Warning: this article begs for a fanboy war in the comments and in this particular instance, I’m only asking to keep it clean as this is an interesting, if not completely subjective look at why Windows Phone may never be as successful as Android or even iOS without some drastic changes to the software. Don’t get me wrong, Windows Phone has incredibly smooth performance, but is that really enough to win over the masses? Part of reasons we love Android and part of the reason I’m truly enjoying my Android challenge is that a lot of the things listed below are already baked into the software — and if they aren’t, compatibility is just one Google Play tap away.
Before diving into this list, you should know that the list ONLY references software and not misc extras a manufacturer may build in. For example, the sheet says that no microSD card support, which is true from a software perspective, even so Samsung has built it into their own hardware. Just keep that in mind while reading this as there may some points here you could disagree with, but they may be a manufacturers decision and now a Microsoft one.
There is a disclaimer here from the person who compiled this list that says these are purely from the standpoint of a Nokia Lumia owner. We should say that that’s ok, as Microsoft’s strongest effort at bringing out the very best in their platform is now said to come from Nokia’s line of Windows Phone products.
I’ll be curious about your thoughts on this list, but you’ve been warned about the comments!
PhoneArena via My-Symbian
OS LIMITATIONS
1. No true multitasking for 3rd party apps – they re frozen in the background.
2. No Divx/Xvid video codec support. Zune will convert with loss of quality.
3. No mass storage mode.
4. No micro-SD card support.
5. Only support up to 16GB storage.
6. No filemanager. Directory system is totally opaque.
7. Need Zune to transfer files. Zune will only transfer photos, videos & music. All other files need to email/upload to yourself.
8. Your contact details are automatically uploaded to cloud service whether you like it or not.
9. Limited to 800×480 resolution.
10. Voice search is hardwired to Bing.
11. Cannot use any MP3 file as ringtone except those with strict constraints.
12. Cannot set static IP address so no connection to ad-hoc networks.
13. No VPN support for this “corporate enterprise” phone.
14. Cannot sync directly with Outlook without syncing to Cloud
15. Totally closed OS, cannot sideload apps outside MS Marketplace.
16. System font size cannot be changed.
17. Images and photos cannot be renamed in the phone.
18. Windows Live ID account cannot change country once set.
19. No centralized notification page.
20. Alarm clock cannot work when phone is turned off. All Nokia Symbian and Meego phones can do this.
21. The idle screen is completely blank and cannot display time or notifications.
22. Only photos allowed as email attachments, documents not allowed.
23. Bluetooth does not have rSAP protocol which is the most common protocol for car audio streaming.
24. Cannot stream audio from video to Bluetooth devices (No A2DP).
25. No support for full on-device encryption required for secure applications like mobile banking and online payment.
26. Cannot use Bluetooth keyboard.
27. Cannot silence ringtone or alarm by flipping the phone.
28. Very limited customization option.
29. Cannot be upgraded to WP8 (Apollo)
USABILITY ISSUES
30. No always visible status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth on.
31. Taskmanager has no option to shut down apps you don’t want running in the background.
32. Search and Back button cannot be de-activated in apps or games and easily touched by accident which interrupt your user experience.
33. Lockscreen need to be activated to show missed call/sms notification.
34. No way to close an app except pressing back button all the way to the first screen.
35. Tiny fonts in messages is very hard to read for those over 45.
36. Cannot create and save playlists on the phone.
37. Playlist can only be edited when you are playing it.
38. Cannot search your music collection on the phone, only in the Marketplace.
39. Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lockscreen will stay until you reboot. Be careful not to touch it in a meeting.
40. No draggable progress bar for current track playing and no indication which track in an album is currently playing
41. Cannot lock screen orientation.
42. Online and phone contacts are mixed together with no ability to filter.
43. Cumbersome dialing with no smartdial. Not able to enter alphabets into dialler for name lookup.
44. Cannot save draft sms messages.
45. Call history only show phone number type. If a contact has multiple phone nos. for a type the number used is unknown.
