What is Windows Phone. The slow death of Windows Phone: how Microsoft lost the battle for smartphones

Windows Phone Is a unique mobile operating system developed and presented by Microsoft specialists. For the first time, the owners were able to communicate with the "tiled" operating system Nokia smartphones... It was these devices that were the first to work under Windows control Phone. What awaits the user who decides to purchase one of the modern smartphones on WP?

Overview of the main features of Windows Phone

To fully work with the operating system, you need to bind to it account Outlook, Hotmail or Live to choose from:

The system interface is thought out to the smallest detail. Even the lock screen looks very nice and as informative as possible.

One of unique features under consideration operating system is the possibility of complete personalization and uniqueness. The user can customize the desktop in full accordance with their needs. Optionally, you can set your own background home screen... In combination with tiles, it looks very impressive:

Regardless of the resolution and screen size, the user can include an additional row of icons on the desktop of his device. Three rows allow you to organize working space as flexible and convenient as possible.

New and familiar features

First, you need to pay attention to the "Phone" section. Modern smartphones although they combine many different functions, one must not forget about the main purpose of the phone - making calls. By pressing the corresponding button on the desktop, the user will be taken to the calls section:

Calls are conveniently grouped by subscriber, which saves the menu from long lists of identical calls.

The G8 devices received a new player. Instead of standard application well known to everyone Windows user Phone, the Xbox Music program is now installed:

The program is very convenient and more functional than its predecessor. Additional applications such as Videos, Podcasts and Radio became separate in the new OS version. The video player finally has the ability to rewind videos using a slider. You can also customize the display of subtitles.

The user has the ability to customize the "Battery Saving", making the battery power consumption as rational as possible:

In a comfortable and beautiful form in this section lists all applications that consume battery power. This will allow you to identify the most "gluttonous" programs and turn them off when the battery is low.

The camera app is also beyond praise. If in the G7 it was not very functional and not very convenient, then in the new versions there are no such complaints:

The app store allows the user to find the program or game they need in a matter of seconds. Everything is conveniently sorted by categories and other indicators:

The built-in browser supports all modern functions. Possibility of portrait and landscape orientation is available. The browser plays videos without problems, provided the page is rendered in HTML5:

The developers did not deprive Windows Phone of the ability to work with cloud services data storage. If desired, the user can easily save important data and upload it to the cloud without any problems:

V this review only the main functions of the operating room were considered Windows systems Phone and shows the key differences between the new version of the OS and the previous one. In reality, the functionality is much richer. VPN support available, function of broadcasting smartphone screen to other devices, improved NFC technology and many other useful things. So Windows Phone is a very interesting operating system with a great future that definitely deserves your attention!

MOSCOW, July 29 - RIA Novosti, Natalia Dembinskaya. In mid-July, loud news came from Microsoft: the company officially ended support for the Windows Phone mobile operating system, which still powers millions of devices. The corporation had to admit: smartphones do not bring it any profit. In recent years, the market share of Windows Phone has been steadily declining, and now it has practically bottomed out - 0.1%. Why there was no place at all for the operating system on the market, what the defectors to Android blame for Windows Phone and whether Microsoft will be able to take revenge on Google and Apple - in the RIA Novosti article.

Nice start

Immediately after its introduction in 2009, Windows Phone managed to take a solid market share - almost 10%. Then the mobile market was dominated by Symbian, on which the first Nokia smartphones operated - it occupied more than 50% of the market, the second largest player was the mobile OS RIM of the then popular manufacturer Blackberry - the famous phones with a full-fledged qwerty keyboard (20.9%). Android was then only trying to find its place in the sun, occupying only about 4%.

Loss-making startup Android Inc., which developed an operating system for wearable devices, Google just in case bought back in 2005 and remembered about it only in 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the first Apple iPhone.

Google quickly realized that the smartphone market is almost empty, and expensive devices Apple won't be able to fill it out entirely.

The rapid rise of Android

At the end of 2009, confusion began on the smartphone market. Nokia by that time had already slowed down the development of Symbian and made a bet on Windows Mobile... And Google, in turn, has reached an agreement with the Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. The first device under Android became HTC smartphone Dream, which was a resounding success.

iOS and Android began to develop rapidly, but Apple's position, which prohibited third-party companies from using iOS, played not in its favor. In 2011, with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, Android was already called "the most advanced operating system", smartphone manufacturers Samsung, Alcatel, Philips, LG began to massively migrate to a new promising platform. As a result, Android has eaten away almost 50% of the market, squeezing out all the old-timers from it in one fell swoop. Analysts began to count the rapidly decreasing share of Symbian and RIM in the "other operating systems" category.

