this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Damn, that's interesting!

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Microsoft holding a “funeral” for the iPhone after launching the Windows Phone 7 (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 9 months ago by sjmarf to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Also almost every app had a iOS and android version and without a big userbase there was no incentive to make another version for windows phone as well. So if they'd got it to market sooner before android took off, a lot of app devs might have made a windows version instead of an android version.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

But they were first to market!

The had a smartphone 7 years before Apple. The app store problem was they couldn't believe consumers would pick a device where you had to buy apps from Apple. Windows phone was like Windows desktop. You went to a store and bought a CD with the app or you went to a website and downloaded it.

There were custom touch friendly skins for Windows phone even before the iPhone.

They only needed to put skin on Windows Phone, up the hardware specs, corrale the existing apps into a store, and they could have matched the iPhone immediately. Instead the new Windows phone team created to compete with the iPhone fell for the old "this needs a complete rewrite" trap that new developers always fall for. Worse, they dropped the 7 phone and did another complete rewrite for the 8 phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It seems you're confusing Windows Phone with Windows Mobile. They really are (were) separate products with minimal overlap

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah, I used the wrong marketing names. They kept changing the name every few years Windows CE, Palm sized PC, PocketPC, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone. I switched to Android after Windows Mobile. My point was they didn't have to be separate. Windows CE with data came out 9 years before the iPhone. There was a large market of apps. I had a Philips Nino in 1998. It had voice recognition for simple tasks ("Nino dial Chris") and a cf slot to add features like a modem.

There were third party skins for Windows CE that added finger friendly touch so you didn't need the stylus for most things. Windows and Office were successful because they never threw out everything and started over. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah I actually had a windows mobile 6.5 phone, it was quite good except it had a crappy resistive touch screen and most of the apps for it had tiny buttons that required you to use the stylus. Felt more similar to a pda with data than a modern phone. Windows phone 7 was streets ahead.