Here at Windows Phone Central we often get accused of focusing on one manufacturer in the Windows Phone world, and not giving the others equal time. The truth of the matter is that we go where the news is, and this week especially has been a week all about Nokia and their heavy presence at MWC.
Still, we want to bring as much of the MWC experience to you as we can so when we find something relevant you'll know about it. Whilst we wish there was a story to be told in this post, the truth is that HTC displayed their Windows Phone 8 offerings by way of exactly 4 devices (among easily 40 seperate HTC One devices). So, here's the shots we took of that display, plus some dudes jumping...
... they were there to help demonstrate the HTC One's 'Zoe' feature by the way.
Reader comments
Gallery: HTC's booth at Mobile World Congress 2013
Why don't you consider just getting a Lumia, Utopiate? It always irks me when people go, "My HTC, or Samsung WP didn't get any support from the OEM, so I'm going to Android..." Then why no try the OEM that DOES support their product? Look, I loved HTC. I had a 88xx(can't remember the rest of the designator), Tilt, Fuze, and a Titan. Watched Nokia come to the platform, and cross it with over-the-top product support, while I wrote pathetic emails/tweets, to HTC, to bring me an update to stop my keyboard from turtling, to no avail. I realized they just didn't care about my repeat business. I'll never go Google, so that leaves me one extra-platform out. Apple. I had an iPhone 4, prior to the Titan. Meh... When the 920 came, I realized that what a kick butt phone, WITH the support of it's OEM, so I switched. Great phone. The constant support is refreshing, after HTC's abysmal non-attempts, to please us. You can skip on over to Andriod if you want. Just don't expect them to support their products, on that end either. They only care that you buy, not that you enjoy, the phone. They already got your money, Sucker. That's why their sales are tanking, and they act like they don't know it? They have access to sophisticated analytics, telling them that they aren't getting the returning customers, anymore. Churning out a zillion Ultrapixels won't stop it, either. To go from nameless OEM, to a brand, takes customer loyalty, and they must first exhibit it TO customers, to receive it, FROM customers. They lost me, after everyone else got Tango, and my keyboard was still playing hide and seek. I won't even go into their stale collection on apps, in the HTC hub. Just a suggestion, Utopiate, but, give Nokia a try. You might just find out what all the fuss is about...
The guys jumping look hot! lol
Seriously though, only 4 WPs amongst 40 Androids? This is why Nokia has been, and always will be, the only OEM that really cares about WP
Windows Phone has become a one trick pony with Nokia. I have the HTC8X and whilst it is a great phone I'm tiring of the whole winphone thing. If MS do not get thier partners more active then winphone will just be nokia and never penetrate into the market deep enough. I can see this all going horribly wrong for MS. Win8 tabs are ridiculously priced which is a huge hurdle as well.
I had the Samsung Omnia 7 upon release and can honestly say it was the best phone I'd ever owned. So I've been on the winphone banwagon for a while. The constant news about nokia and nothing from oter manufacturers has completely put me off and so I'll be heading back to Android next.
http://youtu.be/-t8VKkVFXRY
Samsung Android Wallet, looks like passbook. I think another lawsuit will come xD
I would love to know why when interviewing these characters from HTC or Samsung or anyone who is not Nokia, and they tell you Windows Phone is not working for them, why don't you ask them why they don't support it with adds. Are you guys afraid to ask the hard questions. You guys will have all your side comments when writing these articles but never do you ask these company representatives the real burning question.
Agreed chucky78. This story has played out in so many arenas before:
Nintendo with the Gamecube, great platform, some decent games yet ZERO marketing effort until it was too late.
Microsoft with the Zune player, great platform, some decent ideas yet ZERO marketing effort until it was too late
HTC with Windows Phone 8, great platform...???
So the thing to remember here Chucky is that when we do ask such questions of the guys at MWC we get canned responses. The guys are spinning out of the question to follow their strategies here at MWC.
