AT&T: Windows Phone is not selling well, yet

Emil

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Staff

AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega recently took the time to do an interview with All Things Digital. While he answered various questions about the mobile industry, his comments in regards to Microsoft's Windows Phone are particularly interesting.

On the one hand, de la Vega admits that Windows Phone 7 sales have been underwhelming, for both Microsoft and AT&T. On the other hand, he still believes the platform stands a chance, and he underlines that it is technically version 1.0 (one must remember that Windows Phone is a complete reboot of Windows Mobile).

Nokia has made this huge bet on Windows Phone. One of the reasons, they have said, is to have a bigger presence then they have had in many years in North America. How interested are you in adding them to your lineup?

De la Vega: We already have Windows Phone 7 in our lineup. We actually like that software very, very much. It hasn't sold as well as Microsoft or we would want it to, but I think having the Nokia hardware capability with the Microsoft software capability is a really good combination. They have to prove it by bringing some great devices to market. But I would love to have a great Nokia device with Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7, is it a hard sell, or are their features that are missing?

De la Vega: Keep in mind this is the first product that Microsoft has come out with since Microsoft redid their OS. I think for the first thing out of the chute it is pretty good. I think they just need to make it better. If you listen to what Steve Ballmer is saying (Mango, the next version), is going to add about 500 features. I think they are going to make it a lot better. Giving customers more application choices, having a bigger app store with more functionality on the phone, I think that is all that it needs.

Four months ago, Nokia announced that it was choosing Microsoft's Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform. Two months ago, Nokia and Microsoft finally signed a definitive agreement regarding their global mobile ecosystem partnership.

Many still think that Nokia should have gone with Android instead, given that Google's mobile operating system is really dominating in market share nowadays. Time will soon tell if the Finnish company made the right decision in hoping the mobile industry has room for Windows Phone succeeding in the long run. Right now, third place is still up for grabs.

Last month, Microsoft announced and previewed Windows Phone 7.1 (codenamed Mango), which the company says will include over 500 new features, as well as a Web-based Windows Phone Marketplace. The Mango release, which we think should be called Windows Phone 8, will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall. Device update timing is still unknown.

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The Apple lovers got their iPhones and mostly everybody else is going with the Droid (myself included when the time comes for a new phone)

I figure that their marketshare is only going to be people that might love Microsoft and people who have been turned off from the iPhone and the Driod.

So ya low sales are not surprising right now.
 
stewi0001 said:
The Apple lovers got their iPhones and mostly everybody else is going with the Droid (myself included when the time comes for a new phone)

I figure that their marketshare is only going to be people that might love Microsoft and people who have been turned off from the iPhone and the Driod.

So ya low sales are not surprising right now.

maybe if someone around me got one and I could check it out... this is why i got an iPhone, then when a coworked got an Andriod phone, I switched over to that. I bet that the Microsoft phone cant do anything near what the iPhone and Andriod phones can do because of all the developers and being able to jailbreak or root the device. Not saying its not possible with microsoft's new phone, but that simply put if its not as popular... well, it's not going to be as popular. haha
 
Well trillion, as you said your self that you haven't checked WP first hand, so to say the least everyone in my 'geek circle' who happen to have a chance to play with WP phone, prefer it over android and well iphone is a no go anyway. I think one area where Microsoft should look into is encouraging its partners to offer better hardware on these devices and bring that update out on-time, about the earlier argument e.g. Omnia 7 have the ingredients but the looks of the phone are ..... just a turn off. When it come to stability Android is near rubbish to say the least (mainly because everyone is doing their own thing with it), even my old WinMo Omnia was miles ahead in this area, it never crashed in about 3 years till I gave it away. Before that I had Tytn II same story no instability, even my last E series Nokia had much better stability/battery life etc. So considering my own experience, I don't recommend anyone buying an android phone, and so far I observed that this results in people either buying E series phones or WP7, and usually are happier with the choices.
 
stewi0001 said:
I figure that their marketshare is only going to be people that might love Microsoft and people who have been turned off from the iPhone and the Driod.

Going to have to say I was turned off by Android and iPhone. What turned me off about Android was that to many manufacturers wanted to do their own thing with the GUI and preload bloatware. No reason to get into why I didn't want an iPhone.

Right now I see Android as being desirable just because it's popular. It doesn't have much to offer as far as security(business users) and it does not make good use of the hardware. I still think that android tried to model a lot of it's operating system after iOS.

I really love my windows phone and I'm not a Mircosoft fan boy. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat, hopefully the mango update will fix just about every bug it has. Their aren't really bugs, just features that I wish it had or something should work in a different way. I had some issues when I first got my phone with freezing but that was all fixed in the first update. I can't wait to see what WP7 really has to offer in the 7.1 update
 
+1 about the business user yRaz, e.g. there is a reason every one else has failed to break into corporate sector when it comes to OS/Productivity software. Such users want stability, stability and stability x security^3. So on these counts having extensively tried DHD and owned SGS, Android is simply a no go just as iphone. I came very close to buying HD7 (but I was put off by its sluggish refresh rate) and Omnia (its ugly looks just doesn't cut it); so I am hoping some of the upcoming WP phones will have competitive hardware and other design elements ...
 
The best Android phone is the Samsung Galaxy S I and II, not the Droid. So the comment about "It's either iPhone or the Droid" makes no sense. Once the Galaxy S II launches stateside, it will mop the floor with Android competition.

Also, regarding the comments that business users do not use iPhones or Android phones, that's probably because you work for 40+ year old bosses who are very conservative. Perhaps in the financial sector (such as banking) where conservatism and creativity are inversely related. However, if you work for a cool firm, then lots of their employees will use iPhones and Android phones. Even engineers in the automotive firms are starting to use iPhones. So please don't try to pretend here that your obsolete 2.4 inch blackberry with outdated OS is the God's gift to security. In fact, most security breaches and intellectual property theft occur as a result of you losing your work laptop, not some sophisticated over the air hack.
 
Guest said:
Once the Galaxy S II launches stateside, it will mop the floor with Android competition.
Its pretty awesome and no lag, plus GPS actually works. Before getting the SGS2, i was thinking about getting a windows phone, but they are no quite to the point where i want them to be yet
 
@Guest
In Business environment there is a case for avoiding Android because of inherent issue of it being modified to suite manufacturer's taste. Hence the changes they make/or UI they slap on top of it can cause considerable stability issues. For example, my Galaxy S would crash or lag for no apparent reason, whenever it feels like doing it. I felt pretty similar about DHD as well, but may be I was expecting bit too much from it.
 
"if you work for a cool firm"

Working for a cool or uncool firm or however old someone is has nothing to do with it, it has to do with being able to properly secure a phone, to meet established company "security" standards.

Both andoid and iphone have deployment tools to help manage this, and you can custom order phones without bloat (talk to business sales). The key here is even more granular control and OTA ability to make changes in corporate-assigned phones. Think active directory,.. but for phones. This is why Blackberry is popular in the corporate sector (cool/uncool or old/young boss or whatever). Because you can fine tune and lock down many aspects of the phone. The key here is how well Windows phone will take advantage if this. I've played with both Android and Apple phones and both are cool. But the one that intrigued me the most was the windows phone; if because I'm a heavy onenote, msoffice, and outlook user. And being able to have phone with deep hooks in these apps would help with my workload lifestyle.

I'm just glad we have many platforms to choose from. It would be very boring if there were only 1 or 2. Choice is great
 
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