Nokia's got two new phones coming out, both with Snapdragon 800s, 1080p screens, and 20-megapixel cameras. The five-inch model is called the Lumia 929, and the six-inch model is the Lumia 1520. In the US, the 929 will be on Verizon and the 1520 on AT&T. Here's the Lumia 1520 compared side-to-side with the Galaxy Note 3 for comparison: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjBUCpA3EIM"]Nokia Lumia 1520 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Phablet Comparison - YouTube[/ame] As for marketshare, WP is now gaining momentum strongly in western Europe. It's eating into iOS's share more than Android's...which makes sense given that both WP8 and iOS are refined-but-locked-down, simple-to-use, walled-garden OSes and Android is something else entirely. WP8's market share in Europe overall is about 10% right now, and it's now neck-and-neck with iOS in most of western Europe, with iOS usage trending downward and WP8 surging upward. In Germany, in the past year, WP8 went from 2.5% to 8.5%, while iOS went from 12.2% to 10.7%. In the UK, WP8 went from 4.2% to 11.4% in the past year. In France, WP8 has gone from 5.2% to 10.7% in the past twelve months. In Italy, WP8 usage has now surpassed iOS usage, hitting 13.7% with iOS declining to 10.2%. Download the "press release with additional data" from this page to get the full numbers. It's very impressive growth, and these new Snapdragon 800-equipped, 1080p Nokias are only going to make it stronger. In the US, WP8 has gone from about 2.7% to 4.6% in the past year...still small, but nevertheless growing. The US is one of the only countries where iOS is continuing to gain marketshare, from 34.6 to 35.9% (by far the most Apple-friendly country in the world).
Interesting numbers. What do you think is driving the increase in market share in the EU and why isn't this happening in the US? http://www.techradar.com/news/phone...e-digits-begins-to-close-gap-with-ios-1185181 As for iOS being "refined". I'd beg to differ. Apple haven't been putting as much effort into iOS as they used to. And the more people expect it to do, compounded by an increasing need to be genuinely innovative, the more the cracks are showing. Almost everybody i know with an iPhone has had download issues for the update or some app doesn't work or iMessage isn't passing messages on. It was also a mistake for Apple to try to get into the budget market. They should have stuck to what they know.
i'm just wondering, what kind of issues are people having? i just updated to ios 7. i had no issue whatsoever with the phone update. the only issue i had was i first had to install an itunes update, and that update hung once. i just did it a second time, then everything went swimmingly. but i think it's because my mac is from 2007--still kicking though. again, i'm just wondering.
Nokia has historically pursued a close relationship with AT&T in the US market, often making their flagship models exclusive on AT&T (or at least exclusive until they seem dated, like they did with the Lumia 92x). I don't know what AT&T gave Nokia for that exclusivity, but it better have been worth it. The fact is, most Americans aren't on AT&T. And US carriers are extremely hostile to people buying unlocked phones instead of subsidized phones through the carrier, so by making their flagships exclusive to AT&T, Nokia was cutting themselves off from most of the US market. Samsung and Apple are the two phone OEMs who have made an effort to get their flagships subsidized on each major US carrier, instead of just one or two of 'em. They're also the two OEMs who utterly dominate the US smartphone market. Probably not a coincidence. Also, WP runs very well on lower-end specs. Compare a $200-$300 unlocked Lumia and a $200-$300 unlocked Android phone, and there's a very good chance that the Lumia will give you a smoother, more lag-free user experience. And that price range of device, which is very important in the European market, is basically ignored on the US market due to the US carrier subsidy system. The US market is dominated by $400-and-up phones, because a $400 unlocked phone is generally "free with a two-year plan" here and so it's the lowest-price device that major US carriers will carry (since they push their two-year contracts so hard).
Both my parents and half my office have iPhones. I do have to say that the iPhones I've played with recently have all been very smooth, lag-free, and user-friendly...much more so than my Galaxy S3, even though I prefer the GS3 for other reasons (screen size, widgets, Swiftkey Flow typing). I think comments about glitches in the iPhone have been somewhat sensationalized, probably in part because the most enthusiastic iPhone fans like to pretend that their machines are literally flawless. Nothing is flawless, but the iPhone is pretty darned stable and smooth in my experience, even though I dislike it for other reasons.
yeah, i agree. i personally love my 6 year old mac and even though i've gone through several phones in that time, i've never had an issue that i couldn't figure out. i've also never had an issue where the phone and computer have problems talking to each other and syncing up. sorry, minor issues that i've been able to overcome. no machine is flawless. but i've found iphone to be pretty smooth and stable.
Think I pretty much covered it. Update issues. It hangs. Some people claimed they had some apps that didn't work and I know a few folk who are having trouble with iMessage. Issues with iPhones or iOS get a lot of attention for the same reason the emergence of malware got a lot of attention on the Mac. According to the cult of Apple it just doesn't happen. Nokia's chosen US carrier really makes one wonder just how sensible it was for Microsoft to partner with Nokia in the first place. On the other hand now that Microsoft own the part of Nokia that makes phones. It makes you wonder just why they'd continue with that deal. Microsoft are big enough to get away with renegotiating or pulling the plug.
It does happen; it just doesn't happen as much. Macs can get malware, but I have no problem as a PC owner acknowledging that, statistically speaking, your average Mac owner is much less likely to ever run into malware than your average PC owner. iPhones are not devoid of problems, but due to the fact that hardware and OS design and software distribution is all being done by one company, the problems are few and far between compared with a more open system like Android. Once again, I'm an Android owner, not an iPhone owner, but I don't see anything wrong with acknowledging that bugs/hiccups/etc are more common on Android machines. It's inevitable given that you don't have one company controlling all aspects of the device. Microsoft is not bound to continue with the AT&T exclusivity garbage; that appears to have been something Nokia negotiated with AT&T each time they had a new device to release. The fact that the Lumia 929 and Lumia 1520 (the best WP hardware ever, by far) are debuting on Verizon and AT&T simultaneously shows that Microsoft isn't planning on continuing the same path.
Still only 1% of global sales and it looks like Microsoft are looking for a way out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36378082
Bought one of these as aa quick gift for someone who needed a phone. Big mistake. Browser is aweful. Browser crashes all the time when loading articles from Facebook. App options are poor. Generally aggravating interface. Frankly other than for calls and for the thought (which still counts) they hate it.
It's been beset with problems from the off. Handset manufacturers only carry the Windows Phone OS because Microsoft threatened to sue them over some crappy patent thought to be related to vfat. But we'll likely never know for sure.
Irony is that I was once able to access the UI of soundcloud from an external API from a windows phone.
