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Microsoft Reportedly Working On Its Own Smartphone
According to a (paywalled) report in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is experimenting with its own smartphone design. "Officials at some of Microsoft's parts suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company is testing a smartphone design but isn't sure if a product will go into mass production." The article continues:
"If Microsoft pushes ahead with its mobile phone, it would underscore how far Microsoft has moved away from its long-standing practice of making software and leaving decisions about design, features and marketing of the computing hardware to partners such as Hewlett-Packard or Samsung Electronics. ... As it does so, Microsoft pulls from a modified playbook of Apple—whose hardware-plus-software approach Microsoft officials long have scorned. ... Smartphones running Microsoft's two-year-old Windows Phone operating software for cellphones haven't sold well, and Microsoft may want to leave itself an option to test whether its own phone would spur sales."
That's terrible for Nokia. The few chances for its survival, IMO, now are gone :-S
The case will be a pleasant earthy-brown color.
Before the first unit ships, it will damage the market for Windows Phone handsets due to the anticipation. It's an old move in the tech business to destroy a market with vaporware: usually, though, companies do it to destroy markets where they're not getting an income.
I am sure MS is capable of creating a smartphone design that "works well" for what that's worth, but it's pretty evident that this category is led by devices that are functional and aesthetically pleasing. I don't think MS is painted in a corner to have to make a Microsoft iPhone (Apple will probably try to sue them in any case) but in playing "offense" it would be great for Microsoft to focus on elevating or evolving the smartphone category and not try to be a "me too" device.
If they can pull this off, which would be done through a combination of intuitive/simple interface, unique features, and a robust app system they can compete. I own an Xbox and am pleasantly surprised they've been able to create a good user experience on Live.
Can they compete with a smartphone design? Sure but I wouldn't bet money on it.
The reasons Microsoft built Surface were:
1. MS felt the OEM Win8 tablets not upto the mark with iPad.
2. There is no dedicated OEM working on Win8 tablet.
3. MS thinks there isn't OEM with market perception comparable to Apple in tablet space.
All these issues aren't present in WP8 space, as Nokia has history of marking amazing phones, it is dedicated to WP8 and market perception of Nokia isn't bad in phone space. So it doesn't make sense for Microsoft to make their own phone.
LG is profitable again after dumping windows and focusing on Android.
Asus have also having good fortune from Android Tablets.
Sony after dumping Ericsson is profitable again with Android.
Nokia gets burnt once with Windows Phone 8 incompatibilities
Nokia gets thrown under a bus with the Surface tablet
Nokia gets B*******d new Microsoft Phone
Now I'm not saying Nokia should have gone Android...just that Android has a 75% share , and Nokia has well a share of what 2%
Whatever you may think of Apple, the fact is that Microsoft's notion of innovation now seems to be "Do what Apple does." At some point, if Microsoft continues down this path, it's going to weaken its OEM network, which is, at the end of the day, what made Microsoft the company it is today. Without all those manufacturers throwing MS's OEM products on new units, I'd say Microsoft's attempt to become Apple better work really damned well.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Linux Desktop will never catch on in mainstream and it's isn't Microsoft's fault, it's the short-coming of bunch of stubborn losers in denial.
Not sure of the relevance of that comment, but saying Windows phone will never catch on with the mainstream...and its definitely Microsofts fault, it's the short-coming of bunch of stubborn losers in denial.
I believe Linux runs on 75% of Smartphones :) where Windows Phone runs on 2%
The two phones MS made a couple years ago that sold ridiculously poorly and were pulled from the carrier (Verizon, I think) after only a few weeks. Yeah, a Microsoft phone will change everything.
There can be no better proof that MS is irrelevant and dying. If they had any balls, they'd reinvent the PC, create something new that people might want, but instead they opt for imitating their competitors, a continuing spiral into failure.
MS employees must be thinking about new careers.
"Do what Apple does."
Well, when Apple was sinking, they brought back Steve Jobs, the original founder, as CEO again. So . . . has anyone seen Bill Gates lately . . . ? Is he tanned, rested and bucking for another championship fight . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Whatever you may think of Apple, the fact is that Microsoft's notion of innovation now seems to be "Do what Apple does."
That's not really true at any meaningful level. Sure, they followed Apple into the phone/tablet market, but they're not at all a copy-cat. Apple came up with a field of icons. Android copied that, and added widgets and a status bar. Apple copied those back. Microsoft came along and made something completely unique. Not necessarily better -- I haven't used it -- but definitely unique.
Microsoft also makes a video game console with a unique motion sensor, instead of copying Nintendo the way Sony did. Note that the Kinect isn't necessarily better than the Wiimote, but it's certainly different.
And Microsoft innovated with Bing, adding lots of features that Google has since mimicked: helicopter view in maps, infinite scrolling image search, preview panes on the side, flight searches, etc. Bing isn't better than Google, not by a long shot, but it's certainly not some me-too! copy.
Really, Microsoft comes up with some innovative stuff. I'm not sure why they're floundering. Maybe it's just bad marketing? But it's certainly not for lack of talented people.
Really, Android "copied" Apple's field of icons? I was using Nokia SmartPhones in 2006 which used the same style. Apple must have a time machine?
The patents are mostly crap, I'm looking forward to when they get squashed when we finally wake up to how bad they are for the industry. I wonder if MS will be mostly patent troll by then?
Did you happen to see Windows Phone 8 Having Trouble Attracting Developers on /. just about three days ago? What kind of huge developer base is that? MS is not being very developer friendly, considering that last week, /. featured
"Trouble For Microsoft Developers With the Windows Store" . Maybe they are letting WPhone7 applications run on 8 and that's what they're counting as part of that "huge developer base."
I see what you did there. You're a 10 digit Slashdot ID sent back from the future by the Society of Meme Preservation as part of their MMC Centennial retrospective.
Microsoft was good at something once upon a time. It was akin to charging a man a fee to have sex with your own wife, but let's not go there. It was a cool place to work (if you had a high tolerance for stomach meds) because one morning you would wake up and the tooth fairy would have replaced your non-vested shares with a vintage Jaguar and wood paneled yacht. This was before Steve Jobs redefined coolness as a black turtleneck sweater. Then one day the Microsoft tooth fairy retired to the great Ponzi Valhala. The company had become too big and hidebound for the share price to double every other year. Increasingly they had to compensate the best talent with the best salary. This rapidly compounded their downturn.
Word went around "you know, a man shouldn't have to pay a tax to Microsoft in order to have sex with his own wife". Governments woke up and decided they shouldn't have the entirety of their electronic work product locked up in undocumented file formats. The old adversaries they could bully were long gone. They were now locked in combat with Sony in the living room, Apple in the den, LAMP in the server farm, Oracle in the back office, Firefox/Apache on the cloud, RIM/Nokia in mobile, IBM/Peoplesoft in the boardroom. The last bastion to fall was Exchange Server. Exchange Server was Bill's parting gift to Steve Ballmer bearing the inscription "Sorry I tampered with the videotape. -- Bill"
Worst of all, newlyweds stopped having sex every 15 minutes. The PC platform had matured, and the old upgrade cycles were not as rapid as they had once been.
If I've properly understood any book I've ever read written by a lost soul possessed of an MBA, no sane business person would risk sacrificing one of the fattest cash cows in the history of business on the altar of transformation leadership.
Steve Jobs honed his knackers in the school of looming foreclosure. You remember that don't you. They teach it in Meme Preservation 501, do they not, on cloud campus Courseratops? No wait, that's cross-listed with the graduate degree program. Perhaps you've yet to enroll.