In this week’s hot thread we are talking about Microsoft giving away all our exclusive apps. Earlier in the week we received the news that Microsoft was releasing the XBOX companion app on Android and updating the IOs version to 1.5 bringing features that even Windows Phone doesn’t have. The question here is does it matter? Is Microsoft shooting itself in the foot giving away exclusive apps to other platforms?
In this thread “Well the scumbags did it....just go ahead and throw the ecosystem away” forum member inteller is saying just that. He thinks that by making this app and other Windows Phone exclusive apps available on other platforms Microsoft is killing Windows Phone:
“Stealth update for XBL on iOS adds all the Companion functionality we had exclusive. Let's just go ahead and release Office and remove any other reasons for people to come to Windows Phone. Bag of tools...is anyone running Microsoft?”
These are strong words indeed and tough for Windows Phone users to hear.
We would sit with our friends on a Saturday night and show off apps like this one to our iPhone toting companions. “Look what I can do with my Windows Phone” is what we would say. This app and others like it are how we could show our Windows Phone's superiority. If these apps lose their exclusivity, is this making Windows Phone less relevant?
Countering this claim is mhans311 who notes that Xbox is the focus here not just Windows Phone:
“Well Microsoft is also trying to promote XBOX and this is a great way to entice a large number of people to use XBOX even more. Besides, it's not a feature that is going to make most people drop iOS for wp anyway.Oh and they already released a one note application for Android that works pretty well. That combined with quickoffice is more than I need as far as Office apps go. One note was the only thing missing before.”
People on other platforms don't really need Windows Phone to have a good experience with Microsoft products. Why is Microsoft doing this? Shouldn’t they keep these Microsoft creations exclusive or at least make the experience better on Windows Phone?
Forum member Figure 8 Dash has a little different opinion.
“The companion app is fairly useless and will get replaced by SmartGlass this fall.”
We don’t have all the answers here but we do know that some of the upcoming Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 upgrades like SmartGlass will make some apps obsolete. If the apps Microsoft is releasing now won’t be used or necessary when we update at the end of this year does that change your thinking?
Is Microsoft their own worst enemy releasing these apps and making Windows Phone 7 less relevant? What do you think? Let us know in the comments then join us in the forum for the community opinion.
