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| Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer with Nokia's Stephen Elop hugging over the Windows Phone/Nokia deal |
Windows Phone is a good, sold and attractive smartphone operating system. It's the new kid on the block and because of that it has a lot of catching up to do in a market dominated by Android and to a lesser extent iOS.
A little more than two-and-a-half years ago Nokia and Microsoft announced an alliance.
Nokia will build the phones that will run Windows Phone.
And they have.
It seems like since then a new Nokia WP phone has been announced every couple of months.
Hang on. It doesn't just seem like it. It's true. And HTC, Samsung and Huawei have tried too.
There is now a whole stable of Nokia Lumia smartphones from ridiculously cheap to equally ridiculously expensive (with the best camera in the business). And with a lot of good choice in the middle.
Nokia has kept to its side of the deal.
But Microsoft hasn't.
Windows Phone OS has failed to evolve and update fast enough. And because of that, app developers still see it as an also-ran.
WP needs embarrassingly basic features like a Notification Centre and Universal Search (and that's to name just two). Android and iOS (and even BlackBerry for God's sake) have had features like this for ages.
And when Windows Phone is grown up, it might then be capable of attracting the big-name apps. Even Google would have to give it a second glance, which it doesn't now.
Microsoft needs to get WP OS updates done and get them out...and fast.
Currently, WP8 users are experiencing a Windows Phone OS update roll-out with GDR2. It could take up to two months or more to get to all WP8 handsets. And owners have no clue exactly when. In fact they're confused.
An Operating System update is a major happening for a smartphone owner because it means their device will be able to do new things.
The current GDR2 update will bring improvements like...FM radio...errr...that's about the biggest tangible improvement. Nokia are in tandem rolling their own Amber firmware update, which gives a few more goodies. But still no Notification Centre and still no Universal Search...or file explorer...or.....
This is not acceptable.
Windows Phone is not an open Android-like OS. In fact it's very closed, so updates should be completely controlled by Microsoft with carriers taking very much a back seat, which they're not with the current GDR2 release.
If WP8 is going to get an update, it should go to all phones on a pre-announced release date.
And if Microsoft or Nokia servers can't handle that, get bigger servers. They can afford it.
The dancing Steve Ballmer has announced his retirement. He has two notable failures under his belt. One is Windows Vista and the other is the current range of Microsoft Surface-branded Windows 8/NT tablets, released to try to catch up with the iPad.
And coming a very close third in failures is Windows Phone. It's not selling in big enough numbers to be viable.
Microsoft has to go all-out with Windows Phone to update it and give it a fighting chance of survival. We don't want to wait until next Spring to get the WP Blue update. We'll all have left for Android or a new iPhone by then.
Nokia has come up with the goods as far as hardware is concerned but Microsoft hasn't with the software. Hopefully Ballmer's successor will realise that WP needs a rocket up its bottom and the resources and enthusiasm it deserves.
Windows Phone 8 is a joy to use on a smartphone and that's a big plus. But it needs more than that. And it needs it fast.
Or it will die and could take Nokia with it.
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