Of course we would like to get a direct and honest answer but that's never going to happen at these kind of conferences when the companies simply don't have Windows Phone in their strategic brief
It's difficult to respect a company that doesn't seem to respect its own product.
HTC could add a 32 and 64Gb version of the 8X. That would not be a NEW device... As to a premium WP8... HTC might very well go to Windows 8... and offer Full-HD!
Were the pictures taken with a 920?
I have a T3 myself... Pretty decent entry level dslr.
50mm prime lenses are pretty cheap and ultra sharp. Its a good first lens buy.
The more I see after coming into three years the less excited I'm getting. the OEMS are not doing much other than Nokia and they are heavy into the low and middle end. which I think WP will end up being the low end OS. Really look how long it took to get C&P on WP7 I don't the know the more I see of cool feature rich high end android devices it's like wtf... We have one exclusive device that's worth getting...
Yes but also look how long it took iOS to get copy and paste. MS had another implementation that they liked better (phone and address detection) but it didn't resonate with the people and they decided to add C&P.
Anyway explain low-end? If you mean that WP8 will run on low-end hardware without any issues then you are right. There will always be at least one or two high end models at Nokia to buy so whats the big deal if there are 20 medium or low end models. I'd prefer a lean, fast OS that doesn't require a quadcore to run half decent.
You have to remember that Nokia caters to everyone not just the U.S. market. There is lots and lots of money in the low and medium end markets which Nokia will not snub as they have been good to Nokia over the years.
Android OEMs are stuck in a spec war with each other
Apple is the complete opposite, they couldn't even be bothered to release entire spec sheets for their devices
WP is in the middle. It runs great on any hardware but if you want to you can shop around and buy what you want/can afford.
Also since MS requires 1 GHz+ Snapdragon you can expect certain performance from the devices. This requires OEMs to innovate in other ways like imaging (Nokia) or exclusive apps (Everyone, but again Nokia as the leader). In my opinion this is better because I don't want the big innovation to be going from a 1.5 GHz CPU to a 1.7GHz CPU like Android. All the Android software innovations (i.e. skins) I am not a fan of. It just causes update issues and I personally would only ever buy a Nexus device so I can get fast updates right from Google.
If you expect Nokia to use a 6 month release cycle you are going to be dissapointed. They are probably going with a 1 year cycle which others are starting to adopt since Apple has been successful with it. Nokia is truely innovating beyond CPU/GPU/Screen bumps so it will always take them a little longer to get stuff out.
Any new WP 8 devices by any manufacturer?
On another note, did you see the new Lumia 521 coming to t mobile soon?
Dear HTC, I have a Titan now and I love it; However, I see only Nokia pushing their Windows Phone devices. Apps, innovative features, extras, updates. I like THAT kind of support, and my next device will be Nokia. Sorry. But, good luck, hopefully we'll meet in the future.
Cosigned by me. It is the after purchase support and attention a device gets that is so important. I have a Titan and still have to deal with annoying bugs and disappearing keyboards. Not a peep from the HTC camp.
I second this notion. All in favor say "I".
Yep me too. I'm a long time HTC supporter but those days are over. I'm so disappointed with them. 4 WP Devices amongst 40 Android devices shows where their heart and support really is. Nokia has my support now.
Same here with my at&t titan. I just spent $65 of my money to jail break it from ATT to get my keyboard and emails to work correctly. BYE BYE HTC...I'm getting a Nokia where they force AT&T to give the updates the phones require..
I can happily 5th that. Had an HD7, have a Lumia 920.
I looked at the 8X & the Ativ S, but the supprt question makes Nokia the only OEM to go with on Windows Phone.
