I’ve seen reports that there are now more smart phones sold than P.C.s. This is part of the reason Microsoft has been putting so much effort into Windows Phone Seven (and beyond). Now people are saying:
Realistically, Microsoft’s last chance to make a dent in Apple and Google’s mobile aspirations is with Windows Phone 7.5. While the operating system is generally well regarded, many still believe it lacks the killer feature that will help it overtake the considerable leads held by its rivals.
The Nokia deal is about to reach first fruition with the shipment of the first Nokia phones with Windows Phone 7.5. If that doesn’t flop I expect Microsoft will still push on to Windows Phone Eight. I know a little about this and because this information is proprietary can’t say what the main push will be with it. I will say that I wasn’t entirely convinced it was the proper strategy. Maybe it is. But they had some very tough decisions to make and none of the options available were anything close to a sure thing and doing everything in the timeframe required simply isn’t possible.
Without a strong position in the phone and tablet markets which are cutting into the desktop and laptop sales Microsoft is facing completely new territory. As much as I liked working for Microsoft I’m glad I’m not working there right now.
Well, it seems that its pretty late in the day for Microsoft to be making a fresh push on Windows Phone. While they have some clout with the phone manufacturers with their patent portfolio as coercion, the wireless phone companies can’t be happy that they bought Skype.
Microsoft needs to move on and invent new things, not copy others’ ideas.
Maybe they should take the hint from Steve Jobs and give their R&D people some LSD?
Jobs and Woz got their stuff from Xerox. They got the code for the operating system, and specs for the hardware.
Jane. I want Jane. Give me Jane.
The PC will be around for some time, but it is on the way out.
@BobG
The original notion of a mouse pointing device and some of the code for the Mac certainly came from PARC, but the three decades of innovation and industry leadership that came from Jobs, Woz, and Apple are very different than the acquisition-driven processes at the Lazy M. Sure, Microsoft hires a lot of really smart people (then drives them into the ground, but that’s another story…), but their cumbersome development process and internal politics almost always seems to squelch true innovation.
I worked on way too many projects at MS where the “leadership” was so stuck on just idiotic concepts that it was obvious the public didn’t want, but the directors and VPs kept pushing them anyway. Even when Gates himself referred to “Clippy” as “that f*cking paper clip”, the Office leadership stuck it in Office anyway.
MS needs to just cut their losses and bail on the mobile phones. They have zero chance of catching up, and barely a chance to make a dent in the marketplace. And when the “cloud computing” thing blows over, and people start wanting their databases and information back on their own premises and under their own control, another huge MSFT initiative will be sitting there, drying out in the sun, with the occasional tumbleweed blowing across its desiccated pathways.