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.

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? :)

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.

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.