46. Cannot recognize phone numbers in sms or email to save or use as calling number.
47. Text messages can only be deleted one by one or the whole thread.
48. Cannot select multiple pictures for deleting, sending or uploading. They must be done one at a time.
49. Clicking on the Me Tile doesn’t take you directly to your notifications it takes you to your profile, a serious usability blunder
50. Apps are listed alphabetically with no way to group by category. Can be hard to find if you don’t remember the name.
51. Calendar scheduler has no weekly view and monthly view is non-zoomable.
52. No peak time/off-peak time scheduling for email downloads to prevent unnecessary email downloads at overnight.
53. If both wi-fi and data connection are available which one it chooses to use is unpredictable. User experiences don’t agree with Microsoft that it “typically” choose wi-fi over 3G.
FEATURE LIMITATIONS
54. No video call.
55. No haptic feedback for keyboard.
56. No Swype.
57. No flashplayer support.
58. No support for Java apps.
59. No call recording or app to do it.
60. No call blocking or app to do it.
61. No screenshots or app to do it.
62. No auto wallpaper changer and no app to do it.
63. Totally locked down os means apps which interact directly with hardware not allowed. This excludes a whole range of useful apps
64. No equalizer for Zune music player.
65. FM radio doesn’t work on speaker.
66. IE browser has no text reflow, no download capability and no offline reading.
67. No 3rd party browsers allowed except those based on IE.
68. Volume up/down buttons cannot be used to zoom in camera (sign of an immature os)
69. Cannot open zip or rar files received as email attachment.
70. Cannot send or receive video by MMS.
71. Office Mobile has much less features than 3rd party Office editors like SmartOffice, QuickOffice and Polaris. Shame on you, Microsoft!
72. No native Google maps and Bing maps is useless for most countries outside U.S.
73. Email time stamp does not show the year.
74. Wide difference in apps availability in different markets and users locked to one market.
75. Not all Bing features available outside U.S. especially Local Scout
DUMB AND DUMBER
76. One volume control for all functions including media playback, ringtones, alarms, notifications.
77. Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps.
78. If you receive a text message when talking on the phone an audio alert will blast your ear at the full volume set. All other phones will give a soft beep.
79. Can only enter one mobile phone no. for each contact. Mobile nos. entered in other fields will not accept sms.
80. Cannot send/receive MMS without enabling 3G data connection. MMS does not use 3G data.
81. Phone cannot be charged when off.
82. Need to be plugged in to wall charger to sync wirelessly (a funny definition of wireless).
83. Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density
84. Phone will wake up and display sms content on lockscreen when locked – a privacy violation.
85. Phone can be rebooted without entering security code.
FEATURES EVEN DUMB PHONES HAVE BUT WP7.5 DOESN’T
86. No bluetooth file transfer.
87. Cannot handle USSD codes necessary for prepaid users to obtain services.
88. Cannot filter call history into Missed Calls, Received Calls, Dialled Calls, Recent Calls, etc
89. No way to backup or export call history
90. Cannot show call duration in call history.
91. No way to edit MMS profile to work with a carrier in the OS. Need an app which is not available in all markets.
92. Call history does not group calls by contact.
93. Call history does not show the time of call for calls older than current day.
94. Cannot set custom sounds for different types of notifications.
95. No ringer profiles.
96. No silent option (no vibrate and no ring) from ringer menu. Need a trip to settings and another trip to revert.
97. Cannot send/receive contact as a csv file.
98. Cannot backup sms to PC.
99. Cannot save contact to SIM card.
100. Cannot change alarm ring tone or use a MP3 file.
101. Cannot set alarm snooze interval.
BONUS SHORTCOMINGS
102. Unable to read long names in audio and video playlist as they get cut off
103. Zune does not allow user to add or update podcasts directly from the phone
104. Zune can only be installed if you have an internet connection
105. Alarm does not revert to speaker if headphones are plugged in.
106. Forwarded emails cannot be edited
107. OS does not reduce volume of text message alerts when using headphones
108. All photos automatically upload to Skydrive have resolution reduced (no option) and lose their EXIF information
109. Wifi- hotspot and internet tethering not integral features in the OS but need to be provided by manufacturer on a case by case basis.
110. Internet Explorer has no Forward/Backward button for page views.