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."

Comments

yep, that's a 1.0 product for ya

[atlasheavy]

Just wait for version 3.0 to come out. That'll probably be good enough to whack Nokia and Qualcomm around. Think about it: Windows, Pocket PC, Tablet PC, etc. All of these products didn't really do well until version 3 rolled around. MS usually tries to get a product into a niche just to get experience there. They then spend the next few years figuring out means to really grab hold of the niche, and then they dominate it. That's how it works with them. Not a bad business strategy at all. In fact, it's really good one.

Re:yep, that's a 1.0 product for ya

[Ami Ganguli]

Yeah, but their competitors before were either small companies (Netscape) playing on MS turf (the desktop) or too dense to figure out they were being screwed until it was too late (IBM).

Problem for MS is that there aren't a lot of those companies left. The small guys stay out of the way, or are already out of business, and the big guys don't trust MS.

Of the three big pushes MS is putting on right now:

• Smartphones: very strong, very popular incumbant - MS failing badly.
• Consoles: very strong, very popular incumbant - MS throwing enough money at it to put in a good showing, but still not even close to winning
• Online access: large but unstable incumbant, MS doing well by some measures, but everybody (including MS) getting destroyed by telcos and cable companies that are taking over the market.

I suppose you could add to that the server OS market: MS looked like it was going to take over, and had lots of momentum, but the old guard (Unix, OS/390) held out long enough for a different kind of competitor (Linux) to start pushing back. It's unlikely that MS will grow their server market share any further, and it looks like they're headed for a gradual decline.

Not surprised.

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

Last I heard you couldn't even make the phone dial a number straight out of Pocket Outlook.

DUH.

Something went very wrong in the QA chain between Microsoft, the 3rd parties and the mobile telcos when they were trying to rush this out.

Yeah patch it cowboy

[jsse]

It initially had software security problems which Microsoft has claimed are patched."

Yeah, connect your smartphone to the SmartWindowsUpdate via GPRS. It only takes about several megabytes(every week) of download(yes in fact that's entire OS replacement) and in view of the present strikely *low* GPRS rate (US$1/kbyte) it won't be too much hassle, will it? :)

Symbian

[theLOUDroom]

As the ex-owner of a Psion Revo+ (replaced with a Zaurus), I will say that I expect symbian to dominate the cellphone market.

The Symbian OS (formerly known as EPOC) was designed from the ground up for small devices with small screens. Even the older version that my Revo ran was more feature-rich and polished than any other PDA OS I've touched. Most importantly (for cellphone use) the OS itself was rock solid. I can't remember a single time when I was forced to reboot.

Simply put, Microsoft is offering too little, too late. Most of the major cellphone manufacturers has signed on for Symbian.

Re:Symbian

[infiniti99]

Yup, Symbian rocks. The Psion Revo was a very cool PDA. The whole thing felt solid, and the apps worked nicely. Its email application was the best I've used on a PDA yet, and the GSM phone sync software was quite handy (I used to backup my phone on the Revo, and backup my Revo on my laptop :) ). Internet access via IR cellphone, telnet client, Opera web browser, what more could you want? It's a shame it was a minority product here in the USA. I guess no one likes PDAs with keyboards?

Like you, now I have a Zaurus, which is an improvement over the Revo in just about every way possible, except now in a vertical form-factor (arguably also an improvement). My only complaint is the battery life. The apps could use some work, but the development environment on the Zaurus is just so damn cool (it don't get any better than Linux + Qt, folks), that I'm sure the apps will greatly improve over time. I just hope the product survives. Probably one of the reasons Psion died out in the USA is because of Palm/PocketPC dominance.

Without the PC, Microsoft is helpless

[rseuhs]

The days of big Microsoft advances are over.

First, MS has only been successful in things that they can bind to Windows (prime example is MS Office which generates about 40% of MS revenues, a phyrric victory is IE which generates no revenue but was also pushed by the Windows domination), everything else is losing money.

