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From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they

by ethbr0 5y ago

From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. Blackberry, Palm, and Apple all realized that given hardware and interface limitations, a better solution was to cut the Gordian knot and strike a different balance between desktop and something else. Honestly, any of the three had a shot at being Apple. Palm had Graffiti and really slick for the time OSs. Blackberry had iMessage of their own. But Apple had a more complete package + Apple fans + iTunes.

thrashh 5y ago
I think the issue is that Microsoft only targeted enterprise users and never tried that hard to make their mobile platform for consumers. Because I remember having a Windows Mobile device and it was fairly powerful. You could do more on it than you could on Android or iOS for many years.
Seanambers 5y ago
And then later on Microsoft shipped Windows 8 - which was a touch first interface on millions and millions of desktop computers. I still remember the utter despair when non pro users didn't understand what was happening with the interface. You can't make this sh!t up!
GeekyBear 5y ago
> From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. This insanity reached it's peak just before the iPhone introduction with Microsoft's "Ultra Mobile PC" handheld device initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC I can remember an implementation of this from ASUS that used a D-Pad to drive a mouse pointer on a handheld device running an unchanged Windows XP UI.
gumby 5y ago
To be fair to Microsoft,* there was customer pull for “desktop everywhere”. I remember asking 20 years ago at a city council meeting why they planned to spend so much on Exchange/Outlook rather than, say, Netscape. The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all. One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful. * strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.

by ethbr0 5y ago

thrashh 5y ago

I think the issue is that Microsoft only targeted enterprise users and never tried that hard to make their mobile platform for consumers. Because I remember having a Windows Mobile device and it was fairly powerful. You could do more on it than you could on Android or iOS for many years.

Seanambers 5y ago

And then later on Microsoft shipped Windows 8 - which was a touch first interface on millions and millions of desktop computers. I still remember the utter despair when non pro users didn't understand what was happening with the interface. You can't make this sh!t up!

GeekyBear 5y ago

> From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. This insanity reached it's peak just before the iPhone introduction with Microsoft's "Ultra Mobile PC" handheld device initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC I can remember an implementation of this from ASUS that used a D-Pad to drive a mouse pointer on a handheld device running an unchanged Windows XP UI.

gumby 5y ago

To be fair to Microsoft,* there was customer pull for “desktop everywhere”. I remember asking 20 years ago at a city council meeting why they planned to spend so much on Exchange/Outlook rather than, say, Netscape. The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all. One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful. * strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.