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Microsoft CMO Confirms Development of 'Spiritual Equivalent' of Surface Phone (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: We all know what Microsoft wants to do with Windows 10. It's supposedly the last monolithic release of Windows and the ultimate plan is to unite hardware from different device categories under a single, universal ecosystem. That includes smartphones, which is an area where Microsoft has historically struggled hard to compete. The release of a premium "Surface Phone" of some sort, however, could prove to be a game changer. Microsoft is aggressively pushing Windows 10 upgrades, and makes no bones about it, all in an effort to get developers on board to build universal Windows 10 cross-platform apps and spur mobile development. In that respect, Microsoft needs to finally make an impact in the handset space and Windows 10 Mobile is the company's one shot to do just that. And it appears that Microsoft is working on what could be essentially a true Surface Phone, or at least something very similar. In a recent interview, Mary Jo Foley pushed Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela on the prospect of a Surface Phone and he confirmed the company is working on a "breakthrough" phone that is the "spiritual equivalent" of their very successful line of Surface branded products. Capossela has been with Microsoft for over two decades. He used to write speeches for Bill Gates and is intimately familiar with Microsoft's many products and strategies.
so now, the tech world enters Shia/Sunni territory?
And I'm sure it'll be another stunning success, just like the last 5 failed phones they tried to force into the market.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
>> Random marketing head says now THIS is last desktop OS Um...Microsoft CEO Nadella said that Windows 10 was already going to be this great converged OS...back in 2014. http://www.extremetech.com/gam...
No one WANTS a Microsoft-branded anything.
The only reason anyone still uses Microsoft products is because:
1) it came preinstalled on your new computer.
2) Most workplace IT managers only know Windows so automatically force it onto everyone's work computers.
Is that why Windows Mobile 10, or whatever it is now called, got pushed back until 2016? I am sure people will be busting down doors to buy this new phone, maybe they'll break 5% market share in Beruit!
Chief marketing officer thinks his next product is good, and spiritually equivalent to things people like. This is credible because he's spent decades writing speeches for Microsoft saying similar things.
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I read the article, and I'm still not clear on how a "Surface Phone" would be different from a Lumia with Windows 10. I'm sure someone here can explain to me, seeing as I'm apparently not familiar enough with the Microsoft eco-system.
Thanks!
Slagborr
But nevertheless Slashdot feels the need to tout it as the Coming Great Thing.
Does it have Cortana voice recognition? "Zune phone: check my Bing mail! Zune phone: how do I remove all Microsoft spyware?"
I've gone back and forth between Apple and Windows platforms over the years, but Windows 7 is the end of the Microsoft road for me. In addition to the invasive data mining of Windows 10, the endless nagging to upgrade is beyond the pale.
It's spiritual because you need a lot of faith to use it.
Table-ized A.I.
So, Capossela, take Windows 10 and stick it up your ass. This is one former Microsoft fanboy who isn't going back. Fuck you.
There seems to be this narrative that the Surface is successful in the market. It isn't. The only Surface I have seen in the wild is on the NFL sidelines, and Microsoft is paying the NFL for that. There is no way Surfaces are selling widely.
I don't remember anyone saying, "The iPhone is a gamechanger" when it was released. People said, "this is really cool" or for some, "this is really lame." They focused on the features of the phone, and how it felt. They didn't need to tell people it was a gamechanger, because that was fairly obvious right at the start.
Hypothesis: if you have to tell people your product is a "game changer," then it probably isn't.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I live in the Seattle area. A week ago a guy handed me his phone to take a picture of him and his family. The phone had "proto.microsoft.com" stenciled on the front. The look of it had nothing to do with a lumia.
I really don't. They are the only company that could do something like the Atrix lapdock and make it work really well. In fact, the sanest thing for them to do would be to put together a beast of a phone and sell the dock at cost to business customers. Once docked, all of the touch stuff fades away into a full blown Windows 10 desktop experience complete with extra USB ports, wired ethernet, HDMI output, you name it. If they wanted to be really slick, just make the phone pluggable like a PCMCIA card into the dock itself so no one even knows it's a dock.
lmao, windows is wide open to abuse
You don't drop the phone like a mic.
You beat your forehead with it until bloody.
This is a religious ritual, remember?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Is that why Windows Mobile 10, or whatever it is now called, got pushed back until 2016?
Pushed back? I'm using it on my phone right now.
I'm tired of coming back to my desktop PC and finding Microsoft has decided to reboot it without asking me, thus losing work. I'm tired of constantly being nagged to upgrade to windows 10. I don't want all information shared with Microsoft. I really wish I could but windows 7 and down grade. I only run Windows because some dev tools for electronic design and some games only run there and I can't get PCIe slots without buying an insanely expensive MAC. I think I'm pretty much end of the line with Microsoft. Disclaimer: I run MacOS X and FreeBSD. I'm not unaware of my options but there are some things for which I want a windows PC or I want Windows to die so I don't need a windows machine but just a PC.
Ignoring the first two versions entirely I guess.
Has Microsoft actually started to break even after 3 years? Surface RT - MAJOR fail. second try also failed. Surface 3 got more acceptance, but I didn't think it made any money. Surface 4 may have broken even, but still hasn't made up for the previous 3 failures.
Used to be excited about "new" technology because it sometimes had a purpose and offered users value and capabilities. Today all anyone can do is fuck with people. Everyone wants to be a spyware or malware vendor and they don't want to do anything useful in return for a paycheck. Much of the consumer crap being churned out today is not only worthless but hostile and even dangerous.
