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Wielding Their Windows Phones, Microsoft Shareholders Grill CEO Satya Nadella On Device Strategy (geekwire.com)
At a meeting with shareholders Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was asked numerous times what the company is doing about Windows Phones, and why do they keep hearing that Microsoft is abandoning smartphone manufacturer business. The stakeholders also asked why the company is seemingly focusing more on Android and iOS rival platforms instead of its own. From a report on GeekWire: Microsoft shareholder Dana Vance, owner of a Windows Phone and a Microsoft Band, said he received an email about the Microsoft Pix app but was surprised to learn that it was available for iPhone and Android but not Windows Phone. Ditto for Microsoft Outlook. He also alluded to reports that Microsoft has put the Band on the back burner. Given this, he asked Nadella to explain the company's vision for its consumer devices. As part of his response, Nadella said Microsoft's Windows camera and mail apps will include the same features as in Microsoft's apps for other platforms. "When we control things silicon-up, that's how we will integrate those experiences," Nadella said. The company will "build devices that are unique and differentiated with our software capability on top of it -- whether it's Surface or Surface Studio or HoloLens or the phone -- and also make our software applications available on Android and iOS and other platforms. That's what I think is needed in order for Microsoft to help you as a user get the most out of our innovation." Another shareholder, who says he uses his Windows Phone "18 hours a day," said he has heard Microsoft is "stepping away from mobile." He asked, "Can you calm me down ... and tell me what your vision is for mobile?" Nadella answered, "We think about mobility broadly. In other words, we think about the mobility of the human being across all of the devices, not just the mobility of a single device. That said, we're not stepping away or back from our focus on our mobile devices," Nadella said. "What we are going to do is focus that effort on places where we have differentiation. If you take Windows Phone, where we are differentiated on Windows Phone is on manageability. It's security, it's Continuum capability -- that is, the ability to have a phone that can act like a PC. So we're going to double-down on those points of differentiation."
It's done
Not Device Strategy surely?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Eh? last time I checked my Windows 10 Phone (a 640) it had Outlook plus the other office apps, always has.
Seriously, those are pretty big non-answers to be giving to your investors.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
seems to be rather intelligent actually. They are looking to the market and seeing that their product is dead, so why not go where the money is?
Microsoft is such a rudderless ship. New leadership isn't helping. Open source all of your tools and give the money back to the shareholders.
Until the Lumia 950. That thing is an abortion of a release, like MS was either trying to intentionally kill it with a lackluster, buggy release or they simply no longer test/dogfood their own products any more.
for a Zune update.
We think about mobility broadly. In other words, we think about the mobility of the human being across all of the devices, not just the mobility of a single device.
translation: we have been hammering this market for 7 years, and despite being as big a failure as the Zune we continue to furiously pump money into a project that showed up four years too late, and has no demand. market share for this electric turd is now less than one percent, but rest assured we're still committed to giving customers the same microsoft razzle dazzle every year...at least...until the X-Box life support revenue runs out and we quietly shovel this electronic embodiment that can be called redmonds shame into a cold cold grave.
Good people go to bed earlier.
If you take Windows Phone, where we are differentiated on Windows Phone is on manageability. It's security, it's Continuum capability -- that is, the ability to have a phone that can act like a PC. So we're going to double-down on those points of differentiation."
Seems to me that the primary point of differentiation is that Windows phones have far fewer apps available than the big two, and jamming the store onto PCs hasn't fixed that.
CANNOT usefully act as a PC.
If we talk phone plus addons (docking station for kb/mouse, large display or equivalent; access to desktop-like (wired) networking, printing, (and in my case, lab instrument control ports, multiple usb host ports) etc. that is another issue. But a phone per se... No. (Try running a mechanical cad program or a non trivial spreadsheet on a 5 inch screen, or actually, DON'T unless you enjoy wasting your time.)
"Only Apple can be Apple."
Microsoft does not, and likely never will, really understand what "from the silicon-up" means, and more importantly, how to do it right.
I see some shareholders will be receiving their next invitation... late.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
The problem here is the shareholders are being fanboys first and businessmen a distant distant second.
The evidence is overwhelming that MS Mobile platform just isn't going to happen. They've tried everything they could think of multiple times, and no signs that there is anything more they can realistically do and expect a difference. As such, they need to do what they can to be relevant to the large market that matters rather than staying in denial.
