5 ms·

Just wondering does anyone else feel this article is slightly deluded. Microsoft's 'Mobile strategy' has not really a strategy, but more a blind rush to catch u

Just wondering does anyone else feel this article is slightly deluded. Microsoft's 'Mobile strategy' has not really a strategy, but more a blind rush to catch up with others in the market, and when that failed to offer core Microsoft solutions through cloud apps. Surface devices are form factors that Microsoft has a better track record and confidence with. It certainly executed those projects better than any phone. I really feel it has given up on handsets, and more interested in owning icons on the home screen. What say you?

Jonnax 9y ago
I think that's a fair assumption. Since they seem to release builds of W10 Mobile in tandem with the desktop, it does show that there has been some effort to unify their code bases. Even if they put things on the backburner, the code shouldn't turn into a stagnant fork. The author of the article says that Windows Mobile is going to have a life in the Enterprise. This does seem unlikely people want iPhones or the latest android mobile, not a phone with a handful of apps. And so the office apps plus onedrive are Microsoft's "in".
brudgers 9y ago
People forget Microsoft has been building mobile operating systems for about twenty years. [1] [2] It was not caught out by the technology of the iPhone so much as it was caught out by Apple's ability to dictate changes to the wireless carriers on its own terms -- for me, the real revolution of the iPhone is that it made mobile data cheap and widespread. I believe Microsoft is playing the long game in regard to mobile and that that long game is based on the assumption that a mobile phone is just another Turing/Von Neumann device, not something magical or a content delivery appliance. This is why Microsoft has spent the past decade or so converging its operating systems and more importantly development tools to be cross platform. For Microsoft, a mobile device is just another computer. Unlike Google and Apple, it has a strategy that does not depend on lipsticking a pig (at least in so far as both Google and Apple are tasked with trying to convince people that a mobile phone operating system makes a good laptop/desktop operating system (whether or not Windows is a pig is another matter))...and Microsoft is putting out a 'mobile phone on a laptop' OS for anyone who thinks its a good idea. One of the fundamental differences with Microsoft's approach is that unlike Google and Apple, Microsoft is primarily a B2B company and its consumer sales are a byproduct. From a business standpoint, the Windows stack reaches from embedded devices to data centers. Mobile is just a small piece of that stack and it is primarily consumer facing. Microsoft's mobile strategy is in part to provide tools so that its customers can develop mobile apps across platforms. The hardware and consumer device products are valuable from a research perspective. 10 million Windows phones in the wild every year provides a lot of useful field data directly to Microsoft. Twenty years ago, Apple was playing catch up with Microsoft in terms of mobile computing. Ten years ago Google was playing catch up with Nokia. And so was Apple. And if someone had posed a similar question, the conventional wisdom would have been everyone needed to catch up with RIM. Microsoft like Apple is trying to skate to where the puck is going...except it is more focused on the B2B side. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Compact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Compact
- CharlesDodgson 9y ago
  I guess you are probably correct, Microsoft, may have dropped the ball on mobile and got beat to certain milestones by Apple, but that doesn't mean it is out. I sued to use windows mobile , on surveying equipment and it always felt a bit archaic and clunky, but it did work and was he best solution for many years. Guess they want to keep a horse in the race.

Jonnax 9y ago

I think that's a fair assumption. Since they seem to release builds of W10 Mobile in tandem with the desktop, it does show that there has been some effort to unify their code bases. Even if they put things on the backburner, the code shouldn't turn into a stagnant fork. The author of the article says that Windows Mobile is going to have a life in the Enterprise. This does seem unlikely people want iPhones or the latest android mobile, not a phone with a handful of apps. And so the office apps plus onedrive are Microsoft's "in".

brudgers 9y ago

People forget Microsoft has been building mobile operating systems for about twenty years. [1] [2] It was not caught out by the technology of the iPhone so much as it was caught out by Apple's ability to dictate changes to the wireless carriers on its own terms -- for me, the real revolution of the iPhone is that it made mobile data cheap and widespread. I believe Microsoft is playing the long game in regard to mobile and that that long game is based on the assumption that a mobile phone is just another Turing/Von Neumann device, not something magical or a content delivery appliance. This is why Microsoft has spent the past decade or so converging its operating systems and more importantly development tools to be cross platform. For Microsoft, a mobile device is just another computer. Unlike Google and Apple, it has a strategy that does not depend on lipsticking a pig (at least in so far as both Google and Apple are tasked with trying to convince people that a mobile phone operating system makes a good laptop/desktop operating system (whether or not Windows is a pig is another matter))...and Microsoft is putting out a 'mobile phone on a laptop' OS for anyone who thinks its a good idea. One of the fundamental differences with Microsoft's approach is that unlike Google and Apple, Microsoft is primarily a B2B company and its consumer sales are a byproduct. From a business standpoint, the Windows stack reaches from embedded devices to data centers. Mobile is just a small piece of that stack and it is primarily consumer facing. Microsoft's mobile strategy is in part to provide tools so that its customers can develop mobile apps across platforms. The hardware and consumer device products are valuable from a research perspective. 10 million Windows phones in the wild every year provides a lot of useful field data directly to Microsoft. Twenty years ago, Apple was playing catch up with Microsoft in terms of mobile computing. Ten years ago Google was playing catch up with Nokia. And so was Apple. And if someone had posed a similar question, the conventional wisdom would have been everyone needed to catch up with RIM. Microsoft like Apple is trying to skate to where the puck is going...except it is more focused on the B2B side. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Compact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Compact

CharlesDodgson 9y ago
I guess you are probably correct, Microsoft, may have dropped the ball on mobile and got beat to certain milestones by Apple, but that doesn't mean it is out. I sued to use windows mobile , on surveying equipment and it always felt a bit archaic and clunky, but it did work and was he best solution for many years. Guess they want to keep a horse in the race.