Slashdot Mirror
T-Mobile Dumps MS SmartPhone
burgburgburg writes "It seems that T-Mobile International, Europe's second largest mobile phone operator, has decided against introducing a Microsoft SmartPhone after all. T-Mobile had announced their plans in February to introduce the MS SmartPhone this summer. Industry insiders say that the software for the phone continued to have 'fundamental problems,' leading to a high failure rate. French mobile carrier Orange introduced a MS SmartPhone, SPV, late last year. It initially had software security problems which Microsoft has claimed are patched."
Cell phones require far more resilience then organizers or pocket PCs. For example: Compare the Treo to the Nokia Communicator. While the second is designed as a cell phone with added functionality, the first is primarily an organizer with crammed in phone functionality. I know a number of happy Communicator users, while the number of happy Treo users I know of is precisely zero.
In addition embrace and extend is a philopsophy, which rightfully has zero credibility in the phone business. It's all about (meticulously respected) standards.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Reboot a Psion 5? What are you talking about? I've never had to reboot a Psion 5. The only problem with these things is hardwarefailure due to user error, ie dropping it on a concrete floor.
Epoc is the most stable OS I've ever used. And as an organizer a Psion has one of the best usable aganda/database/spreadsheet applications, compared to other organizers (Palm/pocketpc).
I work in the embedded market and it is the standard.
Our partner-company was a 100% Microsoft-shop and Linux is forbidden in the corporate LAN - yet they still chose Linux as their platform for *ALL* their new devices.
What about VXworks? PalmOS? QNX? Are these people quaking in their boots?
Yes they are. You can get big discounts from everybody.
What about all the special purpose real time OSes that many companies use.
Used in many existing devices, but for most new developments, a real OS is chosen for shorter development time. (the hardware is fast enough already)
Linux isn't the standard in the embedded market any more than it is the standard on the desktop.
Laughable. According to this study: here Linux (+ BSD) was running on 11% of existing systems in 2001, but was used for 50% of new projects.
I can only confirm these developments, Linux is already the de-facto standard on embedded systems.
IMHO Bill G is not successful because he is a visionary in the computing field.
Bill Gates is successful because he is a good businessman. I once got curious and did a little research on the worlds richest people. Know what all of those who made their own money seem to have in common? Insane business sense/craftiness. The ability to work deals that just make others shake their heads. He knows how to work the system for all it's worth.
Bill Gates has always bet on Moore's Law, and has always won.
MS has never really worried about beating competitors spec-wise, not because of Moore's Law, but because they beat them other (often illegal) ways. If doesn't matter if the other guy's software is better, if you control the OS that everyone uses. All you have to do is develop/buy your own and bundle it with your OS. Instant market share. You make money because you just charge more for the OS to recover the cost, while the other company dies. Why is anyone going to buy a competitor's product (for additional cost), when the already have the MS equivalent?
Now, back on topic: MS can't use this tactic to get WinCE on cellphones. This means they have to compete on a (somewhat) level playing-field. Since their software is currently inferior to Symbian OS for smartphone use, I predict they will loose. By the time WinCE is stable enough, it will be too late, another OS will have already become the standard.
The only way I can see MS really making it in the embedded OS field is if they take huge losses, basically giving their stuff away, until they get market share. They definately have the money to do this, but even so, they may not get anywhere. Even if they charge $0, they still have to compete with embedded Linux at the same price point. With Linux, companies know that they will always be able to redistribute it royalty-free. They also know that, at some point, MS is going to want to make back the money the spent developing WinCE, so they will get charged for it eventually.
Meanwhile:
Symbian is owned by Ericsson, Panasonic, Motorola, Nokia, Psion, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson.
That's basically all the major cellphone manufacturers. Since they all own the OS, they know they're getting their OS just about as cheap as possible anyways, as well as knowing that they have control over it in the future.
Since their cellphones are already the standard, one can be pretty sure that whatever OS they choose to put on them will also become the standard. Just like MS choosing IE.
Life is too short to proofread.
IE, WMP etc haven't done MS any good - and they're already at versions 6 and 9.
;)
Internet Explorer hasn't done MS any good? Huh?
The entire purpose of Internet Explorer was to put Netscape out of business, and it did essentially that. Netscape made the mistake of touting its Communicator product, combined with its Web server software and Java and JavaScript technologies as an applications platform, rendering the underlying OS as being largely irrelevant. Microsoft responded with Internet Explorer and began the whole 'embrace and extend' strategy towards Internet standards and the rest is history.
As for Windows Media Player -- I'm not even sure what Microsoft's goals were for that.
My journal has hot