6 ms·

You'd have to think they would be better off giving up on owning the mobile platform, given that they are up against Android and iOS/iPhone I don't think they c

by robryan 16y ago

You'd have to think they would be better off giving up on owning the mobile platform, given that they are up against Android and iOS/iPhone I don't think they could possibly come up with something compelling enough to get mobile companies to pay for a license over the free Android OS which iterate much faster. Possibly they could form a partnership with the aim of bringing other products to a platform. They could support Android, build it into there development tools and release mobile versions of their software there, integrate with xbox ect. Would probably be a bigger opportunity than the dead end that is windows mobile. I think there would be a lot of businesses at Microsoft that could be cut in order to regain some focus. Although the same could be said about Google and they seem to be doing pretty well at the moment.

rbanffy 16y ago
> they would be better off giving up on owning the mobile platform They can't afford that. Their strength comes from the lack of viable options - each of their product lines reinforces the dependency on other product lines. If you use Exchange, you probably won't be able to use anything other than Outlook, which runs on Windows and is part of Office, which makes using Sharepoint more or less painless, which runs only on top of Windows servers and requires Microsoft's database... Their value proposition is based on dependency loops. Break the loops and the value disappears (or becomes negative).
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Or the other more sensible response that mobile devices are one of the major growth segment in the industry. Why would you give up on that? But conspiracy theories work too.
  - evilduck 16y ago
    What conspiracy theory? The vendor lock-in behavior of MS is practically advertised as a platform feature. To up and reverse their product lock-in policy would cast doubt on many (most?) of their other claims.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      The conspiracy theory is that they want to lock you in for no other reason but to give you no other viable option. That's absurd. They want to sell you as much software as possible, of course, they're a company. But the reason they will stay in the mobile space isn't to keep you from getting any other mobile device. But because there's money to be made in it and it fits into their core competency.
      - evilduck 16y ago
        I don't think it's absurd. They've demonstrated several times over that they're willing to accept short term losses for the sole purpose of damaging or killing off competition. Hell, they even invented the slogan "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".
        kenjackson 16y ago
        Everyone is willing to take short=term losses to kill off "competition". I'd expect they'd do that in the mobile space too. It's called "competition". But why are they competing in the space? Microsoft could get into the soy bean industry, but the margins there really suck. They are in the mobile space because there's money to be made. Lets put it this way, if you could prove that this mobile industry is at its peak now and there effectively no profits ever to be made in it, do you think MS would stay in it just so people would have no viable choices? Of course not. They're in it for the money. It's absurd to think otherwise.
        rbanffy 16y ago
        > They are in the mobile space because there's money to be made. For all we can see, not by them ;-) To be fair, WinMo sells a lot of phones. Must at least make a profit for the division.
      - evilduck 16y ago
        I don't think it's absurd. They've demonstrated several times over that they're willing to accept short term losses for the sole purpose of damaging or killing off competition. Hell, they even invented the slogan "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".
- MartinCron 16y ago
  I agree with everything but your comment about Sharepoint. Nothing can ever make that painless.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    After being responsible for a large SharePoint deployment at her company, my wife agrees with you. But both of you have to admit that using SharePoint through Office sucks less.
jsz0 16y ago
I think they still have a shot in mobile simply because there isn't as big of a barrier in switching platforms. Moving from iPhone to Android to WM7 might end up costing the average person $50 in apps over a period of years. One really good WM7 handset could totally change the market. Personally I see the Android market is on track for much less diversity in the future. HTC and Motorola seem to be the only companies doing a really good job with Android. The big problem with Android is your handset maker can cut corners and give you a terrible product. Google doesn't do a whole lot to support OEMs besides a link to the source code and words of encouragement. Microsoft has lots of experience as an OEM software partner. The license fee may end up being a reasonable price for handset makers to pay to avoid some of the difficulty of developing an Android device.

by robryan 16y ago

rbanffy 16y ago

> they would be better off giving up on owning the mobile platform They can't afford that. Their strength comes from the lack of viable options - each of their product lines reinforces the dependency on other product lines. If you use Exchange, you probably won't be able to use anything other than Outlook, which runs on Windows and is part of Office, which makes using Sharepoint more or less painless, which runs only on top of Windows servers and requires Microsoft's database... Their value proposition is based on dependency loops. Break the loops and the value disappears (or becomes negative).

kenjackson 16y ago
Or the other more sensible response that mobile devices are one of the major growth segment in the industry. Why would you give up on that? But conspiracy theories work too.
- evilduck 16y ago
  What conspiracy theory? The vendor lock-in behavior of MS is practically advertised as a platform feature. To up and reverse their product lock-in policy would cast doubt on many (most?) of their other claims.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    The conspiracy theory is that they want to lock you in for no other reason but to give you no other viable option. That's absurd. They want to sell you as much software as possible, of course, they're a company. But the reason they will stay in the mobile space isn't to keep you from getting any other mobile device. But because there's money to be made in it and it fits into their core competency.
    - evilduck 16y ago
      I don't think it's absurd. They've demonstrated several times over that they're willing to accept short term losses for the sole purpose of damaging or killing off competition. Hell, they even invented the slogan "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".
      - kenjackson 16y ago
        Everyone is willing to take short=term losses to kill off "competition". I'd expect they'd do that in the mobile space too. It's called "competition". But why are they competing in the space? Microsoft could get into the soy bean industry, but the margins there really suck. They are in the mobile space because there's money to be made. Lets put it this way, if you could prove that this mobile industry is at its peak now and there effectively no profits ever to be made in it, do you think MS would stay in it just so people would have no viable choices? Of course not. They're in it for the money. It's absurd to think otherwise.
        rbanffy 16y ago
        > They are in the mobile space because there's money to be made. For all we can see, not by them ;-) To be fair, WinMo sells a lot of phones. Must at least make a profit for the division.
    - evilduck 16y ago
      I don't think it's absurd. They've demonstrated several times over that they're willing to accept short term losses for the sole purpose of damaging or killing off competition. Hell, they even invented the slogan "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".
MartinCron 16y ago
I agree with everything but your comment about Sharepoint. Nothing can ever make that painless.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  After being responsible for a large SharePoint deployment at her company, my wife agrees with you. But both of you have to admit that using SharePoint through Office sucks less.

jsz0 16y ago

I think they still have a shot in mobile simply because there isn't as big of a barrier in switching platforms. Moving from iPhone to Android to WM7 might end up costing the average person $50 in apps over a period of years. One really good WM7 handset could totally change the market. Personally I see the Android market is on track for much less diversity in the future. HTC and Motorola seem to be the only companies doing a really good job with Android. The big problem with Android is your handset maker can cut corners and give you a terrible product. Google doesn't do a whole lot to support OEMs besides a link to the source code and words of encouragement. Microsoft has lots of experience as an OEM software partner. The license fee may end up being a reasonable price for handset makers to pay to avoid some of the difficulty of developing an Android device.