I’m often asked which phone to buy. Brands and model numbers mean little to me. What’s important is the operating system, in which case you have several choices. Among them, I prefer Android (of course). Apple’s iOS is also good, but I strongly recommend against buying a Windows phone.
\n
\nRather than unload on Microsoft — and after Windows 8 Microsoft deserves all the derision anyone can muster — I’m going to be specific as to why the Windows Phone is a poor choice.<\/p>\n
In a word: Zune<\/em>.<\/p>\n If you recall, the Zune was Microsoft’s belated hardware reply to the iPod. Once again proving that it’s nothing more than a “me too!” company, Microsoft foisted the Zune upon humanity as the most clever gadget ever to reach the consumer market.<\/p>\n Except for the iPod, of course.<\/p>\n Rather than improve upon the iPod, which was several years established at the time, Microsoft took a buncha engineers, blindfolded them, put them in a dark room the size of a basketball court. They were told to find the iPod hidden in the room and create something just like it. Or perhaps the directions were to create something that felt like an iPod, but which better simply because it wasn’t an iPod.<\/p>\n The Zune was a bust. Late to market, lacking in apps, and over-priced.<\/p>\n So along comes the Windows phone.<\/p>\n Apple was first with its iPhone back in 2007. Then came Google’s Android. Finally, arriving on the field around halftime, was Microsoft.<\/p>\n To prove that it’s serious, Microsoft has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars of promotions at its mobile devices. For example, they paid Lord Knows What to the NFL to promote their Surface tablets. Despite the promotions, the announcers still refer to the devices as “iPads.”<\/p>\n On the phone side, Microsoft is heavily subsidizing their Windows phones, both to manufacturers as well as the cellular providers. So for the consumer, what’s most visible are the ridiculously low prices. I get a phone call, “Hey! That’s Windows phone is so<\/em> much cheaper than the iPhone or an Android. Whaddya think?”<\/p>\n I think you’re a fool if you buy a Windows phone.<\/p>\n Sure, it’s a phone. Sure, it works to make calls. It has apps. It does all the crazy things you expect a phone to do.<\/p>\n Then again: Zune<\/em>.<\/p>\n When Microsoft finally capitulated that the Zune had failed, they just dropped it. Fast. No support. No apologies. No Zune.<\/p>\n Do you want that to happen to your phone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The question is whether or not you trust Microsoft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6642,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions\/6642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}