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I hadn’t realized that today was the day WP turned 3 years of age, until Belfiore tweeted about it. Of course back in 2010 I scoffed at WP and was too busy playing with my N8 (and trying to speed it up) to actually give it any serious thought. I remember feeling a dark sense of glee when the whole No-Do update fiasco happened and bricked multiple devices; that was when I was so far immersed in my Nokia/Symbian fanboyism that anything else was complete rubbish (very much like Nokia themselves acted).

Happy Bday, "MetroUI"! 3 yrs ago today WP7 launched. In just a few countries on just one chip with only a handful of apps… — joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) October 11, 2013

Then Elop went WP and I got a Lumia 800, fell in love and never looked back…

Of course Windows Phone has come some ways since 2010, first with No-Do, then WP Mango 7,5 (when Nokia jumped in and gave it the much needed boost), and then WP 7.8 and the WP8 rebuild, then Portico/GDR1; and just last month (or yesterday if you’re an At&t subscriber) GDR2/Lumia Amber. Some of these updates were major for the OS (Mango, WP8, Amber) while others where minor and hardly changed anything. The fact remains however that Windows Phone has matured a bit, but no where near enough for a three year old.

Certain things should be expected of an OS this old, and certainly no one can make the “still young” remark, and in some aspects WP has caught on. For example the apps situation is much improved, I hardly ever find myself wishing for a certain app any more (after the surge of 3rd party alternatives such as Instagraph, 6tag, 6sec, swapchat…) which gave a new breath of life into the WP ecosystem. On the other hand WP hasn’t changed much in terms of features since Mango, sure we got new tile sizes and an accent color or two along the way, but where’s the innovation?

We’ve discussed the missing features and what we want/need countless times, so I won’t go into that; but put simply WP has to step it up; GDR3 should come this month on the 1520, but god knows when older devices will get it; and 8.1 is still anyones guess.

Most importantly WP has to stop playing catchup to other OSes and start bringing in fresh new ideas, especially since NOkia won’t be around to push out awesome new features much longer. So PLEASE evolve.

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Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone