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Microsoft's Nadella Says Company Will Make More Phones, But They Won't Look Like Today's Devices (zdnet.com)
As he told the Make Me Smart podcast, Microsoft is looking for something far more transformative, like an entirely new category of smartphone that's so original and appealing that OEMs won't be able to resist tagging along. From a report: "At this point we're making sure that all of our software is available on iOS and Android and it's first class and we're looking for what's the next change in form and function," he said when asked whether Microsoft would make another phone. Nadella doesn't discuss what form these mobile devices could take, though Microsoft does have some candidates, like its HoloLens augmented reality (AR) headgear. No doubt he's keeping close tabs on Google's early progress with its Tango phone AR experiments.
My friend works at a Sprint store. They have a Microsoft Windows phone that sits in the storage room and no one ever asks to see it. Unless Microsoft is willing to put money behind their promotions like Samsung, HTC and LG, my friend has no incentives to sell a Microsoft Windows phone.
How about a phone that folds in half!
It's gonna be revolutionary!!
and get no where. That ship has sailed, and IOS and Android own the mobile market. But M$ will toss endless amounts of money after it in a vain hope to gain traction, much like they keep pouring money into Bing to no end.
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Remember boyz and girlz, this is the same company that held a mock funeral for the iPhone at Windows Phone 7 launch.
I'd take any announcement like this with a huge grain of salt.
So they will make more phones that nobody will buy. What will they do with them? Hand them out for free? Force them in bundles onto customers that buy other goods or services from Microsoft?
MS, stay out of markets you do not understand and are far to late an entry to get any appreciable market share.
Silence is a state of mime.
I've seen this happen before...they're gonna make something wildly different, and then they are going to make Windows look like it, and tell us all that we are all wrong for not liking it....
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
Similar in concept to the new laptop with the thin carpet on the keys, the new phones will have 1.5" shag carpeting.
This will serve several purposes:
1. Make it softer in one's pocket.
2. No need for a third party case (not even possible)
3. A convenient towel that one will always carry around.
BlameBillCosby.com
1. I use my phone as my communications center. I do a lot of correspondence on it, and the fact that I can get fast turnaround makes it pretty damned useful, if not outright critical, to my job.
2. It's convenient. I can read a book, watch a movie, mindlessly surf, without having to lug out a laptop. As a device to consume media, my smartphone can't be beat.
3. There are a million ways to be surveilled nowadays. Why not criticize people for using debit or credit cards, or going into buildings with CCTV?
4. I have purchased three smartphones, period, and they've lasted me about a 2.5 years a piece. I just bought a new one last October and don't contemplate I'll need to replace it for at least two years.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I don't doubt there will eventually be something new on the horizon, but I think it's definitely time for them to stop trying to force their way into the phone market. While it was in full swing, it bled over into every single product they made (Windows 8 and 10, the current Office design and subscription model, etc.) For a while it seemed they were obsessed with getting access to the magic ATM that is the 30% cut on all customer purchases. That's where the Store, Windows RT and now WIndows 10 S is coming from. I can't blame them; I'll bet Apple's senior executives are swimming in bathtubs full of money and Champagne. But Microsoft is pretty much the go-to for enterprise IT, and even more so with Azure now...the recurring revenue they get could fill a few Scrooge McDuck-style money bins.
It seems to me that unless they patent some revolutionary, ground breaking form factor, their phone business should just be allowed to die. Apple has a massive base of rabid fans who would pay $200 for an Apple branded USB cable if they sold one, and full control of the hardware/app store/ecosystem. Google has a fragmented hardware network, but they have the Play Store and access to every single shred of user interaction data. Either one of these is tough to beat -- it's going to be iOS and Android slugging it out for quite a while.
They should have a phone with the screen right on the retina. Microsoft could call it the eyePhone.
The new Microsoft Phones will be more like the Zune, but even more unusable. You have to go down five menu levels to change the volume, and the menus will change depending on how often you use them.
For example, let's say you get a lot of spam cell calls. If you ignore them, the new Microsoft Phone will realize you really like them, but are afraid to admit it, and make the rings even louder and add phone vibration effects so that your car crashes when someone spam calls you from India.
Especially India.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I was thinking it would look like a very large paperclip, you could clip it on any article of clothing or body part. It will have a snappy name, like Clippy.
