With the Lumia 950/XL and Windows 10 Mobile now a reality, what do you think of Microsoft's chances?

[dgstorm]

"Announced on April 4th of 2014, the Lumia 930 was the acting flagship for Microsoft in the a year and a half leading up to the long-expected refresh in the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. In the interim, Microsoft says it was working harder than ever to ensure that Windows 10 for Mobile really changed things up for the struggling platform. A fine strategy by us — we assume as much by default anyway.

Fast forwarding to today, and we have both these products as a market reality. The Lumia 950 and 950 XL are both available to purchase since late November, and the duo comes with the Windows 10 code pre-loaded. The long wait is over, and though the holiday season is still ahead of us, it'll soon be time to ask some difficult questions. Like, did all the hard work pay off? Is Windows 10 the platform update that finally pushes Microsoft into contested territory? Or is it yet another meaningful, but ultimately futile effort that won't result in a break-up of the status quo?

Of course, it might be true that Microsoft needs more time to get developers —who can now build apps for all Microsoft platforms much easier— to really get down to work and at least narrow the long-standing app gap between Windows for mobile and competing Android and iOS. So we'll probably come back to this topic say, half a year down the line, but for now we'll contend ourselves with an early reading of the public. Said otherwise, that's enough talk —let's vote!"

As originally written over at: With the Lumia 950/XL and Windows 10 Mobile now a reality, what do you think of Microsoft's chances?

 

[kundas1]

chances are pretty slim when you have trouble with win 10 on the phone (battery trouble, low apps and win 10 problems) and add to the fact they only made like 10000 devices and buying one is a PITA because no place has them... stupid stuff like that will kill their chances....

 

[Moonsurface]

Personally I am interested in the 950. The camera interests me, win 10 interests me (but i'd get that on my Lumia 930 eventually anyway) and continuum interests me though in reality I'd probably never use it. I'm not about to jump straight to the 950 just yet though as there seems to be issues with win 10 (much like the SP4) so I'm happy to wait until the dust has settled a bit and to be honest my 930 is still an awesome phone and I'm looking forward to seeing what Win10 is like on it. One thing that does make me want to switch to a new lumia is Glance display. I didn't realise how useful that could be until my husband bought a 640XL with glance display. Unfortunately the 930 doesn't have the right kind of display and cannot support glance, and I'm so jealous!

 

[No_ax_to_grind]

Apps. It's all about the apps.

 

[Moonsurface]

I'm hoping universal apps will help the app situation - developers developing for just one place whcih then works on all devices might help. But it'll take a while before it happens.

As it is I've survived with a Windows phone since Sept 2014, it's not that bad, the Lumia apps are excellent. The worst is the Facebook app which is pants, but if I need to do things it cant' do I just use the browser, I have FB webpage pinned to my start screen, it's not so bad.

 

[GreyFox7]

To me there's only one thing that will bring Apps, money, large quantities of money and it's not like large quantities of money haven't been spent creating hardware to no avail (I can easily point out billions) but like pouring concrete into the ocean it's not going to set up and become something to build on without the form to hold the water out until it sets.

It's often been said that the small user base doesn't draw developers as there's such a small chance for earning money. The lack of apps doesn't draw the users so both problems feed off each other. Universal Apps? I'm still waiting for a great example of a universal app that will show this is the way. Until there is one it will be very difficult to get anyone to follow. Additionally it's not as if an app that works on a large screen automatically works on a small screen just as well there's still effort to be applied and without the return on investment the effort wont be made. Universal apps may lower the amount of investment but with such low return it's still not happening. This is where the money needs to go into building an app ecosystem by supplying the missing ingredient.

 

[kwright]

I'm on 8.1 with SP3 (awaiting the place holders that are promised in red stone) and 10 on everything else. I've been using a 950XL since release.

I think that the Surface line is better on a daily a basis and a result, the chances that consumers will consider a phone by Microsoft are improving as well.

The release of couple of phones will not bring the OS into a better position over night. This is something that will require continued commitment and time.


If I were in their marketing department I would work hard to bundle a phone to every tablet and offer a trade in to make it as painless as possible.

Everyone here knows the Surface phone with x86 architecture is on the way and as a result of this, web based applications with start menu tile book marks will go a long way to eliminating any advantage that others have in the market.

I expect a gradual improvement in market share until we see the Surface phone/tablet.