Besides, being in hardware is not that appealing. It's full of low cost competitors and very well known brands with insurmountable brand strength. It can be a decent enough strategy if you don't have any way in on the software front, but if you have strength in the software side, you have a lot more lucrative prospects than the hardware side.
In the desktop era, MS overcame the competition by being able to pit the suppliers of hardware against each other and control the 'good' bits. Apple's success in mobile distracted them from this reality, and Google then out-did microsoft in the 'license to OEMs' game (by being free or near free depending, and banking on ongoing revonue).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
My friend works at a Sprint store. They have a Microsoft phone in the back room. No customer has ever walked in asking for a Microsoft phone.
Seriously, the bigger question is why are you using a Windows phone? It's pretty pathetic at this point and time. Windows phone is dead. Band, dead before it started.
What the savvy investor should be asking is why Microsoft is not in merger talks with Google or Apple or heck Amazon. Outside the server business, Microsoft is in decline.
As much as I hate bullshit non-answers to relatively direct questions, I've got to hand it to this guy. He can come up with this shit on the spot.
It's security, it's Continuum capability -- that is, the ability to have a phone that can act like a PC. So we're going to double-down on those points of differentiation."
I mean, that's some high-quality, super fluid, eloquent bullshit right there. To come up with that from the top of your head. That's skill.
Is that people still willingly have windows phones?
Having Google, Apple, or Amazon in charge of my SQL servers, my AD domains, or my SCCM sites sounds like a fresh new level of.
We'll call them the "X-Box" strategy and the "Zune" strategy.
"X-Box" strategy: Release a product that's decent, works, but has its share of problems. Throw a ton of money into marketing to convince everyone that this product is here to stay, and a lot more into development to make sure that, by the time you get to version 2, you've fixed the problems and improved on the product so that your name becomes synonymous with the industry.
"Zune" strategy: After a competitor already releases a version 2 (or higher) of a product that you haven't even considered incorporating into your business strategy, make a cheap, poor clone of the competition, put in just enough money to sound like it's something you care about, and see if it sticks. When it doesn't, make a poor excuse about how the market "wasn't what you anticipated", describe your plan to "redirect your leadership strategies", and say everything except that what everyone knows to be true: the product was dead on arrival.
I think Windows Phone falls into the latter category.
A group of Zoon diehards tried to block access to the Shareholders meeting demanding an offical statement on when Windows 10 will support the device so historical playlists can be updated...
As an investor, I am sure you learn to read between the lines.
What is probably meant by "What we are going to do is focus that effort on places where we have differentiation" is that MS will work with their big clients to customize their mobile offerings to meet their needs.
Example: https://www.onmsft.com/news/35...
Also, their push toward UWP apps and continuum is a longer term strategy of convergence. Eventually, phones will take over from PCs.... not for at least a few years, but when they do, MS will have been unifying their platforms all that time so will be poised to take advantage.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I for one am VERY annoyed about Microsoft's strategy around their mobile phones. This is NOT about differentiability, it is about creating an ecosystem where developers can thrive and the rest of us can choose to use Windows 10, and not be forced to use Android and iOS while all our other machines are running Windows 10. It is a lame a stupid strategy by Microsoft and is one thing that is likely to tip me off Windows and into the arms of Linux, even with all the annoyances that would provide me with.
I have had it with politicized Apple, after 5+ years of their overpriced and increasingly buggy and annoying ecosystem. Ditto for Android's malware and Google's 24/7 tracking and spying, neither of which is not welcome either.
Have you ever noticed how Nadella answers things in broad and vague responses. He cannot just say yes we are abandoning the Windows phones or no we are not.
The reality is Nadella might be addressing reality but he is giving a load of BS to stock holders. At least Steve Ballmer had his sights purely with Microsoft. Nadella seems content with allowing Microsoft to falter in mobile hardware but would rather do apps for the two big players. Now this is a strategy that probably some stock holders feel is helping them more than us. One thing is certain, Nadella has a different mindset about Microsoft than Ballmer did.
Is not a threat to anyone. Not even BlackBerry.
Your company lost the mobile wars. Suck it up. Nadella knows it's a hard sell breaking into a market. To break in you've got to break the chicken-egg cycle of getting apps on your platform. Metro wasn't the killer UI that it needed to be to pull users over in the absence of apps. Microsoft, if they really are committed, have to play the long game, basically replicating features until they can switch out the OS (the thing that runs apps, and not so much the UI) and not have users notice. However all the apps are digital data silos, vehemently protected by their owners. Don't expect it to be easy, or cheap. MS dropped $10B to get Nokia and look how that turned out.