The new Microsoft Phone AI assistant is actually a binder clip, called Bindy. He's into BDM. Sometimes he gets a little needy. Just slap him.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I can't wait to see the next device Microsoft puts out, then abandons 6 months later because it doesn't mystically sell like hotcakes right out of the gate.
Problem with today's Windows phones: they don't look or work like Apple or Android, so nobody wants them.
Nardella's solution: promise new phones that won't look like Apple or Android products.
Pardon me, I'm off to short some Microsoft stock.
Maybe. Is it possible to port Linux to it?
Have gnu, will travel.
In an attempt to complete with Apple: New phone unveiled!
Stupid sexy Flanders.
1) Make a $500 or less phone that runs full blown windows. 2) Let the phone attach to any standard USB keyboard/mouse/monitor/speakers. 3) Do not focus on hardware for games. Focus on business/internet use. 4) take my money! All they need is a form factor that can replace a laptop and a phone with one device. Crap, even at $800, I'd buy one since I don't need a $700 laptop and $300 phone anymore. Microsoft has the software to do this along with Windows specific business apps written for windows and no one else does. The longer they are to blind and to stupid to see this, the more time Apple and Google (probably Google) have to take over everything Microsoft has built over the past 30+ years.
If Microsoft is looking for the "next change in form and function" wouldn't that imply it's something entirely different than a phone? I mean phones have been rectangular-ish slabs for the last ~20 years. Multi-touch smart phones is now ~10 years old. None of those concepts seem likely to change. Maybe you can invent something totally different that can sorta function like a phone just like a PC with a headset, but nobody's going to call that a phone. In fact, the name is pretty much an anachronism by now because people do everything else but call with it. I just checked here in Norway and the 2016 figures is that 89% now have a smartphone. In a few more years "smartphone" will be almost as implied as "cell phone" unless you say otherwise.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Retinal display and augment reality contact lenses (with a special security feature that releases cyanide into the eye of anyone the NSA dislikes.)
Never heard of it, is it something like Microsoft Bob?
Outsourced contractors?
Not sure if it's a markedroid speaking or vaporware.
Probably both.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
That would then be a text massage, wouldn't it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I have a smartphone, but it seems to me that I have also bought into the hype and think perhaps trading down to a simple phone would be better. First, the voice quality on all these phones suck... Consumer Reports doesn't give a good rating to anybody.
I do use my phone for correspondence - mostly text messaging though. It wouldn't be a problem for me to wait until I get home or to the office - if there's really an emergency, you wouldn't send email anyway, you'd call or text, both of which are available on "non" smart phones.
I also can't imagine considering a smart phone something that "can't be beat" for consumption of media... it's something that you can carry around with you for convenience, but it's hardly the best way to consume video or books. Most web sites still suck for mobile, but there are some useful things you can do, so I'll grant you that, but I'd only watch TV or movies, or read a book, even on my "phablet," 5.5 inch screen, as a last resort.
Not going to argue about surveillance, but how many smartphones you've bought is irrelevant - how much did each one cost you? I think about the monthly average I'm paying (amortized cost of smartphone plus service), and can't, for the life of me, think it's actually worth it. It might be for some, but I think a lot of us would be better off without one (both financially and otherwise). For the vast majority of smartphone users the return on investment is not there at all.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
If MS can't kill it, steal it or control it, they're not interested in it. This is what results from a business model that disdains the new and seeks to be the late comer with overwhelming resources. Giving people what someone else is already providing seems a sucky future. Good luck keeping up with Apple and Google, Mr Nadella.
I can hardly wait for the marketing blitz with that guy from the Seinfeld show. And the instructional video with Jennifer Anniston.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What's the silly bugger on about? Are they going to be triangular or something?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
so original and appealing that OEMs won't be able to resist tagging along
We have no fucking idea what we're going to do next, but we're totally playing it off like shits about to get real. Please, buy our phones! We will literally give you an HP laptop and a Windows Phone if you just promise to let everyone you know, know that you are using a Windows phone and you, like this guy, are really enjoying the phone and think it is hip. Why are you all not buying our phones!!?
Actually that mightn't be a bad thing. The last lot of flagship phone prices have seriously gone up significantly.