On the battlefield, Android, Apple and Windows Phone are virtually three. The latter confidently kept afloat - largely thanks to the release of the popular Nokia Lumia smartphones, which gave a second life to the Finnish phone manufacturer itself.

Devices on Windows based Phone was also produced by LG.

Nokia got mad at Microsoft

However, the Finns soon began to show dissatisfaction. In 2013, Nokia VP Brian Biniak blamed Microsoft for the lack of competitive applications for Windows platforms Phone. It was for this reason that Nokia Lumia sales began to decline, he assured.

The annoyance eventually spilled over into the switch to Android. So far, on the latest version of the Windows Mobile 10 platform (its support, as observers believe, will be discontinued soon, and finally Windows smartphones will die by 2021), some HP and Acer models are "sitting".

In 2015, the new head of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, officially acknowledged the failure of Windows Phone.

“The smartphone boom showed that Windows Phone was far behind Android and iOS, and we missed that train,” Nadella said.

Closed file system

What exactly led app makers and developers to ditch Windows Phone and opt for Android?

Experts believe that the main disadvantage is primarily the underlying closed file system which causes compatibility problems for applications and prevents them from working properly. Unlike Android, Windows interface Phone and Windows Mobile - limited options for customizing applications. The smartphone does not Google services, it is inconvenient to work with the settings of contacts there. And finally, there are several times fewer applications for this platform compared to Android.

"Success is a terrible teacher," Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said. The corporation itself, a long-term leader in the market of operating systems for PCs, has stepped on the same rake. As it turned out, Microsoft was not ready for the onset of the post-computing era.

"Google and Apple moved forward with modern operating systems, and Microsoft continued to view mobile devices as a third-party by-product," observers say.

Lack of change and sluggishness

Experts point out that there have been no changes since the introduction of Windows Mobile 6.1. iOS and Android have updated design and functionality every year. In Windows Phone, this was out of the question - the system remained monolithic and static.

"What kind of personalization? It's the age-old strict office style, the Explorer web browser and the permanent cut-and-paste function," technology portal Quora notes ironically.

Application developers quickly realized that their products for fast-growing platforms looked much more attractive than on Windows. Now there are only about 165 thousand applications in the Windows Phone Store catalog. For comparison: there are about 900 thousand of them in the AppStore, and in Google play- almost a million.

WITH the advent of Windows Phone 7.5 Microsoft tried to catch up, but it was too late. As a result, and with Windows Phone 8, Microsoft found itself in a span: even the solid hardware stuffing of Nokia did not help, observers state.

What's next

The "funeral" of Windows Phone analysts at IDC has planned for 2021 - by that time it will completely disappear from the market, including the last Windows version Mobile 10. In the meantime, Microsoft does not intend to say goodbye to it and releases phones based on it Microsoft Lumia(in 2014, she bought Nokia's business of manufacturing mobile devices for 5.44 billion euros).

However, in the near future Microsoft is going to "kill" Lumia and release its new smartphone Surface Phone still with the same tiled interface... In April of this year, the company assured: it will revise its strategy and return to the mobile market with a new vision and new ideas. The market, however, has no doubt that Microsoft will not be able to step into the same river twice.

When choosing a smartphone, we look at different factors, and one of the main ones is the operating system, which we will have to deal with. Google android, Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows Phone? Many buyers believe that the main competition is between the first two, and Windows Phone is not serious. But we will try to debunk this myth.

10 Windows advantages Phone

Plus the first: this is not an iPhone

From the point of view of Yabloko, this looks like an undoubted drawback, but those who do not like Cupertino's products will clearly look at this fact with interest.

In fact, in many ways the ideology of operating rooms iOS systems and WP8 are similar: both are closed from "external influences", strict selection of applications is a rather narrow selection of gadgets. But if Apple only needs to deal with the gadgets of Apple itself, then Microsoft is much better in this regard: smartphones on Windows Phone are produced by many respected manufacturers, from Microsoft itself to HTC and Samsung (the latter - even despite the promotion of its competitor WP - OC Tizen).