Ultimately, MS stagnated, developers defected, and now no real innovation happens on Windows, and it's a hard sell to get mindshare back. We've seen a future that doesn't involve MS. Nadella knows this and is recapitulating for sins of his predecessors. It will take a long time because there's no real reason to continue with MS. Everything is platform independent now. Except phones. It's a losing gambit all-around.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
. Eventually, phones will take over from PCs
Phones and tablets have already taken over in large areas. That ship has already sailed, and Microsoft missed it.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Best smart phone I have ever had. Granted I don't use it for anything other than a phone, a texting device, a camera, mapping/GPS, and a mahjongg device. Works great all the time. Battery life is really good. And the picture quality of the camera is excellent, better than all others. The OS is solid and rarely needs a reboot. If Microsoft would have pursued these phones with more rigor and aggression they would have obtained a large market share of the smart phone market. But they lacked the guts to stick with it. So I guess my next phone will be a crappy android phone of some sort.
Microsoft finally found out who bought the Windows Phone and the Microsoft Band that they sold! Yay!
Thanks, Dana!
Do you have ESP?
The problem here is the shareholders are being fanboys first and businessmen a distant distant second.
Eh - didn't they spend billions buying Nokia? Didn't they spend spend tens to hundreds of millions developing their desktop OS to double as a mobile OS? Didn't piss away marketshare with the Windows 8 debacle?
All of which affected shareholder value.
Sounds like their Windows Phones were actually Note 7s if they could use them to grill an entire human.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
"why do they keep hearing that Microsoft is abandoning smartphone manufacturer business. The stakeholders also asked why the company is seemingly focusing more on Android and iOS rival platforms instead of its own."
Why, because their mobile OS sucks and very few people want to use it.
The aliteracy is annoying. "It's" is a contraction for "it is". "Its" is the posessive:
He's there
She's there
It's there
His car is broken
Her tire is flat.
Its OS is screwed up
Do none of you ever read books??? I expect this is comments, but NOT in a summary. If that mistake was in TFA, it is NOT a reputable publication.
Free Martian Whores!
Eh? last time I checked my Windows 10 Phone (a 640) it had Outlook plus the other office apps, always has.
One thing Windows Phone/Mobile - be it 8 or 10 - has always lacked has been a good VOIP app - it's only from a couple of weeks ago when WhatsApp introduced their video calling that they may finally have something that's common to all platforms. Until then, that was a major shortcoming
For a work phone, Windows 10 Mobile is actually a fantastic platform. I had a 520 in the past, when it was just Windows Phone 8, and now, one of my phones (my travel phone) is a 550. If one just needs a phone to work w/, it's fantastic. It has, as you point out, Outlook, OneNote (which really shines in mobile even better than on a desktop), Maps, Calculator (which is far better than either the Apple or Android versions), as well as some common downloadable apps like Fandango and Yelp! OTOH, it does miss some major apps, such as Lyft and Uber Partner, which could be problematic if you need to use either of those. Similarly, a lot of common apps can be hit or miss, such as RetailMeNot. Depends on what range of apps one needs. I certainly don't recommend it for Pokemon Go, although it's fine for gaming if one is already an Xbox subscriber.
I think Microsoft should fill up the gaps on things like VOIP apps, or offer WhatsApp preloaded, and also, on the carrier front, they have a hole in the US. AT&T and T-Mo are supported by any of their phones, being from the GSM standard, but Verizon and Sprint is where they fall short. Verizon still has the 735, which is still on 8, even though 10 is available, while Sprint hardly has anything, if I am right. So do a spin of any of their v10 models - the 550, 640 or 950 - depending on where on the price/features spectrum they wanna be. No need to offer >1 model.
Other than that, one thing Microsoft might consider - consolidating their lineup. Both Nokia and Microsoft had one fault - they had way too many models, much like Samsung. Just have 2 or 3 models, ranging from $100 to $500, and they should be fine. No point having something that has the same price as an iPhone or a Pixel
Actually, while some do support Windows Phones, they sometimes don't support key features, such as check deposits
Indian here. A major carrier here now is Reliance Jio, which uses VoLTE. Supported on both Galaxies and iPhones, but not on any of the Lumias.
