It was a tough challenge for Windows Phone platform to move on after a number of its evangelists, such as Tom Warren of The Verge and Ed Bolt of ZDNet, decided to leave the platform last year due to the lack of user experience they had. Unfortunately, the same experience was most likely faced by consumers as well. The latest data by IDC suggested that Windows Phone’s marketshare was no more than 3% worldwide.
Earlier this year, we had a session with a group of local developers who dedicated most of their time last year creating apps for Microsoft’s platform. The topic was Windows Phone’s prospect in 2015 from developers’ perspective. Would they be loyal to the platform, or finally jump to more popular ones, like Android and iOS?
Algostudio’s Adib Thoriq, that developed Blastnote, opened the discussion by saying, “When Algostudio was established, we perceived Windows Phone as one of most attractive platforms as it was supported principally by Nokia, which was much more aggressive in nature than other competitors. We used that momentum, and it was brilliant.”
M. Hadi Alathas of Madina Technologies, that designed Momento, was on the same page, “At first, I chose Windows Phone as the platform of my apps because I wanted to have a mobile product that could be ‘Giant/Top’ app and possesses tons of users in one platform. This makes it easier for us to promote our apps and get thousands of users should we want to move to another platform, since we have at least built our reputation there.”
He continued, “Finally I opted to focus on Windows Phone, since there wasn’t any app similar to Momento there and the competition for photo apps had yet been as tough as on other platforms like Android and iOS. The strategy could also work, thanks to Nokia Developer Indonesia that helped us promoting our product. Their DVLUP program was also exceptional, it was no doubt a highly beneficial program for developers.”
The interests of local developers went down at the moment Nokia got acquired by Microsoft. Alathas stated, “However, as DVLUP started going less active than it was, developers might once again have the challenges to market their products to users, not to mention Microsoft’s incapability to level up with other platforms in term of renewing its OS. It made the growth of its users became stagnant.”
Radya Labs’ Puja Pramudya admitted that Windows Phone-related projects only occupied 20% of their total projects. Pramudya said, “In fact, in 2014, my team and I got much more offers for projects on iOS and Android than on Windows (Phone).”
Windows Phone’s Prospect in 2015
Based on above discussion, everyone agreed that it’s nearly impossible for local developers to survive by depending only on Windows Phone. Alathas argued, “In 2015, there would still be possible ways to net plenty of users from this platform, only it would be awfully more difficult to do so. Developers must work even harder to market their products. For me, I think the time has come for Momento to greet other platforms, as we’ve met out target.”
Thoriq optimistically said, “Probably the Windows Phone adoption trend tends to be stagnant, but we can’t put aside the fact that Windows Phone possesses fanatic fan-bases who would be loyal until the end. Now it’s up to Microsoft and their innovation for Windows 10.”
He admitted that he would still go with Windows Phone in 2015, other than two popular platforms, for the next two products he’s about to publish.
Pramudya gave a different dimension to the discussion. He assumed that there is possibility that Windows would take Windows Phone to niche market, the enterprise market. This strategy was similar to the one applied by BlackBerry. The difference lies on the fact that Microsoft does traditionally have the software to strive in enterprise segment, while BlackBerry focused more on the security point.
He said, “After the acquirement, sales in hardware became one of Microsoft’s goals. And I assume that Microsoft will enter the enterprise market. Thus, we might well see a lot of bundled devices to be used as business operational assisting tools being offered by Microsoft to enterprise, with the expectation that the employees would bring the devices to their friends and families and create the viral marketing. This would be one of ways to improve the marketshare.”
“Then where is the business? Of course Microsoft would need trusted vendors to build a solution above Windows, so that devices and Windows would be able to be sold to enterprise. And, this is noteworthy, Microsoft has a solid sales in enterprise. Their products have been mature there, thus activating sales channels which used to sell only products like SQL Server (database), System Center (device management), Dynamic CRM (CRM) and other apps shouldn’t be that hard. From business perspective, it would be much more rational for ISV in Indonesia to sell Windows-based solution to enterprise rather than developing apps for consumers,” Pramudya ended.
