What’s Wrong With Windows Phone? ⇥ techpinions.com

Harry Marks, writing on Techpinions:

I’m going to ask some questions: Why isn’t Windows Phone gaining the traction it needs to thrive in such a cut-throat industry? What’s holding it back and what can be done to fix the problem? And I do want this problem fixed because Windows Phone has a lot to offer and the mobile world would be worse off without it.

If iOS didn’t exist, Windows Phone would be my choice. I sincerely hope it succeeds, because there’s a market for people who don’t want to buy an iPhone, and shouldn’t buy most of the Android offerings out there.

But, as Marks finds, there are serious shortcomings with both the platform and its ecosystem. I didn’t realize there was still no way to use custom notification sounds.

By buying Nokia’s smartphone business, Microsoft will be cutting down on crazy redundancy and be able to produce a Surface phone. That shouldn’t sound like a bad thing — despite the lack of success of the Surface — because Microsoft can produce decent hardware. The Zune HD and the Surface RT prove that. But the company has the innate and persistent ability to fuck up even the greatest and simplest things.

I want desperately for Windows Phone to succeed.