In India, most of the commercial apps are available for Windows Phone as well, not just Android and iOS, since there are as many Windows Phones as there are iPhones here (given that there are no CDMA carriers here in the 3G and later). As a result, this is one market where Microsoft could hold their own. Their phones are mainly popular with chicks. But they are missing a big opportunity by not supporting VoLTE on any of their models
The thing that keeps Microsoft afloat is its Windows monopoly (and the Office suite and servers, but both are strongly tied to Windows as they have little presence elsewhere). Up until 10 years ago, the only threat to Windows was Mac OS which had been stuck at 5% market share for decades, and Linux for the desktop which lingered around 1%.
The last 10 years have seen two new entrants to the operating system market - iOS and Android. iOS still has a relatively small, but lucrative userbase. Android already matches if not exceeds Windows' installed userbase. A lot of people dismiss these as a "toy" OS for toy devices. But that's being ignorant of the march of technological progress. 30 years ago my primary computer was a desktop. 20 years ago it was a laptop that was nearly 2 inches thick. 10 years ago it was a notebook just under an inch thick. Today it's a half-inch thick ultrabook, but about half my screen time is on my phone and tablet.
Mobile isn't going to go away. Eventually it's going to eat the laptop and eventually desktop markets. Intel charges a fortune for their CPUs (about $100-$1000 vs about $5-$20 for ARM). As technology advances and ARM processors become more and more capable of performing everyday computing tasks, there will be less and less reason to spend an extra $100-$500 for an x86/x64-based "computer". And if x86/x64 dies, Windows dies with it. Microsoft knows it, and its shareholders know it.
That's why Microsoft worked so hard on Windows RT (basically Windows for ARM). That was their warning shot across Intel's bow that they had better do something to stave off the advance of ARM devices, or Windows was going to jump ship and abandon x86/x64 for ARM. It worked. Intel came out with some new extremely low-power CPUs which were almost competitive with ARM in power consumption but ran x86/x64 software, thus slowing ARM's encroachment into the laptop market (e.g. early Chromebooks were ARM, but they're now Intel). At least for now.
But the Intel can't keep it up forever. Their tax is very high per cm^2 of silicon compared to ARM. Eventually they're going to have to cut their prices, or ARM is going to win out. And if ARM wins, which OS do you think is going to dominate? Windows RT? Yeah neither do I. Which is why Microsoft's shareholders are so anxious that Microsoft do something, anything, to gain a foothold in the mobile (ARM) market.
How many also brought a Zune ?
I have a Windows Mobile 10 device, an HP Elite X3. i love the device. All told, I'd say it sucks less than my Android devices did.
Having bought a new car with Android Auto, I fired up my Galaxy S6 and connected, thinking to myself that Windows is missing another app. Well, not so much. Other than being able to control the device from a larger screen I immediately was less than impressed. Not only was the functionality less but the same fuzzy blah graphics that I so hated on Gnome (vs KDE) were present.
I need to check out an Iphone 6. I have a few dozen here at work. Maybe i'll slip my AT&T SIM into one and take it for a test drive.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Eventually, phones will take over from PCs
For some things. For many others, not a chance unless they reach some sort of parity with PCs regarding memory and storage capacity, display capability, and expandability. Perhaps we might see something like a docking station where one could connect their phone with the needed peripherals, but there are still some severe shortcomings to overcome before it will be adequate across all of those different use cases.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
I use my iphone 24 hours a day. It sits there connected to the wire actively charging and actively waitin for phone calls, SMS and other useless notifications etc.
The whiny trembling piece of shit in TFA use it too little ;)
The Nokia buyout and then cratering of Microsoft Phone was so that all those 50 megapixel CCDs that Nokia had bought futures on for the high end Lumias for the next 3 years (from release... 6+ years ago, and which I haven't seen hide nor hair of since!) were in fact done by Microsoft at the behest of the US government to gain access to those sensors for current/future surveillance use.
Has anyone heard of what happened to those sensors in the years since? I was genuinely interested in the phone hardware for that reason, but the released phones only had a dual core cpu and only a gig of ram. As a result they didn't have the umph for pulling full resolution shots more than once every few seconds unless you were taking downscaled images (which I believe were done via hardware between the CCD and the SoC since none of the SoCs supported more than 20 megapixel natively.
LOSER
Also, their push toward UWP apps and continuum is a longer term strategy of convergence. Eventually, phones will take over from PCs....
...and by that logic eventually cars will take over from trucks. For many people a truck (PC) was an overkill and a car (smartphone) suffices. By now almost all such people have made the switch and the remaining laptop/desktop users will never switch, because their needs are different.