Hmmm, we could probably turn this response thread into its own article LOL I'll add myself to this list. HTC seems to have shot themselves in both feet and then stuck their collective heads where the sun don't shine in regards to their WP8 offerings and support. I'm recently experiencing the disappearing keyboard that has been documented by others, I've had the poor call quality on my and three other family members' phones and I've heard vague rumors of a patch that addresses both issues but for some reason it never got released to AT&T. The Titan is a really good phone kept from greatness by its MFR; I'm gonna hate going to a smaller screen size when my contract is up but it looks like I may have to unless Nokia ups the anty or a Surface phone is released...So far nothing earth-shattering from MWC...hope *something* is in the oven for late this year for all of us Titan Gen1 owners coming off our contracts...
Techiedude
That is the worst tile arrangement I have ever seen on a Windows Phone.
If you look hard enough, you can juuuust make out the htc from the black spaces between the tiles.
you'll see the T from the base of the messaging hub down between the phone and the store
you'll see the lower case h as part of the t but using the mail hub
and lets pretend the c is around the store hub.
you see ... there was a logical reason to have such a masterpiece as their tile layout.
Its a display phone. Random people walk up and poke and play. The display phones in the stores are often as awful. The tile layout is so personal. Everyone's will be different, it's hard to grasp that until you own it and live with it a while.
Ok That shit was funny !!!
Why was that dude jumping?Because there is really no exciting news coming out for Windows at the Mobile World Congress. I hope he lands on the HTC display.
Lol!!
Now that was funny!
They are 4/44 committed to WP
Colored LED buttons! Please someone tell me I can get this on my 8X.
What pic are you referring to?
The one with the red 8S with the camera looking straight at it. There are a few other pictures too where the leds look green (it can't be the camera angle...can it?)
To bad that would have been cool. Something a little extra to set our phones apart. What would be really cool is my Sisters car has a lot of color choice for mood lighting and have that on your phone. Classic white for work and after set the mood of your phone led light to match the tiles :)
The LED is a bit useless IMHO. It does turn green when the device is fully charged, so HUZZAH I guess?
If only it could be used for useful notifications, like if you had unread messages or something.
Talking about the led backlit windows flag search and back buttons at the bottom of the phone.
Htc is doing something wrong...
Maybe paying a couple of guys to jump around like monkeys is why HTC is losing money ;)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=9ozu3U0LfzE
Hardcore Parkour
Who gives a flip.. Lol. I hate to be negative, but its always pathetic news from the "others"
And why couldn't they have had 22 WP devices, and 22 android devices?.. I'm just sick of the constant lack of support... Can you guys please show us what Samsung has done? Can we see Samsung's booth?
Let's just say that if I did post about Samsung's booth, it wouldn't make you happy
@JayTBennett
Have you seen any new HTC Win8 Devices? What about Samsung have they displayed any new Win8 Devices? Wonder what HTC & Samsung devices Sprint will be getting.
That's funny!
That's my point! Lol.
Jay...how about the flex screen running WP8? How did that look?
Afraid I'm not aware of any such device?
I am not impressed by the ones camera. I was expecting something out of this world. Daylight photos are on par with most cameras and my 920 reproduces colors way more accurately based on reviews I have seen.
The device isn't out yet so I don't know what 'review' you saw. Share a link?
http://wmpoweruser.com/another-comparison-video-of-low-light-capabilitie...
That's low light
Don't trust that, the low light performance is quite impressive and the colour replication is possibly truer to life than the Lumia 920. We can't do a proper comparison yet though so we're not going to post anything definitive
Why shouldn't I trust it. Seems like a pretty controlled test. Based on every comparison I've seen it has issues with crazy grainy pictures. And besides do you think this will cause the company to save itself from the hemorrhaging its going through. Samsung will no doubt one up them.
Just based off what we saw today. I'm not going to tell you that it's incredible, but it is an excellent performer
Got no choice but to believe you lol can't very well call you a liar can I? Lol I don't doubt that its an awesome performer but does it live up to the hype you think?
Agreed
Check out MyNokiaBlogs latest article. And then, I think the guardian did some comparison tests too. Honestly, it takes decent photos. However most of the turn out grainy/noisy especially in low light.