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Ballmer's biggest mistake was killing Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft had a huge lead with Windows Mobile 5 in 2005; a decent OS with decent hardware and a huge app

by guelo 13y ago

Ballmer's biggest mistake was killing Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft had a huge lead with Windows Mobile 5 in 2005; a decent OS with decent hardware and a huge app ecosystem. Leaked WM7 screenshots show that it would have been competitive with the iPhone if it had been released in 2007-08 as originally planned (http://pocketnow.com/smartphone-news/windows-mobile-7-exclusive-screenshots-and-analysis http://pocketnow.com/smartphone-news/windows-mobile-7-exclus...). But they inexplicably killed the project and let Apple conquer the world. Microsoft didn't respond until 2011 with Windows Phone, which was a new OS written from scratch.

harrytuttle 13y ago
Agree with win mobile 7 point. However WP7 is basically WinCE 7 with CLR (compact framework) and a new UI. Good move with bad timing. If they released WP7 in a form close to what it is now in 2007, Apple would have been laughed off the scene.
aaronbrethorst 13y ago
You mean Photon? Yeah, that was never going to happen. > But they inexplicably killed the project Oh, it was definitely not inexplicable. Check out Apple's doomed Copland project, e.g.
pavlov 13y ago
The post you linked to is from October 2009. By that time, it was far too late for Microsoft to "fix" Windows Mobile by simply updating the UI of the built-in applications to be more iPhone-like, which is what the screenshots show. This approach would have left most of the OS and third-party applications stuck in the stylus-oriented 2002 look and feel. I don't think anyone would have been happy with the resulting compromise of an operating system. The Windows Phone 7 reset was unavoidable. For comparison, Nokia tried doing what you advocate: instead of starting over, they updated Symbian to be modestly touch-friendly and proceeded to improve the apps and libraries piecewise over several OS iterations. It didn't work out, the resulting products were a mess (even though they eventually managed to get it to a pretty good state with the 2011/12 releases, it was far too late). Nokia ended up throwing away the entire Symbian OS -- a project whose R&D costs had accumulated to tens of billions of dollars by then.

by guelo 13y ago

harrytuttle 13y ago

Agree with win mobile 7 point. However WP7 is basically WinCE 7 with CLR (compact framework) and a new UI. Good move with bad timing. If they released WP7 in a form close to what it is now in 2007, Apple would have been laughed off the scene.

aaronbrethorst 13y ago

You mean Photon? Yeah, that was never going to happen. > But they inexplicably killed the project Oh, it was definitely not inexplicable. Check out Apple's doomed Copland project, e.g.

pavlov 13y ago

The post you linked to is from October 2009. By that time, it was far too late for Microsoft to "fix" Windows Mobile by simply updating the UI of the built-in applications to be more iPhone-like, which is what the screenshots show. This approach would have left most of the OS and third-party applications stuck in the stylus-oriented 2002 look and feel. I don't think anyone would have been happy with the resulting compromise of an operating system. The Windows Phone 7 reset was unavoidable. For comparison, Nokia tried doing what you advocate: instead of starting over, they updated Symbian to be modestly touch-friendly and proceeded to improve the apps and libraries piecewise over several OS iterations. It didn't work out, the resulting products were a mess (even though they eventually managed to get it to a pretty good state with the 2011/12 releases, it was far too late). Nokia ended up throwing away the entire Symbian OS -- a project whose R&D costs had accumulated to tens of billions of dollars by then.