leaders – Android and iOS and it’s difficult to see how Microsoft could close it. Nokia is pushing out a very comprehensive set of handsets at a pretty rapid rate and although it’s miles ahead of competing OEMs within the Windows Phone space it is not forging too much headway for Microsoft in the wider smartphone marketplace.
The question remains of whether consumer hesitance is based on the software, as the hardware choice seems to be quite wide-ranging for most needs and Nokia certainly now has the budget market covered with its Lumia 520.
It’s an odd situation. Adopters do seem to be a happy bunch, even Apple’s data shown at the recent WWDC conference claimed around 53 per cent of Windows Phone users were ‘very satisfied’, ranking second on the chart behind iOS’ 73 per cent.
But, there do seem to be people abstaining from taking up Windows Phone 8 due at least in part to the fact that certain key features remain missing.
The Verge raised the point of repeated customer feedback for a notifications centre on Windows Phone – something widely considered to be a basic necessity on smartphone platforms and long absent from Microsoft’s software.
Watching the Build live stream it was somewhat surprising to see no hints or announcements from Microsoft regarding Windows Phone 8, the company has not publicly outed any plans to add additional features and functionality.
The only thing working in Microsoft’s favour here is the fact that Google didn’t mention any Android improvements at Google I/O either.
It’s Apple, which has remained relatively dormant on software changes for so long, that is really ramping up the features in its next iOS build, iOS 7, but that, it seems is primarily because it has been behind for a while and is playing catch-up.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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