All the following projects have been canceled:

- Windows/Mips
- Windows/PowerPC
- Windows/Alpha
- "HomeR" Project
- Modular Windows
- "Otto" Project (SW for cars; 1992)
- MMOSA (Set-Top-boxes Operating System
- WebTV
- Blackbird/Internet Studio (1995)
- proprietary MSN (Microsoft should have become the sole ISP, remember?)
- COOl (C++ Object Orientated Language)
- PenWindows
- Microsoft Bob
- Ultimate TV
- Hailstorm (2001 - 2002)

Those projects are losing money:

- XBox (revenues declined by 40% in Q1 2003, losses nearly doubled (+96%) http://www.golem.de/showhigh.php?file=/0305/25460. html&wort[]=xbox sorry, link is in German)
- Non-proprietary MSN
- Mice, keyboards
- Cell phone OS (Stinger)

I don't know where all the "MS will win automatically" people crawl from, if you look at their track record, they have lots and lots of unsuccessful projects.

If you look at the big picture, MS is currently being stripped off everything except their core business (x86-desktop). And wether MS is really able to make the 64-Bit transition is questionable. They are so incompetent in producing something 64Bit that they will lose a lot of people to Linux/Athlon64, even on the desktop.

In the non-graphic embedded market, Linux is already the standard, on cellphones Symbian is the standard and Linux is coming, leaves only PDAs, where Microsoft is still holding out (but there Linux is coming, too).

Re:Without the PC, Microsoft is helpless

[MonTemplar]

The days of big Microsoft advances are over.

First, MS has only been successful in things that they can bind to Windows (prime example is MS Office which generates about 40% of MS revenues, a phyrric victory is IE which generates no revenue but was also pushed by the Windows domination), everything else is losing money.

No argument there.

All the following projects have been canceled:

- Windows/Mips
- Windows/PowerPC
- Windows/Alpha
- "HomeR" Project
- Modular Windows
- "Otto" Project (SW for cars; 1992)
- MMOSA (Set-Top-boxes Operating System
- WebTV
- Blackbird/Internet Studio (1995)
- proprietary MSN (Microsoft should have become the sole ISP, remember?)
- COOl (C++ Object Orientated Language)
- PenWindows
- Microsoft Bob
- Ultimate TV
- Hailstorm (2001 - 2002)

Most of these were not so much products, but rather blocking moves by MS, designed to head off possible threats to the Windows cash-cow. Admittedly, some of them were better thought out than others. *grin* PenWindows did succeed in its real purpose, that of stopping Go Corp from building a viable competitor to Windows for what was at the time thought to be the Next Big Thing. Other products you mention have been recycled into other projects - COOL eventually became C#, while Internet Studio's technology found its way into Microsoft's development tools, particularly Visual Interdev.

If you look at the big picture, MS is currently being stripped off everything except their core business (x86-desktop). And wether MS is really able to make the 64-Bit transition is questionable. They are so incompetent in producing something 64Bit that they will lose a lot of people to Linux/Athlon64, even on the desktop.

Based on past history, the deciding factor will not be whether or not Microsoft succeeds, but rather whether or not the competition falters or dithers long enough for Microsoft to come through with a credible bodge-job that can woo potential customers.

why do they have problems?

[vistic]

I'm confused.

I underatand why Microsoft's operating systems and word processors and stuff might be buggy: they have to provide legacy support and the hardware configurations can be complex.

However, considering their resources and (I'm assuming) talent... shouldn't they be able to do something like this and have it be pretty sound technology?

I think nowadays even to non-technical people, Microsoft has come to symbolize a product that will work but also let you down in so many ways in terms of quality, security, bugs, price, etc.

An attempt to defend...(I'm not impressed)

[djupedal]

[Clipped from MacInTouch 5/15/03]

Jimmy Grewal followed up on recent notes about a BMW computer bug that trapped the occupant inside his car:

I work for Microsoft (program manager for Mac Internet Explorer), and I own a 2002 BMW 745i. Though the underlying OS the vehicle is running is Windows CE for Automotive, BMW and Siemens VDO wrote all of the software that the car is running: [BMW iDrive press release]

I don't think Microsoft should be blamed for problems with the applications written by others on top of their OS, just as no one blames Apple for the problems users have with third party software on their Macs. Furthermore, the on board computer that is running WinCEfA is used to control the radio, tv, navigation system, telephone, etc (commonly referred to a telematics features). The engine management system, electrical, etc. are controlled by another set of computers that also manage emissions, diagnostics, etc.

The 7-Series does have a lot of issues that BMW needs to address, including major failures like this, but most of those are related to the drive-by-wire systems rather than the navigation/entertainment system that's running WinCEfA. It has its own problems, but those are related to confusing controls and an unintuitive interface