How on earth did Microsoft fail so badly in mobile?

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I remember when blackberry phones first came out with their monochrome screens, then later the palm treo 650 and I used to use windows mobile.
Yes iPhone completely changed the game but Apple did not go on to gain some monopolistic share of the mobile space like windows did with the pc.
Steve ballmer, was he to blame for this mess? I saw one article where it said gates and ballmer were not on speaking terms, and part of their argument was what he did with mobile.
Bill gates stepped down in 2006, iphone was released in 2007. In my personal opinion, if bill gates was still in charge and hadn’t retired, there is no way they would have lost so badly in the mobile space, to the point of being wiped out.
And now abandoning windows mobile?
I think you can’t simply afford to abandon mobile, I spend way more time on mobile than on any desktop.
Even now I still think they should have another go at mobile. Look at the competition, Apple and Samsung and google pixel have just become greedy with the prices they are charging.
They should run the mobile division as a break even endeavour to take one last stand to try and get a foot back into the mobile space.
Where are they let down apps. They can compete on hardware, I don’t know why they stick with that stupid windows tile home screen, switch to what people are accustomed to on iPhone and Android, they don’t want something radically different.
Offer some outrageous amount of free azure cloud storage just to get people to windows mobile. Rename it surface mobile. But really I think they would have to rebuild the entire windows mobile operating system in the language in which Android and their apps are coded, so java developers won’t have any trouble porting their apps to windows mobile, perhaps even develop a tool which converts them or do research on what the top apps used on android are and pay the developers to make versions for a Microsoft mobile environment but they have to make it as ridiculously easy as possible for them to do that. I don’t know what the data is but there may be like a hundred apps which the majority of mobile phone users use, making the most popular ones available on a surface mobile would make a big difference.
And integration with windows desktop, if it were made seamless the way Apple is doing with their mobile and desktop operating systems, it could be good.
Imagine amazing Nokia hardware at close to cost price. Instant security updates direct from Microsoft.
Having had lots of problems with email apps on the iPhone ,,Microsoft outlook email app for iPhone is one of the ones that works the best for me.
Enterprise seemed to be more comfortable using windows mobile because it was more affordable and met the important criteria of being able to get updates from microsoft.
The windows mobile division must clearly be running at a loss, and yes I agree they should focus on microsoft services on iPhone and android, but I think Satya Nadella, as much as I like him, is making a big mistake. It doesn’t seem they will be replacing windows mobile, otherwise they would have announced it to stop an outflow of users. They should just continue building the best possible windows mobile product available and try and address some of the issues that plagued it, but they need to rebuild it from the ground up, how they could persist with the same stupid tile interface despite having such a low market share is beyond me. If google could take android from out of nowhere to make it the market leader it is today, why are microsoft not able to carve out a slice of the mobile operating system. Bill gates needs to return for a few years and increase his advisory role, he is quite the visionary.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Lack of apps makes people not want to get that platform and lack of devices/users makes developers not want to develop apps.

Rinse and repeat as desired.
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I think there's a certain degree of irony to this but it sums it up for me:

I don’t know anything about the tech but I just wonder instead of expecting developers to reinvent for their platform, whether they could have redesigned their mobile operating system to make it easy for developers to make their apps also available on a Microsoft mobile platform. Just seems like too important an area for them to just give up on.
Also are they just abandoning a Microsoft windows phone but continuing to develop their mobile operating system for manufacturers like HP etc to still make phones or are they abandoning windows mobile completely. I just assumed it was the latter since bill gates was using an android phone.
I can also see the other side of things, if they continue to spend finite resources in loss making areas it could compromise the future financial stability of the company.
In this video ballmer talks of Microsoft selling millions and millions of phones and Apple selling zero
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
maybe the craziest thing microsoft ever did was the $150 million dollar cash injection in Apple back in 1997 when apple were facing bankruptcy, had they potentially let Apple die off, they may have been the market leader in smartphones today.
Nobody could have foretold what would happen.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
maybe the craziest thing microsoft ever did was the $150 million dollar cash injection in Apple back in 1997 when apple were facing bankruptcy, had they potentially let Apple die off, they may have been the market leader in smartphones today.
Nobody could have foretold what would happen.

I'm not sure I'd call them market leaders anymore. They certainly started the smartphone trend but I'd argue Google has that title by now. iPhones have been largely the same for the past 4ish generations.
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
They may not be the market leaders, possibly are in terms of profitability, but definitely not based on sheer number of devices using their operating system, Android is the winner there. But Apple are in my opinions the pioneers, the game changers, I think it was the iPhone that marked the beginning of the end for windows mobile. The full touch screen may have been around just before iPhone launch but they were the first in my opinion to get it really right. I think they did that with the iPod and the ipad as well, the tech may have existed but they just made it mainstream.
I have used Bluetooth earphones in the past and for the most part they have been not good on android, but the airpods, it’s like they have taken a technology that has been around for a long time and just done it better than anybody else.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Apple were the pioneers and game changers when the whole smartphone thing started sure but certainly not the case anymore. Pretty much every single hardware advancement they've made has been well behind Android devices as a whole. Hell, my 2+ year old LG is still a higher resolution than the $1000 iPhone X. Also Windows phone was only ever really noticeable, at least to me, in the early 2010's after smartphones had started to take off. Before iPhone there definitely wasn't much of Windows mobile going on. It seemed briefly that they'd be viable contenders but as above the lack of apps effectively killed that platform. Last person I remember using one was around 2013ish.
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I used to use a dopod 838 pro running windows mobile 5.0 in 2006
dopod-838-pro-htc-hermes.jpg

I agree iphone is definitely way behind what is available on android, but getting instant security updates and having the one actually commit to and provide security updates immediately was a BIG BIG selling point for me.
Pixel 2 XL is a viable alternative now they have committed to three years of updates, I used one today, it’s nice, but if I am paying iPhone prices, I’d rather stick with an iPhone, my iPhone 7 Plus may be low spec but it runs fast enough for me and the airpods, despite looking stupid are awesome imho.
Each to their own, it’s a matter of personal preference. I’d never buy another Samsung phone though,all those added layers before you get any sort of update, and when I contacted them, not being able to get any sort of answer on their security updates, great hardware, they just need to take the software side of things more seriously.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
but getting instant security updates and having the one actually commit to and provide security updates immediately was a BIG BIG selling point for me.
At least you can't get sued for your contacts being hacked for the sole purpose of spam generation, eh?
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
Microsoft should have bought Apple when they had the chance instead of keeping them afloat in 97. Microsoft waited to long in the phone domain with iPhone/Android, third man out . Hard to get people to change . Plus should had a completely different look then the desktop but had compatibility which could have been done.
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
They have invested in brick and mortar stores similar to the apple stores, but there is just one windows HP phone in some corner in a store filled with laptops and desktops. Given how much they are investing in keeping those stores running and how few people in there that are actually buying anything, seems a waste. Most of the staff there are just playing games, not that I have an issue with that.
I think there may be a surface phone, some of the images on these pages look interesting, this is the sort of outlandish innovation they need, would be cool unfolding your phone and having a really big screen.
https://www.windowslatest.com/2017/09/25/surface-phone-2018-release/
https://www.windowslatest.com/2017/10/22/surface-phone-and-innovative-hardware-creation/
 
Top