Nokia made what I think is its best case for you buying a Windows Phone. No, wait, that’s not quite right. It, along with Microsoft made the case for you adopting the Windows Phone ecosystem: powerful, innovative hardware, tens of thousands of apps, and a flexible, people-centric OS that’s married to a much, much larger ecosystem of desktops, laptops and, soon, tablets.
The Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8 is the full realization of Microsoft’s mobile platform. It meets or beats many competitors on a wide variety of key hardware features, including wireless charging, NFC pairing, a large high-def screen and, perhaps most notably, powerful image-capturing hardware and software.
The operating system is rich, customizable and different at a time where uniqueness counts. One byproduct of Apple winning its patent battle with Samsung is that a judge and jury have proven Apple and Samsung mobile products are more alike than not. In a world where the same starts to blend together, the unique will stand out.
Being different is not enough to make Windows Phone and Nokia successful. If it were, then simply saying the opposite of whatever someone else says would make you the most successful guy in the office (I believe George Costanza once tried this). It can work for a little while, but not as a long-term strategy.
Surface Changes
Coincidentally, on the day Nokia unveiled its first Windows 8 phones, Google’s Motorola unveiled a handful of new Droid Razrs. The Droid Razr HD is a big (4.7 inches) LTE device running, for now, Android Ice Cream Sandwich. It sounds like a decent phone, but also an iterative upgrade to the previous Razr.
Though a little bigger, Nokia’s Lumia 920 is, on the surface, at least, an iterative update, too. It looks a lot like the 900. Plus Windows Phone 8 is, at a glance, not a lot different than Windows Phone 7. But these are all surface judgments. Rip open the 920 and you find things like the spring-encased optical image stabilization, a powerful dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an NFC chip that can ease Bluetooth pairing, wireless charging smarts and a high-resolution, hyper-sensitive capacitive touch screen that’s built to stand up to direct sunlight.
Much of that hardware prowess would not be possible without Windows Phone 8, which finally supports high-resolution screens, NFC and multi-core CPUs. Windows Phone 8 is every bit as rich and powerful as Android and iOS, but with the added benefit of Windows platform. The consistency consumers and developers will find across Windows phones, systems, tablets and even the Xbox gaming platform makes it one of the most comprehensive ecosystems in the space. Apple comes close with iOS, but lacks the standalone gaming platform (aside from the one built into its mobile products). Google’s ecosystem is fractured as it continues to develop the Chrome OS alongside the Android mobile OS.
The question is whether or not consumers notice or care.
Not too long ago I went smartphone shopping. My wife and teenage children all needed new phones; they were making the big switch from texting feature phones to smartphones. My wife wanted an iPhone. My children both asked for Android phones. When we went to Best Buy, there were people crowded around the iPhone table and another group floating around the overloaded Android phone section. There was a small space for two Windows 7 phones, the Lumia 800 and 900, and no one was standing anywhere near them.
I wondered what it would take to get my family to consider a Windows Phone. What if I was carrying one? What if one of their friends had one?
More importantly, I now wonder what it will take for the phone buying public to, as Nokia encourages, “Switch to Lumia”? Doesn’t the Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8 ecosystem have everything a consumer could desire in a smart phone? I suspect that the 920, like the 900 before it, will be well reviewed. Is that enough to drive consumers to a new platform?
Switching Platforms
When the iPhone arrived, it was different and asked much the same thing of consumers: drop your old platform and hardware and adopt a new one. It even asked them to give up physical keyboards. It arrived during the heyday of the once powerful Palm (remember the Palm 700p?). It was also a platform and even had apps.
At the time, however, more consumers were using app- and platform-free feature phones — many of them interestingly enough, from Nokia.
The iPhone’s arrival was perfectly timed for 1) former leaders like Nokia and Palm to stumble, and 2) Consumers to start trading up to more powerful data phones.
Even the late arrive of Android may have coincided with a second wave of smartphone adoption.
Smartphone coverage in the U.S. is now somewhere around 80%. Can we expect a third wave? Probably not. The good news for Microsoft and Nokia is that along with the smartphone adoption craze has come another unusual and unexpected behavior: the two-year upgrade cycle. Consumers change smartphones like they do very expensive underwear and are happy to drop one phone for another every 24 months (most, I think would do it sooner if their contracts allowed it).
Switching hardware, especially if it means new features, is now part of the smartphone continuum for most consumers. Switching platforms, however, is not.
Consumers purchasing smartphones usually have a tablet or are thinking of buying one. The number one tablet is still the iPad and it is part of the iOS ecosystem. That marriage has a magnetic pull on consumers and steers their smartphone buying decisions.
Microsoft’s decision to sell its own Windows 8-based tablet is a move intended to counter this impulse. The problem is that no one is currently using a Windows tablet.
They are, though, often running Windows (at least 80% of them are). Windows 8, with its Metro ‘Windows Design” interface helps tie together the Windows ecosystem. The problem is that most won’t be running Windows 8 this year or most of 2013. Will they see enough of the ecosystem benefits through Windows 7 to wish they had a Windows Phone 8 device?
Microsoft has made it clear that they’re willing to be patient, but I do wonder how long they and their partners can afford to play the long game. I have no vested interest in Windows Phone, but I think it’s good enough to deserve a seat at the mobile phone market table.
Via Mashable
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