[Windows Phone 7 General] finalzero:
Okay so been watching WP8 for a while and now that Windows 8.1 is out and Microsoft have consolidated and organised the development strategy its starting to make sense.

I like their unofficial ethos: "Do More with Less"

Actually Ballmer pitched that idea and I agree with his sentiments (even if they were out of touch and place with the whole Smartphone Universe).

Windows Phone 8 works. It does what it says (by not shouting too much...good or bad idea I don't know) but it feels like one development eco-system which the other Smartphone OSes don't. It feels integrated, okay it might appear to offer a small windows app real estate but it all makes sense and you soon realise the simple up/down/left/right navigation allows you to fly through the OS.

Tiles now work as I wanted them to and once you set them up right you rarely need to go elsewhere.

Performance:

Interesting argument...I believe WP8 (and the now capable Nokia hardware) prove that you don't need "pub talk" figures to get usability and because the OS is usable on a range of hardware specs it opens up the experience to all walks of people (and budgets).

Sure the Samsung Note 3 has nice figures but I can't help but wonder if it needs all that extra grunt to make the device and the Android OS usable. When you take this into consideration the initially great performance figures level out with that of the Nokia when you look at like-for-like real world performance.

Software:

Nokia software is the other half of the now great hardware and they have proven that you can have solid WP8 apps (the navigation apps is one of the best I have used) and the Camera app is not just all show but it has bags of functionality.

And that's the point (for me at least), I wanted a Smartphone that is a Phone First, smart device second and for me the Nokia Lumia with WP8 ticks the boxes; Clutter free, light on the eyes, crisp design and fluid, it feels like you are still inside one system as opposed to say the Android, which is very open but at the same time feels like my Linux desktop (lots of apps all doing their own thing most of the time).

I have some gripes, like why the hell is the telephone number on a contact so small when it should be one of the prominent pieces of info on the screen (especially if your phone is on a table and you glance down, you won't see the tiny phone number below the large labels dotted around the contact screen) but these are small gripes.

I am biased I suppose being a .NET Windows developer but I like the idea that I can take my .NET skills and develop on the WP8 platform without much of an environment culture shock (we could argue that iOS and Android offer a purer development experience, which they do, but why do I want to invest so much effort into learning something else that I already do...).

Don't get me wrong, I will start developing on Android in the near future as I personally think Microsoft are a little slow and late with everything and while their relationship with Nokia has done wonders the take up is slow (especially in corporate environments) and the software development life-cycle has a pay load that being the whole .NET development experience (a lot of eggs to put into one basket).

The future for Smart device software are apps that can be combined by the user to make other apps (and services) that cater for their needs (and their audience) but I am digressing.

Adios,

Fz