Windows Phone and WinRT

05 August 2013

From Windows Phone or Windows RT?:

Microsoft already has a mobile platform with a thriving ecosystem. It’s called Windows Phone, and I think it makes a far better choice for general purpose tablets than does Windows RT.

I used to have a Nokia Windows Phone, that I loved. The experience was pretty good, except for the lack of apps.1

I created some Windows Phone 7 applications (notably Culturez-Vous with Damien Mayance). I also developed a WinRT library for my daily work then — before Pixelnest.

I had a Windows 8 and a WinRT device (Surface) at my workplace these days, and it was horrible. The experience was bad — the OS was a schizophrenic beast, always switching between the classic desktop and the Metro environment, with no apps. It was slow, unrefined, confusing. The font rendering was horrid.

When the announcement of WinRT became public, I wondered why Microsoft did not leverage its Windows Phone OS, instead of starting from scratch with Windows 8. A tablet with Windows Phone would have been far better than a tablet with the fail that is WinRT/Windows 8.

  1. To be fair, however, even then I thought that iOS was a superior OS. But I like to try a new OS to discover what works and not, and to make my own opinion.

    Windows Phone lacked some polish but was rock solid, especially when compared to Android. At least, the Lumia was a supercharged feature phone with a browser and a decent keyboard.

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