press.nokia.com
They look great and sound great on paper. But the last versions did as well and it didn't matter. Why will this be any different?
MG Siegler
is talking with
Yeah, they had to cut the price of the old ones in half. I don't see anything really compelling here.
The fact the software is not ready (has it slipped?) does not bode well. If the phones could have gone on sale TODAY...
Right, no ship date. That's ridiculous. This thing cannot afford to get beat to market by the iPhone 5, but that's now clearly going to happen.
Oh, and no price?
Lack of price means lack of seriousness by carriers. See my Geekwire post...
You had me at "expected to start shipping in select markets later in the year".
I played around with both models this morning. (Had to woo a Windows Phone team member because we technically weren't allowed to touch.) The 920 is definitely a big improvement over the 900. Screen resolution/brightness are finally on par with Galaxy S III and iPhone. I noticed that right away. And the hardware features are impressive (camera, mittens-friendly touchscreen, wireless charging).
The problem is Windows Phone 8. Cool hardware tweaks mean nothing if Windows Phone 8 still stinks. I saw nothing in Belfiore's WP8 demo that blew me away. But I spoke to Frank Shaw before the event. He said more stuff coming for WP8. Kind of odd they're announcing this stuff in stages.
Microsoft isn't after the iPhone with their W8 phones. They want to take a piece of the fragmented Android market, and they still have a chance.
Agree with Kirill. Much more compelling UI than Android, in my opinion…
Sad that at a launch event you have woo someone just to touch the device.
Steve - But as Charlie suggests above, doesn't that just reek of Microsoft *still* not being ready for prime time with Windows Phone? It's not like they're trying to compete with some stale, complacent old guard, they're competing with companies that are innovating just as fast (if not faster) than they are.
All of this is inexcusable. Microsoft was already a couple years later to the dance. Now they're *still* just sitting outside in their car in the parking lot refusing to go in.
I blame a lot of that on Ballmer… he never was that sharp when it came to predicting success and trends…
MG – Agreed. I'm sick of seeing demos of unfinished stuff. Not trying to make excuses for WP8. Not at all. I think the more interesting theme here is that Nokia is forced to make hardware innovations (which it does well!) and hope and pray Microsoft doesn't screw up the OS...again.
MG Siegler added Clayton Morris and Tim Gorree.
Spent some time with the phones today and they are very nice. When I tried to unlock it and play with the OS the 920 was unceremoniously ripped from my hands. These things are not ready for prime time and day time programming is a shrinking audience.
Regardlessof the price, this could be different because the sum of experiences might be greater than each on their own.
1. Wireless charging - Qi everywhere? +1
2. Optimised imaging stabilisation (OIS) +1
3. Free Voice Guided Maps + City Lens Augmented Reality browser with built in smart motion sensor controls +2
4. Nokia Music. Free +1
5. Live Tiles. Saving you 0.1 seconds because you dont have to open an app might not seem like a lot, but these things tend to add up fast. So Live Tiles = Realtime Information on my homescreen saves me time +1
6. Design +1
7. Expected build quality +1
