Microsoft Makes Clever Moves
mondaynote.com
mondaynote.com
Under Ballmer, Microsoft had a brief identity crisis, trying to be a vertically integrated company like Apple. It is clear that Satya Nadella is taking Microsoft the other way to become a horizontally-integrated company like Google (http://stratechery.com/2013/understanding-google/)by open-sourcing .Net platform, to support competing platforms like Linux, releasing Office and Outlook on all mobile platforms (Windows, iOS, Android), focusing on cloud services, and deprioritizing Windows.
But in an ironic way!
Both companies are the foundations upon which the digital age sits, everybody runs Windows/Office and everybody uses Google search. MS and Google can do whatever the heck they want and fail often without consequence.
I bet Google too can't fail in crucial/major ways like failing keeping google.com online..
Several years ago you could add "...and everybody uses an iPhone...". Well, not anymore.
> It’s true that Samsung passed Apple in smartphone market share years ago, but “the crown” was never Apple’s to cede. In the years prior to Samsung’s rise in 2010, Nokia led the industry, by far, in smartphone market share. RIM, too, was ahead of Apple until 2010.
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/01/31/chmieliewski-sma...
* not everybody
The only company that has had any success with a forked Android is Amazon, and I suspect that's less about writing replacement apps (as I guess Cyanogen plans to do) and more about Amazon's existing massive market power.
You know, China exists; Google apps are blocked in an entire country that just happens to be the largest single country market for mobile.
> The only company that has had any success with a forked Android is Amazon
That is definitely not true. Xiaomi? Anyone selling Android in China (which excludes Amazon)?
> Look at any custom-built CyanogenMod roms out there
> every one of them includes instructions on flashing
> the Google apps.
That said, Microsoft has long been banned from my systems and Google more recently - so when compulsory Microsoft binaries start to appear in Cyanogenmod, it will be time for me to part ways.
Its not easy or cheap to fork android, but I think microsoft is one of the few companies with the resources to do it.
Microsoft's devices strategy wont be clear until after Windows 10 is launched, I feel, and until a full product line is evident. And you'd be being very silly to discount them at this stage.
I feel like people on tech sites/forums experience observation bias because of, maybe, a tendency towards using OSX and Linux, and they seem to forget that Microsoft are utterly dominant in many areas. They've also entered new industries in the last decade and became dominant in short order too.
I think the most obvious reason is lack of adoption, both by users & developers. There are lots of apps out there for Android & iOS. Microsoft has such a small market share and, in the eyes of many outside the Microsoft ecosystem, have little change of growing it. Meaning the cost-benefit for developing Windows versions of your apps just isn't there.
In many ways Windows Phone reminds me of the rebooted Palm Inc. webOS provided a far superior user experience to iOS and Android circa 2008-9, but in the end "meh" hardware and limited carrier support weighed them down more than great UX could lift them up. Microsoft has more money to burn trying to break that cycle than Palm did, of course -- but on the other hand iOS and Android are far more solidly entrenched in the top 2 positions than they were seven years ago.
I recently purchased the 930, so I can see a way Microsoft can increase sales immediately, and you hit the nail on the head. Work with the bloody carriers, but at all levels other than distribution. I went to several mobile phone shops and every single one effectively said "don't buy a flagship windows phone mate, have a look at this cheap shitty mess of an android one". Send some bloody reps around, interact with carriers, incentivise them, and sales will immediately go up.
I know I very rarely use my phone for phone calls. For me, it's all about apps and the capabilities those apps have.
My own phones have all been Nexuses. The reasons being that I consider Apple fascist[1], and Android is the only alternative with the combination of lots of apps and a way of replacing both launcher and default applications with third party apps.
As far as I know, Windows Phone's launcher can't be switched out, in fact I just did a quick search and it seems like not even the default browser can be replaced! It looks like Windows Phone is almost as restrictive as Apple, except with fewer apps. How would that make for a better phone, never mind "easily the best"?
Now, I'm no fan of Google, and I don't like the direction they're taking Android in, cutting down the functionality of AOSP, and dragging more into their proprietary apps and libraries. It's just that Android is the least worst choice right, now, as I see it.[2]
[1] Controlling, capricious, patronizing, "do it our way or get lost" mentality; and a brand that is a magnet for narcissists everywhere.
