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The Reason a Surface Phone Won't Fix Microsoft's Mobile Problem (windows10update.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the looking-for-life dept.

Ammalgam writes: Microsoft's CMO recently admitted that Microsoft was behind in the mobile arena and needed time to build a competitive phone. In the Windows community however, some feel that the Windows Phone platform is out of time. On Windows10Update.com, the author discusses some of the reasons why a "Surface Phone" might not be enough to fundamentally change public perception about Microsoft mobile phones.

5 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by BradleyUffner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is a "Surface Phone", and how is it different from a "Window 10 Phone", other than the name?

    1. Re:Huh? by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Surface Phone::Windows 10 For Phones = Nexus Phone::Android

      Basically it's a phone from Microsoft, intended to show off its operating system as it imagines it should be implemented, rather than just one that runs a Microsoft Operating System.

      And yeah, I appreciate that Lumia phones are designed by a division of Microsoft, but I suspect the former Nokia division is still run to a certain extent at arm's length.

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  2. Oh good. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only reason that the Surface tablets are getting any traction at all, is because they can run native x64 Windows apps. When they tried an ARM version, it failed so badly that Microsoft ended up writing off almost a billion dollars of inventory that nobody would buy, even at loss-leader pricing.

    Almost nobody* wants a phone that can run x64 Windows apps, so the same trick is unlikely to work in that space.

    * I said almost nobody, because immediately below this comment will be a reply from some corner case or another where someone will want that, but they will be a very small exception to my statement. The massive majority of the market will not want such a product, and will happily continue buying Android or iOS for the foreseeable future.

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  3. Developers Developers Developers Developers by StandardCell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You hit the nail on the head - it's all about the app ecosystem. What killer Windows phone apps ever made any waves? None. Even BlackBerry got the message about Android apps though far too late to save them. If the developers aren't there, the apps won't be there and the customers won't use your platform.

  4. Microsoft could TAKE OVER the smartphone market.. by realmolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All they need are these features:

    A phone that can be fully-managed with Group Policy/Active Directory

    A phone that has a fully-functional Outlook client, with ALL the features of desktop Outlook that are practical to cram into a phone

    That's IT. Most businesses would jump at the chance for those. Mobile security is a big issue, and there *still* isn't a truly good Exchange client for any phone (though some are close).

    The fact that MS hasn't realized this stuff is mystifying. What are they thinking?