Edit:
Has anyone else been having random WiFi issues with 8.1? The company I work for takes up 5 floors, each with WiFi throughout the floor. Sometimes when I move between the floors, my WiFi is set to "limited" forcing me to turn off/on wifi to fix it. I sometimes need to restart the phone to get it to work properly. Same issue sometimes happens when I come home and connect to my home wifi. Using an Icon btw.
Also, I'd like to reiterate how much the cursor sucks ass in 8.1. Again, making this post was much more frustrating than it needed to be.
If devs were wise, they would go where the people are(yeah, yeah, iOS or Android), and that would be 512mb phones.
It's not about devs being wise, it's about what is efficient and possible. Devs want their apps in the store as soon as possible to bring in some revenue. So even if compatibility with 512MB devices is planned, there have been many times an app has launched before this optimization has been made. It's easier to get an app running properly on a 1GB device, so release for those devices first and expand to 512MB devices if possible. Problem is it's not always possible to optimize your app for 512MB phones, so the dev may have wasted time optimizing for nothing. In either scenario, it's frustrating for the user. They have to wait for the app, while everyone else is able to use it, or they never receive the app.
Sure, it can said that people should do this kind of research when buying a phone. While true, the types of people to go for a budget phone are the least likely to do this kind of research IMO. So we have people going in blind and having a sub-par experience, which hurts any chance MS has to keep them when it's time to upgrade again.
MS should be doing what they can do to ensure the users have the best, most consistent experience possible. I understand this phone was likely final (or close) by the time MS took over. I just hope they do better with this going forward.
Because they are low end devices and the OS doesn't need 1GB to run. The goal is to get the prices to the bottom as quickly as possible. It's probably the only way WP will see success. You can't do that with stuff like 1GB and FFC.
There will be 1GB phones but I think Microsoft actually has the right priorities here. Just 3 months ago the 520 was "dead" because of the Moto E. Now they have competitive devices again
FFC, I understand. However I find it hard to believe that an additional 512MB of memory would hike the price up in any major way.