Filling the App Gap for Windows Phone
Nokia and Samsung’s recent big reveals for their Windows Phone 8 devices, respectively, are receiving generally positive marks from the tech world. Better cameras, hi-def displays and microSD? Check, check and check. Even as a wishy washy lover of Windows Phone, one who currently sports an Android-powered Atrix HD device, I am getting the warm fuzzies all over again for the maligned mobile platform. I'm even more excited about their potential to finally gain respect and more importantly new users.
There’s much more than coming out with woo-worthy products to stop iPhone and Android from getting in the way, however. It is also great marketing that wins people over. The iPhone’s success is firmly rooted not only in its gold-standard quality, but also in its marketing working its voodoo over the masses. Windows Phone has capable hardware now, but it needs the marketing juice, which is something they fallen flat on their bums over time and time again.
So, what message can Microsoft send to the world when it comes time to saturate the web, TV and other mediums that Windows Phone 8 has arrived? The answer: apps. The conversations I’ve had with others, in person and online, usually end up back at the apps people want. The “Instagrams” of mobile are not there: Hulu Plus, Flipboard, Amazon Instant Video and Instagram itself. Grindr, a popular mobile-only social app for gay men, is still absent – to which most deflect to iOS and Android to get their fix.
Even legit Facebook and YouTube apps don’t exist (the former being a Microsoft-made concoction and the latter being a web shortcut to m.youtube.com). In would-be-could-be marketing, Microsoft should own up to not having the apps in the past, but the present is different.
I looked at my iPad and Android to see what I have installed and thought back if I had the same offerings available to me on my recently sold Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900. Here’s what I found.
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