Editorial: I think we're reaching Window's Phone's promised potential.

Posted by jhmapleyB on September 19, 2012 02:23 pm 8

It’s so clear now! Even thought it’s taken a WHOLE iteration (WP7 to WP8), I think that we’re finally beginning to see what Microsoft was going for with Windows Phone, since it launched in 2010.

It was all there from the beginning. They we’re advertising speed and ease of use. Remember the whole “Get in and get out” mantra of the early Windows Phone commercials? They we’re selling the speed and personality of Windows Phone, but the hardware was NOWHERE NEAR where it should have been for it to be successful. Terrible.

But then…Nokia happened.

After that purchase, I was like “Maybe, I should look into that whole Windows Phone business”. It was so freaking apparent then! The Lumia was the direction that Windows Phone was heading in! It was colorful, it was beautiful and the hardware only accentuated (right word?) the software. It’s like they were meant for each other, and they kind of were.

Not to mention the camera aspect of post-Lumia/Nokia Windows Phone. Nokia is a company known for their AMAZING phone cameras, and there was a huge emphasis on the camera and the camera quality in the Lumia. It may have just been the product of good marketing/branding, but it felt like the camera was a little more than an afterthought in that device.

(Not to say that cameras in other phones are afterthoughts)

When Windows Phone 8 rolled around [was announced], all the Lumia-folks were like “Are…we gonna get some of that VIII hotness?” and then Balmer rained on their polycarbonate parade by saying “You guys’ll be getting Windows Phone 7.5. It’s like WP8, but it’s not”

I’m not sure about you, but that really damaged my trust in Microsoft’s ability to deliver, but then I read more into it, it there cause was more important for the future of modern-Microsoft and the Windows brand/OS itself.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one”

Spock and Kirk.

Enter Lumia 920 and 820. That was really when the cartoon-owl version of Steve Balmer came and smacked me in the face and said “You are going to pay attention to this and you’re gonna like it!” and I do. The Lumia 920 is a gorgeous device and it feels like what the original Lumia 900 should have been (kind of like WP7 compared to WP8).

I won’t go over all the 920’s features - because there’s too many to name. With the 920/820 Nokia was separating themselves from the competition the boatload of features and them continuing the whole ‘Software is made do the software and vice-versa’ way of thinking made a lot of people pay attention to them, in the wake of the iPhone 5.

And ALL OF THAT brings me to today’s event:HTC’s NYC WP8 event. It seems like, WP8 is the Viagra in HTC’s relationship with Microsoft. Remember, in the Windows Mobile days HTC was a huge WM proponent (until Android took its place)

The 8X and 8S really feel like what a Windows Phone device should be, Colorful, personal, Minimal, Beautiful, Expertly designed, Powerful and generally something that you’d want to look at, just like Windows Phone.

It’s taken it’s sweet time to get here, but I feel like Microsoft really has a winner on it’s hands now. If the OEM’s can keep up with what they consider to be a modern-Windows Phone (I.E Colorful and other adjectives), it could be an ACTUAL competitor doing its own, separate thing in a market that’s really hard to break into.

“Really?”