Technical details aside, Windows Phone can be called “iOS without Apple”. The latter, as you know, likes to set completely absurd prices for its components, while there is no such problem with gadgets on Windows Phone, the components here are the most "ordinary" ones. In general, if you like ideology Apple devices, but do not like the pricing (or any other) policy of the "apple" company, take a look at smartphones on WP and tablets on Windows.

Plus the second: yes, it's Windows

In view of the upcoming unification of operating Microsoft systems for all mobile and desktop devices this advantage looks especially attractive. Now a smartphone on Windows Phone 8.1 also synchronizes without problems with Windows 8.1, but when Windows 10 comes out, it will be Windows 10 for everyone, without the Phone prefix. By the way, the release for developers has already been released, which seems to be hinting.

Such unification means, at least, the absence of problems with synchronization of gadgets (and now they are small things, but they are encountered), and the convenience of work on all devices, in theory, should be similar.

In principle, about the same can be said about different Apple version iOS, but not about Google Android. Yes, there are Chromebooks, but that is where the variety of types of Android devices is limited.

Plus the third: there is no problem of insufficient RAM

This is the scourge of Android devices: once 512 MB of RAM was enough, now 2 GB is considered the minimum allowable for comfortable work. While the Lumia 720 on Windows Phone 8 easily copes with the same 512 megabytes of RAM, and even allows you to comfortably work with the navigation system (which the author personally checked a couple of years ago), not to mention the HTC Mozart 2010 release with its 576 megabytes of memory: despite the obsolescence of Windows Phone 7.8 and the actual end of support for this Microsoft versions, you can still work comfortably on this device (unless, of course, you play "heavy" games). Moreover, there is no need to turn off various "niceties" like animation of menu transitions. Of course, there are already top-end WP devices with 2 gigabytes of RAM.

But an Android smartphone from three years ago with one gigabyte of memory on the fourth version of the operating system is shamelessly slowing down today, and devices with three gigabytes of RAM actually cause more sadness than joy, since the tendencies "more, more, more!" this is quite consistent.

By the way, Apple has iPhone like there is no problem either, which proves the presence of "old" iPhones of the third dash of the fifth generation in advertisements and at quite attended auctions, where they are scattered like hot cakes. And this is not only because iOS is a smart and simple operating system in itself, but also because iOS also has no problems with RAM just like Windows Phone.

Unlike Android. The increase in RAM in "android phones" only proves it.

Plus four: default apps

Since smartphones on Android are not sawed in the basement, only the lazy one (just look in any Chinese online store for their number, estimated in tens of thousands), they usually do not have a rich set by default. Of course, various major vendors like Samsung or HTC cram a lot of things into their version of Android that you can and cannot, but the vast majority of Android smartphones on the market have nothing but stock firmware... Someone generous can, perhaps, sprinkle a free shell and a couple of free applications. But in a common denominator, we have the fact that a small number (4% of the market plus or minus, according to analysts) smartphones on Windows Phone give their users quite a lot of useful branded applications, and the mega-variety of Android leads to the fact that you have to finish everything on your own. Even with the excellent HTC Sense skin.

By the way, a nice bonus can be called the swipe keyboard included with Windows Phone 8.1: while in Google Android such an innovation appeared only some time ago (somewhere around versions 4.2-4.3), and before that it was necessary to use paid application Swype or analogs, free versions which were nowhere near as good, possessing, among other things, extremely meager default dictionaries.

True, for Windows Phone no Google chrome(as well as Hangouts), but everything else is there. And even sync Google account goes on a par with the default Hotmail account. There is also cloudy Microsoft application OneDrive - similar functionality in Android is called Google Drive; it provides the same space in both clouds: 15 GB each.

Plus the fifth: little can be customized (and broken accordingly)

Probably, many at first decide to put this plus as a minus, but if you look from the point of view of the average user, what does he want? Only one thing: so that everything is necessary, and that it all works as it should. No "finishing", "root", "customization" and other terrible words. If you bought it, you are using it.

This is exactly the case with Windows Phone: I took it out of the box and everything works. You can change the color of the tiles, make a ringtone, arrange the desktop at your discretion, but you do not need to unlock your smartphone to obtain superuser rights, install clever applications for cleaning and reorganizing memory, both operative and permanent ... Because everything works fine without it ...

By the way, this plus can be attributed to Apple - for the umpteenth time.

