3 ms·
It's a bit strange to fault Google for killing Windows Phone while it was essentially users making that choice. The article is looking at Windows Phone with a
by hota_mazi 9y ago
It's a bit strange to fault Google for killing Windows Phone while it was essentially users making that choice.
The article is looking at Windows Phone with a lot of rosy glasses. Sure, WP had tiles and neither iOS nor Android have them, but WP had been behind on tons of other features that Android users had been enjoying for years, starting with apps being able to call each other indirectly (the intent system).
WP failed because it was late in the game but also because overall, it was inferior to Android on most fronts.
- sydd 9y agoIt was really Google's app monopoly that killed it. Arguing that the users did it, is the same as arguing why people only use Google or Facebook.
- hota_mazi 9y agoGoogle was nowhere near having a monopoly when WP died. And yes, people use Google and Facebook because these two tools are the best in their category, not because the companies performed some kind of brainwashing on users.
- blackoil 9y agoIrrespective of how monopoly was acquired, it did influence choice of mobile OS. Youtube and Google Maps were of few universally used apps, not available on WP.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoNeither was Microsoft a monopoly when they got their eyes sued out and a consent decree slapped on them simply for making their browser the default browser on their own OS. A lot less than Google did to stifle competition from WP.
- hota_mazi 9y agoMicrosoft was definitely a monopoly when the antitrust lawsuit was filed against them. There can be no antitrust lawsuit if you're not a monopoly, it pretty much is a requirement for such a lawsuit to be brought. It's perfectly legal (and healthy in a free trade economy) to be a monopoly. What's illegal is leveraging that monopoly to enter other markets, which is what Microsoft attempted to do.
- michaelmrose 9y agoDid you miss the episode whereby ms belatedly tried to own web servers / web development in order to ensure a Windows client was a prerequisite to participation in the web?
- ams6110 9y agoThey were late, and while the Tile/Metro concept seemed to work OK on the phone, they also awkwardly forced it into the desktop version of Windows, where everyone I know hates it compared to the old Windows-7 style start menu. So people learned to hate Metro/Tiles, and when they saw it on phones at the Verizon store they looked at Android or iPhone instead.