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  • xthetenth - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    I hope it does well, any good news for WM10 is good news for me, and I think Japan's a reasonably likely place for it to have a shot, since it seems somewhat insulated from greater hardware trends.
  • Wolfpup - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    Yeah. I'd expect they'd be quality phones. I'm certainty intrigued by them, and by Windows 10 mobile in general. I'm still not clear on how close to being real Windows it is...like whether it's as Windows-y as Windows 8.1 RT is or not.

    And yes, I'd still love an x86 Windows Phone with real Windows most of all...
  • WorldWithoutMadness - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    IMHO, not the right time, the platform is still immature and not to forget that MS also release their own phone. This is more or less a suicidal mission.
  • zodiacfml - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link

    I agree. Until now, with the availability of efficient x86 chips from Intel, I still haven't seen native W10 on a phone or phablet form factor.
  • nikon133 - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link

    It is Japan, though.

    Considering how poor MS consoles are doing in Japan regardless their success elsewhere (I'm talking more of X360 than X1)... I'm under impression that Japanese Windows phone is likely to take majority of Windows phone share in Japan, regardless how big or small that market share is. Especially that there is no other Japanese Windows phone available, to my knowledge.

    Another thing... this, indeed, might be a solid moment to get into Win phones (presuming that company is interested in WP platform in general). Two new MS phones are OK, but from what I can see, hardware wise, they are last legacy from Nokia... and while OK, they are not really differentiating much (if at all) from other high-end devices, hardware and features wise. But with Surface team taking over phones development, I think next high-end refresh will be more distinctive with original features, if Panoz and his team's previous work on Surface Pro and Book are anything to judge after... so this quiet time in WP ecosystem could be best time to get into it and secure some beachhead.

    But I agree otherwise, platform is immature. It looks like W10 for phones is released with more bugs and glitches than W10 desktop, and some of its most intriguing concepts - like universal apps - are still hardly more than a concept. It almost feels like this generation of Lumia is just a development platform for polishing and perfecting W10, universal apps, continuum... before Surface phone(s) try their luck.
  • Flunk - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    This is going to confuse a few people, VAIO has meant Sony for a long time. Looks like a real high-end product though so it might sell pretty well in Japan. Don't expect to see this in the USA.
  • Guzzista - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    This is a very astute move, as the VAIO phone will integrate seamlessly into MSFT's strategy of one OS that operates across multiple devices. I am surprised that the author of the article did not touch on this point. No other tech company has attempted this - Apple OSX and iOS are not very similar, nor are Android and Chrome. By getting in at the beginning of this evolution, VAIO should be able to sell a lot of handsets to businesses that have Windows10 installed.
  • name99 - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    And in this theory of yours, how exactly does VAIO achieve what Lumia did not?
    If the world were desperate for Windows 10 and its phone, why didn't they leap onto Lumia?
  • Demiurge - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    You wouldn't want all of your devices (PC, phone, tablet, etc.) to match and work together seemlessly? Oh, wait, that's what Apple tries to do... and hey, Apple also has brand recognition... I wonder what strategy could VAIO be trying to execute?

    Sarcasm aside... Nokia did not sell other the other devices, which at the end, you just had a Windows 10 phone and no real connection to your other devices. It would be akin to buying a Mac and then an Android phone -- you could do it, and there are reasons to, but tempting to have that interoperability out of the box. Think Apple... only with useful applications for business and professional use.
  • Murloc - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link

    you already have all that connection with windows phone 10 and windows 10.

    Having the same hardware brand doesn't change much at all if the software is the same.

    Maybe they'll be able to sell multiple devices of the same brand and that's a strategy, but it won't help WP10 particularly.
  • BurntMyBacon - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link

    @Murloc: "you already have all that connection with windows phone 10 and windows 10.

    Having the same hardware brand doesn't change much at all if the software is the same."

    True. If Nokia can't get consumers onboard with Continuum, then I doubt VAIO can. That said, Nokia never really built a phone with Continuum did they. Lumia is now a Microsoft brand and no longer has whatever pull with customers that Nokia brought to the table. Even assuming it did, exactly how long have Win10 mobile devices been on the market? IIRC December 2015 is when the first one launched. Of those devices, how many were high-end enough to get some attention. Put another way, how many had to power to actually be useful running as a desktop(ish) device? The Lumia 950(XL) are the only devices I've heard of that might fit that description.

    Continuum may or may not take off, but a little over 2 months on the market is too early to tell. This is especially true when you consider that business customers are more likely to be interested than normal consumers. I don't see Microsoft taking the world by storm, but IMHO they could gain enough traction in the business sector to be taken seriously if they execute properly with Continuum. Frankly speaking, this is probably the last major advantage they can bring to the table before mobile devices are too feature complete to differentiate. At that point, it'll be next to impossible to convince consumers not to go with the incumbents.

    I'd like to see Microsoft grab 8% - 12% market share. Large enough to be stable and keep a third player in the competitions, but small enough that they need to stay attentive. Much as I dislike Apple's business practices and lock-in model, I think it would be best if Windows phone market share came mostly at the expense of Android. I think they need a little market pressure to start weeding out useless devices (most companies have more than a few that seem redundant and under developed) and focus on making a just few good devices (per company). Full coverage with little redundancy. I'm not very optimistic about Microsoft's chances given their apparent inability to get the message out, but they've been in worse positions before.
  • Gunbuster - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link

    Get the message out? What message would that be?

    The 950 and 950XL have been a buggy mess, priced too high and only on one US carrier. Not to mention the uninspired design and poor build quality (just buy a new $60 back for your $650 phone!). W10 Mobile is a continuous beta (did that fix it? how about now? how about now?, hard reset/wipe your phone, how about now? Sorry for that half day battery life on your flagship), and they have been consistently incompetent on even basic features like visual voicemail not working on their dual sim handsets.
  • Murloc - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link

    I was considering WP more in general, you're right that there hasn't been the time to see if continuum is a "killer app" or not.
    The point is that the more the android monopoly is entrenched, the more difficult it is to make a breakthrough for MS. I fear they're too late, that's all.
    That would be very bad because WP is nice and easy to use and is strong in the low-end, while apple is a high-end only, so only Android would be left alone on the market if WP goes tits up, and that would mean bad low-end devices forever.
  • lilmoe - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link

    +1
  • neothe0ne - Friday, February 5, 2016 - link

    Japan phone without FeliCa (or NFC) :(

    Then again I would be surprised to find a no contract phone with FeliCa included based on things I've heard about how FeliCa licensing actually works
  • ajp_anton - Saturday, February 6, 2016 - link

    Not that I would complain having LTE on my phone, especially on a high-end phone, but is it really that important?

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