My thoughts on why Windows Phone isn't attracting customers

Posted by Spawnroll on May 30, 2012 09:55 am 92

First of all, I want to say that this is merely my opinion. I've read a lot about WP and if I had ever owned a WP, then you can call me its fan. I really want WP to succeed but it doesn't seem like it will sell in large volume any time soon. I don't think the problem lies in the competence of the OS but more so in the aesthetics department. While ios and Android are both "grids of static icons", Windows Phone uses tiles that display live information. Tech savvy users and anyone who follows tech blogs will probably agree that this approach is refreshing. We like the WP ui. We like it because it's so different from the other smartphone Oses, it's so fresh and original. But what about the normal everyday people? They don't follow tech blogs and read articles on iPhones, Android devices, WP devices, etc. They don't normally look at the same "grids of static icons" day after day. Because of this, the significance of how fresh the WP ui becomes diminished. They don't care if it's different. I think for the average person, if you give him a photo of WP's home screen and a photo of Android homescreen, the average person would think Android is better looking than Windows Phone. When you look at the home screen of a Windows Phone, you see a few chunks of mainly monochromatic blocks. There might be one tile that displays a picture, but that's only one out of so many tiles. For the most part, you see boring one-colored big squares outlined by a beam of black space to the right. For Android or iOS, you get to personalize your home screen. You can customize the background with a wall paper or in Android, you could utilize widgets as well. The weather widget has become an icon for the Sense ui. And the "grids of static icons"? I actually think that they, in a way, make the homescreen prettier as well. The icons provide different colors to the homescreen. As opposed to having one central color run throughout your homescreen, you get vibrant colors from the mixture of your wallpaper, widgets (in Android), and app icons.