News - ASUS discusses Windows 8 Padfone in interview

[HEXUS]

However “there is no target timeline”.

Read more.

[edvinasm]

As a once proud owner (for first few weeks until I faced brick wall with the lack of most basic functions) of Windows Mobile 7.5 I can see no future for Windows Phone 8. Android and iOS are just so much more advanced platforms. Why buy such a cumbersome product when you can have an arguably well developed ones ready? Also the gap between full Windows 8 (even RT) and Mobile is just.. if not Windows Modern UI there would be no resemblance at all. I am not even going into describing lack of Windows Mobile OS updates for older devices - even for the top of the range ones.

[cheesemp]

I'd have loved an Android padphone - I Just wish Asus made them more available! I couldn't find one when I took my last contract so ended up with a note instead (and an asus tf300 tablet later on). Asus really need to work on doing deals with mobile operators first!

[Tpyo]

Lumia's once coveted Win7 range died for me the moment they announced the win7 handsets would not get upgraded to winphone 8 (including some that had not yet come out at the time). That killed any chance of serious 3rd party app development.
Having poisoned the well somewhat with the Win7 handsets, the lack of 3rd party apps at launch for the Win8 handsets (late access to developer tools) took away a lot of the sweetness and did nothing to allay the fears of people like myself who liked the product but wanted to be sure the apps and support would be there. A nexus-style 'at cost' Win phone (and WinRT device too come to that) could have kick-started the market to encourage app development for these platforms, but instead, everything came out as premium (or at least more expensive than many had predicted/hoped), and the snowball has only just started rolling. As you say, the fact that they are competing against two established app ecosystems is already against them, and any action to boost this later may come as too little, too late.

[krazy_olie]

Lumia's once coveted Win7 range died for me the moment they announced the win7 handsets would not get upgraded to winphone 8 (including some that had not yet come out at the time). That killed any chance of serious 3rd party app development.
Having poisoned the well somewhat with the Win7 handsets, the lack of 3rd party apps at launch for the Win8 handsets (late access to developer tools) took away a lot of the sweetness and did nothing to allay the fears of people like myself who liked the product but wanted to be sure the apps and support would be there. A nexus-style 'at cost' Win phone (and WinRT device too come to that) could have kick-started the market to encourage app development for these platforms, but instead, everything came out as premium (or at least more expensive than many had predicted/hoped), and the snowball has only just started rolling. As you say, the fact that they are competing against two established app ecosystems is already against them, and any action to boost this later may come as too little, too late.

Considering that more people have 7.5 phones (soon to be 7.8?) than 8 and that win 8 phones support win 7 apps, if I were an app developer I'd still target 7.5 over 8 for another year or two.

[edvinasm]

I can't see a developer in his/her right mind (without any financial incentive) starting to develop for any Windows Phone platform. Unless just to practice. When you have Android and iOS with a vast user base it just doesn't make any sense to code for Windows.

[GeorgeStorm]

What issues did you have edvinasm?
Currently using a W7.5 phone and love it, no way I'd move to android/iOS.

[george1979]

As a once proud owner (for first few weeks until I faced brick wall with the lack of most basic functions) of Windows Mobile 7.5 I can see no future for Windows Phone 8. Android and iOS are just so much more advanced platforms. Why buy such a cumbersome product when you can have an arguably well developed ones ready? Also the gap between full Windows 8 (even RT) and Mobile is just.. if not Windows Modern UI there would be no resemblance at all. I am not even going into describing lack of Windows Mobile OS updates for older devices - even for the top of the range ones.

I'm also curious as to what 'most basic functions' you couldn't use on a mobile OS which was widely well received upon release? Surely a lack of the most basic of functions would have been noticed in at least some of the reviews?

[TheAnimus]

Considering that more people have 7.5 phones (soon to be 7.8?) than 8 and that win 8 phones support win 7 apps, if I were an app developer I'd still target 7.5 over 8 for another year or two.

Or both!

8 is a bit more involved in testing, only as there are more screen resolution combos available. When writing in Silverlight such things really don't matter much, nor require signficant code changes.

Thats why my little side project app works on Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.

It is about 80% of the same code across all devices.

[directhex]

Android causes stomach ulcers.

Or maybe that's just me.