Posted on 09/18/2011 8:41:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yesterday, I had an experience that shows why Microsoft should kill the Windows Phone brand and name its new phones something fun like Mango.
I went to Radio Shack to buy a cheap audio cable. The clerk was excited because it had just become an official Verizon outlet as well -- the front of the store had a special Verizon awning, and there was Verizon advertising all over the place.
As I paid, the clerk and I began talking about phones. He said he used to work at the Apple Store, and was well-informed about the upcoming iPhone 5 and iCloud service. But he carried a Blackberry and was still a fan too.
When customers come in looking for new phone, here's how he decides what to sell them.
If customers want a lot of games and video, he recommends an iPhone. If they mainly want an affordable phone to make calls and do a little Web surfing, he sells them an Android. And if they are on their phone all the time for email but don't really care about apps and games, he still sells them a Blackberry, although as he said "they're basically going away."
"We only carry high-end smartphones." Image: Matt Rosoff Business Insider So I asked him, "What about Windows Phone?"
"We haven't seen those in a long time. Palm went with their own Web OS, although that's kind of gone now." (He was talking about the Palm Treo, which was sort of popular before the iPhone came out in 2007.)
But aren't there some new ones coming out with Nokia or something?"
"Well...we only carry the high-end smartphones. Windows is really old."
Ouch.
This is just one story, but Windows Phones have absolutely been getting buried at retail stores because of these kinds of interactions.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
There’s a windows phone?
“Well...we only carry the high-end smartphones. Windows is really old.”
Changing the name doesn’t make it not old.
Mango? MAN GO??? That is sooooooooo sexist!
And fruity too.
“Changing the name doesnt make it not old.”
I know what you mean. But WP7 is actually quite new. And the Mango version is not even released to American markets yet.
I am today programming a Mango-based app. It is a fabulous development environment with very powerful features (these phones can also run X-Box games.) Though literally zero non-beta U.S. users as yet. AFAIK.
I would have called it the X Box phone because that’s the only microsoft brand that’s cool
Windows 8 could be a different matter.
Apple is going to miss WP7 the way they miss Vista.
Kill the windows phone? LOL...their doubling down with the same interface in Windows 8.
As soon as the salesman said he was well-informed abou the upcoming iPhone 5, I knew everything out of his mouth was crap.
mango isn’t released until january for USA
I’d say 95% of all sales people are lazy idiots. I almost never trust a word out of their stupid mouths.
mango is WP 7.5. Its different.
Maybe they can name it Bob.
Microsoft isn’t focusing on the US market - it’s reaching saturation as far as smarthphones go... It’s focusing on Asia, where there are still 1+ billion cellphone users who are potential smartphone users. And where Nokia traditionally - and still - dominates.
Nokia was the largest smartphone vendor in the world for a decade, and it was with essentially zero US market presence. Too many forget that between China, India, and SE Asia there are nearly 3.5 BILLION people - and cellphones are extremely prevalent in those countries.
If Windows Phone 7 just maintains the Nokia marketshare within China and India alone, it will grab 25% of world market share - and instantly leapfrog iOS and move into a strong second place behind Android.
Mango may make some inroads into the consumer market where WP7 failed, but it's still not an enterprise-class platform.
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