Acer Debuts Entry-Level Android, Windows 10 Mobile Phones at IFA

[alex davies]

At IFA, Acer announced six new smartphones, including two Windows 10 Mobile devices.

Acer Debuts Entry-Level Android, Windows 10 Mobile Phones at IFA : Read more

 

[ohim]

After being a long time Android user and now a new Windows Phone user ( Lumia 930) i can tell you that windows phone is not getting the attention that they should. The OS is blazing fast, the phones work great no matter the version and the Tile system that i initially kinda hated it i got to love it and find it better than the Android screen.

 

[back_by_demand]

It's such a shame that WP only gets put on low spec hardware, leading some people to think WP itself is rubbish. If you had WP on the same hardware as a Samsung S6 it would be awesome. The Nokia 930 is amazing and I can't wait for the 950, others should follow suit, hoping HTC will come back to the OS that made their name.

 

[scolaner]

It's such a shame that WP only gets put on low spec hardware, leading some people to think WP itself is rubbish. If you had WP on the same hardware as a Samsung S6 it would be awesome. The Nokia 930 is amazing and I can't wait for the 950, others should follow suit, hoping HTC will come back to the OS that made their name.

I actually think that Microsoft is playing the long game here. WP has been on really high-end hardware -- and sold effectively ziltch. Part of the reason for the mid- and low-end WP is because MSFT is building up market share in areas where there's demand -- developing nations, as well as in parts of Europe, where they told me WP actually has double-digit market share.

I think they're hoping to 1) sell more WP phones this way and 2) hopefully build up demand for the platform that could trickle up into more established markets that are vulnerable to iOS and Android fatigue.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

"WP has been on really high-end hardware -- and sold effectively ziltch. Part of the reason for the mid- and low-end WP is because MSFT is building up market share in areas where there's demand -- developing nations, as well as in parts of Europe, where they told me WP actually has double-digit market share."

I think another one of the reasons at least here in the States is that none of the high end hardware has been multi-carrier. I'm hoping Lumia 950 will be available on all four major carriers here. Also, there's so much fragmentation in the Lumia line it's ridiculous, especially with such relatively small demand in the states. Just release three lines: low end, midrange, and high end. No reason to have 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000 range Lumias.

 

[Shad_Van]

I have had a Lumia 920 since it was released. It has been 100% rock solid. Im looking at the 950 XL when it is released. I would have bought a 930 except it was only available with Verizon. there are 4 things that are kill WP in the market place.

1. carrier exclusivity. when the 920 came out it was only on ATT and the 930 was only available on Verizon. I would have upgraded but ATT has better coverage in my area and I was not willing to change carriers.

2. lack of apps. some of this will change with WP 10. but they need to do more to entice developers to the platform. I would suggest creating a limited version of Visual Studio that only does universal apps and giving it away for free. also Apple and Google take a big chunk of money that devs make from app sales on their app stores. I would also suggest that they take a smaller cut. if devs can make more money off windows apps than apple/google apps, they will be more inclined to develop for the WP platform, especially now universal apps will run on the win 10 desktop as well.

3. patching and upgrades sucks and should not be left to the carriers. take a page from apple and make phone updates part of windows update. the 8.1 upgrade took months to get from ATT on my old Samsung. in fact the lumia 920 launch before my Samsung finally got the 8.1 update.

4. high end hardware. the 920 and 930 were fairly high end when they launched. Microsoft needs to keep pace with the current hardware and release a new high end phone at least once a year. again take a page from apple and Samsung.

one other feature that I would love to have is the ability to join the phone to a domain and apply group policy's to manage it. that way I could assign which apps and tiles were available to users of the phones in a corporate environment and which apps they could install. tie it with something like system center config manager as a remote management tool. it would allow enterprises to get rid of things like mobile iron , air watch and BES.

 

[falchard]

I also hate Carrier exclusivity it should have been done away with by Microsoft. They have released more Windows Phones. There is the HTC One W8, probably the best you can do right now with Windows Phone.
I think their strategy is sound, but like Shad_Van said. They need stronger corporate environment integration. They key to making the OS successful will be Businesses latching onto it. Both Android and iOS are poor choices for business use. Windows Phone is far superior in usability aspects to get things done. It also has a better base for creating software. Once business people get used to the OS, they will have a hard time using a different OS in their leisure. Much like how Windows OS beat out Macintosh.
Microsoft does release a free light version of Visual Studio.

 

[CosmasTK]

Apparently this article was posted prior to the Liquid Jade Primo announcement. A nice 21 mp/ 8 mp sd808 super AMOLED windows phone that comes with continuum hookup keyboard and mouse. Looks fault nice and is the first higher end officially announced. Kudos to Acer