"Thank you all for your interest in Canon’s Mobile Apps! We’re constantly looking to improve and update our software, however at this time we’re not planning on developing a Windows Phone 8 App."
To be blunt, why not?
Windows Phone take up in Europe has doubled in the last year, the problem is that Canon doesn't care. Its biggest three markets are the US, Europe and Japan. Two years ago Canon itself said that by 2015 it expects China to take over from Japan as Canon's third biggest market. The current Windows Phone share in China is basically non existant (Android accounts for around 2/3) and not much of a better story in the US, where Apple is the king.
So surely (not shirley Ivan
) Canon didn't decide to not make a WP app because it specifically wants to alienate it's European customers and instead likes it's soon to be Chinese customers more?
Nokia has 85% of the Windows Phone market, compared to Samsung which holds 63% of the Android market (we'll ignore the market share of iOS that Apple holds for hopefully obvious reasons!). One can therefore make a general assumption that the Android hardware market is much more fragmented than the Windows Phone market i.e. Android is spread across more manufacturer and more models of phones. This makes Windows Phone an easier platform for Canon to support, giving each individual user of a future EOS Remote WP app a better experience. It also means less development expenditure for Canon on W8 over Android app support.
So, surely Canon didn't decide to not make a WP app because it would be too much work or cost too much?
I have owned a 6D for 3 months now and previously used it with my Galaxy S2. I work in a company with just over 80 employees and almost everyone has a Windows phone for work (most are based in the German office). I currently have free range to decide which phone I will upgrade to and even though a Nokia 925/1020 make by far the most sense from a work point of view, they also make the most sense from a personal point of view.
However, Canon are forcing me to make a rediculous decision. If I go Nokia, I can't use the Canon Remote features of the 6D. If I stay with Android (something that will make my work mobility much less productve than with WP) I can keep the EOS Remote support and not waste £200 or whatever worth of the 6D's key features. As rediculous as it sounds, I have even thought about getting a Nokia WP as a main phone and keeping my Galaxy S2 in my camera bag so I can still use it with the 6D.
Lots of people say that Windows Phone itself it its own worst enemy, most of the people I know say that there are no apps available for WP and that's why they stick with Android or Apple. A lot of this is incorrect perception, WP has all the apps I need for both work and personal use. But by companies like Canon not providing support for WP, they are forcing the uptake of WP to be reduced,damaging their own sales and image as well as seriously alienating myself and many other Canon customers - both current and potential.
If Canon continues to refuse to release a WP app in order to support their customers and their products, as customers I believe we are entitled to ask why we are not deemed important enough.
So I will add my request to all the other thread participants; please Canon rprovide support for Windows Phone 8 EOS Remote. Even if Canon doesn't agree with our views, I would like them to find a single good reason why they won't provide WP support.