To (over)extend the car analogy, you want the interface to cars and trucks to be similar, to facilitate adoption, but it likely will never be identical since their ultimate purpose is different. In that sense Apple got it right: make OSX and iOS similar, but separate. Microsoft instead tried to force the single window mode, which makes so much sense in a small screen device on the desktop with 30+ inch monitors.
The Windows App Store and Windows Apps are done. There are a ton of useless apps on the Windows App Store. Even for Banking and such, I can find almost everything I could want for Android, and Apple iPhones get it all too, when it comes to Windows, gaping holes in the software "catalog"... I would assume the Microsoft mobile market is just as dismal...
The strategy is to become a tax on innovation.
Why would Microsoft want to push their own platform, when they can tax Android vendors without having to support any product?
This bullshit "Intellectual Property" strategy has been ingenious and successful.
Windows phone 8 user here. Nokia Lumia 928. I've been using it since July 2013. As a warning to all you posers, I support well over 100 phones for users including iPhones and whatever candy named crap Android flavor is out this month. I love this fucking phone. Okay, the apps are a major shortfall, like a good VoIP app, but it does everything I need and it does it well. Great battery life, remote desktop, six email accounts (Exchange, Outlook, 2 Gmail, and 2 IMAP4), iVMS, bandwidth testers, DNS resolvers, keepass, awesome camera, Local Scout, file browser, Office Lens, City Lens, Here Maps, Here Drive, SharePoint integration. The phone is always working and always responsive. I rebooted it in 2014. When I work on a customers phone, I feel sad that it doesn't "just work". iPhone 6? I support many, including my wife's. Where the fuck is the advanced settings menu? Why do the contacts sync for one but not the other account? I checked the fricken box? You can say what you like, but my 3 year old and busted is better than the new hotness I work on every week. I'm holding out for the surface, but I may have to eat shit and get a pixel. That will kill me. If you can suggest a REAL replacement for my wonderful phone, I am all ears. Please don't troll. I may need a new phone in six months.
Letting the phone act as a PC by hooking up a monitor and keyboard/mouse. MS are looking into x86 on ARM
Twinstiq, game news
That is no strategy, that is folding down. That is no strategy, that is folding down.
Over the years I had multiple Android devices. They always had the apps and features I needed.
Then I bought a Windows phone. And all of a sudden I didn't have some apps I needed. Also, I didn't want any games on my phone. What did I get? A "games center", which I could not uninstall. Thanks Microsoft. Are you assuming now that consumers use their devices for gaming? My current Android phone, on the other hand, has everything I need and some handy quick access buttons Microsoft didn't think of. Even a Windows fanboy and Microsoft admin I know admits that he likes his newly bought Android phone.
I recently noticed a family friend who I had always assumed to be a Microsoft guy and dev, switch to Mac because "it doesn't suck". On servers he uses Linux. Yup, no more M$. Everything Microsoft does either ends up sucking for the consumer (having to fork over $$$) and/or sucking for the developer (having to learn a new API for no real reason). There is a point where people snap and they just switch. All Microsoft has left is a desktop OS (which has a reputation for insecurity, instability and with the current iteration of privacy invasion) and an office package (for which competition is showing up).
If the desktop Linux distributions (yes, I'm talking to you Redhat, Conanical and SuSE) get their act together and start fixing the multimedia stack and Apple cuts the price of its Macs. Microsoft is in for some real trouble.
The only market on which Microsoft isn't facing competition is gaming, but that is changing with console games getting more inventive in regards of dealing with the limitations of the controls.
So, it has become a question of when, not if, will Microsoft close its doors.
Given how Microsoft has been behaving all these years, who would want them to control every aspect of their personal life? It is not about features. They simply can not be trusted.
Those poor naive folks! Since when does Microsoft under Nutella have a strategy?
I share the shareholders frustration. I believe the real issue for Microsoft is that their continuum phone plans were delayed over a year because Intel dropped their new x86 super low power mobility chip. This chipset wopuld have provided the power and compatibility to run a full version of Windows 10 on the phone and be used as a 'desk top" alternative when travelling. Instead Intel bought the rights to produce ARM chipsets. But these needs considerable hardware tweaking by Intel and software work by Microsoft before they have the chipset and software to run on a full Windows 10 phone. In short Intel last minute giving up on competing with ARM frustrated Microsoft's continuum roll out schedule.
No one uses windows mobile devices anymore.. at least not for sensible purposes.