Plus six: simplicity

But since we have already remembered the iPhone, so the operating system from Microsoft can give the user the same simplicity. Yes, there are not very many applications (yet), but their number is increasing. Yes, customization is very limited (see above) - but you don't need to shaman with a tambourine for something to work.

Simplicity is the dominant principle not only for iPhones, but also for smartphones based on Windows Phone. You simply will not be allowed to spoil something in the system (including applications), the ways to get something you need are also easy, and even a child can deal with everything (especially since there is a very simple and effective children's mode called Children's corner "(Kid's Corner)." Usability ", in general, is at its best.

Seventh plus: OS update regardless of the manufacturer and device class

Everyone is familiar with the Android distribution model: a new version The OS appears on the newest "Nexuses", then the smartphone manufacturers begin to slowly sway and integrate the new OS very slowly into their firmware. Sometimes months pass, and in some cases until the seemingly actual devices, new android and does not reach at all.

With Windows Phone 8, everything is easier: updates appear for all devices at about the same time, and for both the weak Lumia 520 and the powerful HTC 8x, all functions are available in the same way, except that toys on weak WP smartphones will slow down. There are no "additions" to their own shells: firmware different manufacturers differ, perhaps, in the amount of proprietary software, which is also not very much.

Plus the eighth: safety

In fact, the roots of this grow not from the fact that in the mobile OS from Microsoft, in principle, there are no viruses (as in the joke about the Elusive Joe), unlike the desktop relative, but from the fact that, due to their low prevalence, they simply have not yet begun to be written.

The second reason is closeness source code which makes the OS virtually invulnerable to hacking, at least for now. And antivirus for Android today is already almost a must-have application for all "droids".

Plus Ninth: Xbox Live

This is more of a plus for gamers, but it is still worth saying about it: the Xbox Live system is integrated into Windows Phone, so you can use your profile in this system for all games, collecting points and "pumping" your character, and for everything there are common rating tables, where you can compete with other players not in some game separately, but in general in all at once.

Plus the tenth: standard navigation system

While there is still controversy on the Internet about which is better, Microsoft is quietly integrating a full-fledged offline navigation system HERE into its Lumia smartphones for free and has no problems with it. The system is really very powerful, there are updated maps of all countries of the world, there is a truly full-fledged driving mode (offline!) In the HERE Drive application with voice prompts, there is also an application indicating the nearest places (from cafes to shopping centers) in overlay mode on a three-dimensional map with positioning in space.

HERE cards have, perhaps, one drawback: the cards are downloaded only to the built-in memory and categorically do not want to live on a USB flash drive. Well, nobody is perfect.

As for offline navigators on Android, here you can allow a small lyrical digression into the topic. A few days ago, the author of this article watched a video of one popular autoblogger, in which he proved to us that a separate navigator where better than a smartphone... At the same time, rather ancient Samsung acted as a smartphone, and Navitel, cursed by many, acted as a navigation system. That is, it turns out like this: if you have an old Samsung smartphone, and you bought Navitel at a high price - you'd better buy a separate navigator.

The main thing is that you can't argue with anything. Everything is just like that. And so many owners of old Android devices think the same.

Conclusion

Of course, the Windows Phone operating system has its drawbacks (remember - no one is perfect), but we hope we have clearly demonstrated to you that this OS is quite competitive for itself. In terms of simplicity and convenience, it is not inferior to iOS, and smartphones on it are several times cheaper. Like, for example, or, which we talked about quite recently.

Windows Phone App is a program for synchronizing data between a PC and a phone on Windows Phone 8. It supports the exchange of music, playlists, photos, music, videos and other data. Flexible synchronization system allows you to select any library or folder on your computer, even if it is located on an external hard drive.

One of the sections “Music + Video” provides access to control and playback of multimedia files. This section also allows you to use the Xbox Music service to find and listen to music. The Collection, History, New, Applications, and Xbox tabs are also available here. The journal allows you to view music that is currently playing or played recently. The Xbox tab exists for browsing and listening to songs on the Xbox Music service. Apps is a tab for browsing music-related apps.

Key features and functions

• flexible system synchronization;
• automatic update;
• extended support for podcasts;
• sync podcasts, music, TV shows, movies from iTunes or Windows library;
• import of photos and videos from the device to the PC in automatic mode;
• sync playlists;
• search for songs through a PC with the subsequent addition to the phone;
• multiplatform.