Bing, you're making me give up on you - and possibly Windows Phone as well

Bing keeps talking big with campaigns like the Bing It On challenge, but continues to fail to deliver.

The two most asked for controls  are the ability to narrow and sort results by date. In theory this is now available but it's unreliable, and decides to disappear when you most need it.

It's clear to me that the date functionality must be fairly shaky and Bing chooses to selectively hide it away in situations they think it will produce bad results. Unfortunately working around this limitation makes using Bing feel like hard work compared to the effortless experience of using the Google date controls.

In some cases narrow by date can be forced by adding &tbs=qdr:d to the url. But how hard would it have been to provide a GUI setting for this?

What's worse, the date controls are completely unavailable in many countries. One of the most infuriating aspects of Bing is the glacially slow country rollout. Many countries like Singapore are still waiting for Bing to provide such basics as local news. But sometimes the limitations are subtler - try switching to your country to Australia. You'll find a Bing home page that superficially looks as feature-rich as the US. However as soon as you try force-enabling narrow by date, you'll find that you can't.

Windows Phone 7 currently has Bing baked into it, and it's very hard to change the default search provider. I don't expect Windows Phone 8 to change this situation, which means the success of Windows Phone 8 is heavily tied to Bing. Windows Phones are sold globally, so Bing must perform globally if Windows Phone is to avoid becoming a US-only sideshow. At the very least Bing must achieve worldwide parity with Google on the search functionality.

What Windows Phone REALLY needs: CHEAP PHONES!!!!!

Media attention is usually grabbed by the "hero" phones with high price-tags, leading-edge features, and huge marketing budgets. And while sales figures are very healthy for top-of-the-line phones such as the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S III, they are really only appealing to two relatively small market segments: the cashed-up and the so-tech-obsessed-they're-willing-to-take-out-second-mortgages.

Most people buy their first smartphone when the price drops below a certain threshold - say $200. Often their needs are met by little more than a touch screen and Angry Birds. They don't care if the phone has a relatively small screen, lousy camera, is slow or has hardly any storage - they're just basking in the warmth of being new members of the smartphone "club". These are the people who make up the vast bulk of the sales figures, and they all without exception will buy Androids.

However, over time they will become aware of the cool things that other people's more expensive phones can do, which will make them irritated and frustrated with the limitations of their own phones. The temptation to upgrade may quickly become overpowering. The starter phone will soon have served its function as a gateway to more expensive phones.

So what phone are they likely to choose next? While there might be a few who find the shininess of an iPhone irresistible and not too much of a financial stretch, that's not the most likely outcome. Android will already be comforting and familiar, by now the owners would have their Google account setup and they would lose the apps they bought if they switched operating system. So they're probably going to stick with Android.

Entry level pricing gives Android a fundamental advantage over Apple in capturing and retaining new adopters. This is where Windows Phone needs to play if they want steady, sustainable growth. The Tango update allows Windows Phone to run on punier hardware, which is a good start. But I think Microsoft needs to go further.

For decades Microsoft has been giving Windows and Office away to schools to get the kids hooked before they've developed the ability to make their own independent decisions (Apple have been doing it too, but from what I've seen the margins aren't exactly being slashed).

With the launch of Windows 8, I'd expect that the education relaunch will be in full swing. Windows Phone should be an integral part of this. I think Microsoft could run courses on safe phone usage (you know the kind of thing - safe social media usage, the dangers of oversharing and how to handle electronic bullying), and as part of this they should offer discounted phones to educators and kids (with parental approval, of course).

The first time I saw a video of Windows Phone in action, I knew I wanted it. However my first smartphone was an Android, and I even upgraded to another Android. Partly this was due to cost, but also it was hard not to be scared off by largely negative media commentary about Windows Phone. It wasn't until a Windows Phone came up in a clearance sale three months ago that I finally followed through on my first preference. Now, I can't stop thinking about the Lumia 820, and I'm going to get one as soon as it's available in my area. If a $200 Windows Phone had been available when I was shopping for my first smartphone, I could have been at this point 18 months ago.