Last Friday, with a heavy heart I powered down my Windows Phone, and fired up a device, that just three months ago I wouldn't have dreamt of... an Android Phone.
And I blame Microsoft for this.
I have been using Windows-based mobiles since 2011... Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and then Windows 10. For almost 7 years we shared a peaceful co-existence. The apps were few, but sufficient.
Last December, the internal memory on Lumia device was depleting rapidly, and it was time for an upgrade. That's when the sad state of Windows Mobile ecosystem became evident to me. Microsoft itself seems to have given up on the mobile platform. There are no devices in sub-20k range. There's no support for UPI. Delayed updates to frequently used apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
Other power users of Windows Mobile such as Rohit Bhargav also suggested me not to continue with it. Thus began a search for an alternative.
Apple iPhone was never an option due to its high price range and the closed ecosystem. I considered BlackBerry for a very short time before settling on Android. Debashish Deshmukh, who happens to be the living encyclopedia of mobile devices in market spent hours coaching me on various models -- Samsung, Honor, and many more. He had recommended RedMi Note 4 as the best value-for-money mobile but I didn't wish to go through the hassle of waiting for the flash sales and opted for Moto G5 Plus.
Experience so far has been good; but it remains to be seen if I would overcome missing the following features of Windows Mobile:
Reliability: For the past 7 years that I have been using Windows Mobile on Lumia devices, not even once did I have to visit the store for any hardware repairs or software glitches. Let's see how Android devices fare in that comparison.
Metro UI: I still believe Metro UI is ideal for phones.
MS-Office tools: These are supposedly equally good on Android if not even better.
To Do Prime: My favourite to-do list app, it's not available on Android and am looking for its alternative.
OneNote: Not sure if it's available for Android. Evernote, perhaps?
I will continue to monitor the Windows Mobile space to see if Microsoft ever gets serious about it. Untill then, Goodbye, Windows Mobile... Hello, Android!
And I blame Microsoft for this.
I have been using Windows-based mobiles since 2011... Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and then Windows 10. For almost 7 years we shared a peaceful co-existence. The apps were few, but sufficient.
Last December, the internal memory on Lumia device was depleting rapidly, and it was time for an upgrade. That's when the sad state of Windows Mobile ecosystem became evident to me. Microsoft itself seems to have given up on the mobile platform. There are no devices in sub-20k range. There's no support for UPI. Delayed updates to frequently used apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
Other power users of Windows Mobile such as Rohit Bhargav also suggested me not to continue with it. Thus began a search for an alternative.
Apple iPhone was never an option due to its high price range and the closed ecosystem. I considered BlackBerry for a very short time before settling on Android. Debashish Deshmukh, who happens to be the living encyclopedia of mobile devices in market spent hours coaching me on various models -- Samsung, Honor, and many more. He had recommended RedMi Note 4 as the best value-for-money mobile but I didn't wish to go through the hassle of waiting for the flash sales and opted for Moto G5 Plus.
Experience so far has been good; but it remains to be seen if I would overcome missing the following features of Windows Mobile:
Reliability: For the past 7 years that I have been using Windows Mobile on Lumia devices, not even once did I have to visit the store for any hardware repairs or software glitches. Let's see how Android devices fare in that comparison.
Metro UI: I still believe Metro UI is ideal for phones.
MS-Office tools: These are supposedly equally good on Android if not even better.
To Do Prime: My favourite to-do list app, it's not available on Android and am looking for its alternative.
OneNote: Not sure if it's available for Android. Evernote, perhaps?
I will continue to monitor the Windows Mobile space to see if Microsoft ever gets serious about it. Untill then, Goodbye, Windows Mobile... Hello, Android!