Why would I want a Windows phone when I'm required to have a MS account, can't use my devices GPS without uploading my location to Microsoft, can't have a local phone book without giving all of my contacts to Microsoft, can't install software not approved by Microsoft, can't use wifi without participating in MS crowd sourced skyhook spying. I'm fed up with the childish games and people constantly justifying their actions by citing who else is doing it too.
The opportunity cost of so much wasted potential is beyond sad.
I would disagree with you wholeheartedly... I would be potentially very interested in a "surface" phone, and I think a lot of other people would be too... depending on how it eventually worked, of course. It could potentially be a gamechanger or it could be another flop, but Microsoft is at least going outside the box to try and do something different. There is a decent demand for surface tablets. I don't see why there wouldn't be similar demand for a surface phone if it is done correctly.
You might want to google "Cyanogenmod".
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
I still don't understand how anyone can possibly think that every device from cellphones to servers can possibly be used to their own full potential with the same damn user interface.
Either servers are going to be dumbed down or cellphones are going to be missing features, there simply is no way around that. And neither one is acceptable.
Any rational being would recognize that cellphones and servers have such different roles that differing interfaces on them would only help people to realize that there is more (or less) to this device than they know, and to rtfm before they get into real trouble,
"I've worked for Microsoft and in my experience they couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel..."
From the summary: "Capossela has been with Microsoft for over two decades. He used to write speeches for Bill Gates..." That indicates: 1) Bill Gates wasn't able to write his own speeches. 2) What Bill Gates said in a speech was not what he actually thought.
But now my phone (just 2 years old!) is too "out of date" to receive the newest version of Android. I knew I should have gone with a Nexus, but it's still bullshit.
If you didn't buy a phone from a vendor with a substantial fan base, you have only yourself to blame. If you had bought something popular, there would be multiple alternate ROMs available at XDA-Developers. Instead, you bought some cheap piece of shit, or alternately some gewgaw so expensive that nobody can afford it, and now there's no ROMs for it.
That, or there are, and you're complaining about a problem that the community has addressed for you...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
From the summary: "Capossela has been with Microsoft for over two decades. He used to write speeches for Bill Gates..." That indicates: 1) Bill Gates wasn't able to write his own speeches. 2) What Bill Gates said in a speech was not what he actually thought.
#1 seems to be a given, but I don't know about #2.
It may just be that Capossela was able to craft a better speech or was a better writer, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he wasn't expressing what Gates wanted expressed. It's likely Gates gave him direction on what he wanted said and that they worked together on the final text. That's often the way it's done.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
How would that really be different from their Lumias today?
Microsoft has 2 problem - the first being that it's failed to get mindshare of app devs who otherwise are happy to support both iOS and Android. Almost every app you see out there supports those 2 OSs, but not Windows Phone/Mobile. Their other issue is that they've failed to get clout w/ the carriers so that they rather than the carriers can push phone updates, like Apple does and like Google is starting to do beginning w/ Lollipop. I'm not sure about AT&T and T-Mobile, but Verizon neither promotes the Lumias and just drags its feet on the official updates to Windows 10 for the 735 and the Ikon. Also, Microsoft's Surface Pro w/ cellular support don't support CDMA cellular standards.
How exactly would a surface phone be different from a Lumia? Having Atom or Core CPUs instead of ARMs? The current Lumias are fine in their interface and everything - what they need is to support at least all the popular apps, like Lyft, Uber, Vonage, et al. Once they can get Windows 10 Mobile supported w/ the likes of Android and iOS across the market, their phones will have a greater appeal
Is that why Windows Mobile 10, or whatever it is now called, got pushed back until 2016? I am sure people will be busting down doors to buy this new phone, maybe they'll break 5% market share in Beruit!
Pushed back? One can already get a Lumia 950/XL, which comes w/ Windows 10 Mobile. Only thing they haven't yet done is upgrade all their other phones to 10. They need to take back the OS upgrade capabilities from the carriers
Don't forget the NFL.
As a Bears fan and a Packer hater, Ioved when Rodgers the that Surface at the end of the Panthers game.
Pissed off two foes at once.
Here is a New York Times review of a book by Gates and 2 others, The Road Ahead. Quotes:
"... the book he has written with Nathan Myhrvold, a vice president at Microsoft, and Peter Rinearson, a freelance journalist, is bland and tepid."
"The Road Ahead" is in fact little more than a positioning document, sold in book form with accompanying CD-ROM and designed mainly to advance the interests of the Microsoft Corporation.
What are the main things you use your phone for? Do you use a lot of apps, be it RetailMeNot or Lyft or Vonage or other such apps, or do you just use it for basic work related stuff? Depending on that would be your answer. If you don't use many apps nor go beyond free games, the Lumia is great. If you do use a lot of apps, go w/ a Nexus. Right now, Marshmallow is only available on that, and it gives you the option of getting something w/ low internal storage, but using a high density SD card as INTERNAL storage.
Also, I know that people's tastes vary, but while Windows 7 had a great laptop interface, it was horrible w/ Windows Phone 7. The Windows Phone 8 interface was great - what ruined the entire experience was Microsoft insisting on shoehorning both things under a common brand. Given that Windows 8 was a phone version of Windows RT - itself badly named - Microsoft should have called it something else - like Metro. While leaving Windows 10 alone.
You haven't read the books.