[2] MS primarily cares about money; it's copying Apple because it sees Apple making money. But Apple doesn't care about money; it thinks it's better than you, and it attracts people who like to think of themselves as better than other people, with more discerning taste in expensive status symbols. Making lots of money is a side-effect of Apple's strategy, because it's harnessing a narcissism latent in modern individualistic consumer society. MS's strategy won't work because it's not appealing to narcissists. Google, meanwhile, is following Microsoft's 1980s strategy to Apple's 1980s strategy.
First, I don't think MS is "copying Apple". Using Live Tiles is a very different experience than poking at icons on the iPhone. And MS isn't marketing to "narcissists" -- the best selling Windows Phones are all at the very low end of the market. The fit and polish you can get on a low-end Windows Phone are absolutely phenomenal. I bought one just to play with because Amazon had the Lumia 520 for $29 during the holidays, and got hooked on the platform. Now I'm buying a slightly higher-end model and passing along the 520 to a relative who is still using a flip phone.
As a developer, there are a ton of opportunities on the Windows Phone market. It's relatively small, but the key word there is relatively. There are a lot of open niches and a userbase that is hungry and appreciative.
My primary phone is an iPhone. It has the apps. It mostly just works. However, an interface of "a bunch of icons" or "a bunch of icons in folders" is a really tired interface.
I'd like to see better innovation from the UI/UX on the iPhone, but we really don't get much beyond a flatter theme. (this is not to take away from all the advancements happening under the hood).
I'd like some combination of the Windows Phone interface with a blend of features from IOS and Android.
This trend bugs me to no end. I call a lot, I need a really robust, integrated phone app on my phone.
This is precisely I moved away from iPhone to Xiaomi after years of being with iOS. iOS 7 dumbed down the phone app so much, it was unusable for me. Xiaomi on the other end, is probably the most powerful phone for calling purposes that I've used, one click call recording, seamless conferencing, speed dials, auto-detection of which number I use of a particular contact most often (and the one I used last time, right with search results). It is so powerful, meanwhile iOS 7 did away with search using keypad. In iOS 7 and beyond, to make a call, I have to peep into my 2000+ contact list.
From what I know, Windows 8.0 and 8.1, too, has fantastic feature rich phone apps.
Unfortunately there's one key problem which means I won't be getting another one - I have no way of getting an offline copy of my phone backups.
I didn't realise for a while after purchase and it's not such an issue to make me immediately want to get a new phone, but I refuse to relinquish that control by choice.
"Cliff Simpkins (Sr Product Manager, Windows Developer) responded:
Currently, the platform provides a number of SMS Access from a system eventing perspective (as of Windows Phone 8.1), and Windows Phone supports sms backup/restore for consumers as part of the base OS (Settings Backup). What we don’t provide is a backup API."
The only backup offered is in form of Outlook cloud, there is no way of retrieving your backup from the cloud, you can only restore into another windows phone device. If you happen to have non Lumia device and want data you need to first backup to cloud, then restore into Lumia branded phone (that you bought/borrowed for the occasion), and then backup again using Lumia proprietary backup app that lets you store locally. YAY M$
But: I personally don't see that happening. Even if Microsoft was able to influence the forked versions of Android, how would that help Microsoft's bottom line?
And at this stage, how much damage could they inflict to the real Android, which is now running on almost all smartphones except those from Microsoft or Apple?
The PC industry in the late 80s was a competitive marketplace, and there were real competitors to Microsoft's business till it basically took over the PC market. I think the mobile industry has pretty much entered that phase now.
More significantly, manufacturers have tested the waters with cyanogenmod devices -- oneplus one, Oppo n1, Micromax's Yu Yureka. I for one would be more likely to buy a cyanogenmod supported phone than a 'touchwiz', 'optimus' or "Windows 8" phone if I was assured of two year updatability.
And how would this help Microsoft's bottom line? Android... with Bing.
Are there numbers supporting this claim? A cursory search revealed no publicly released usage statistics
I like it the way it is - with Google services and apps!
Does he refer to the despicable practice of "embrace, extend and extinguish"[1]? It's one of the most disgusting stains on Microsoft's reputation (along with their lock-in and standards hijacking practices). I'm surprised author even suggests to do that as something acceptable.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
Are you saying they righted their wrongs in this regard? I don't think so. They are slightly better than before may be, but they have a lot of old baggage left. I can't say they stopped their lock-in tactics already and became friendly to open standards. Others have their wrongs as well, but the article is about Microsoft.
You are powerful -> you take measures to keep that power.
I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's the most natural thing. Did they take it over the top? Yes. Did the DoJ cut them in half for it? Yes. At this point I think it's hipster boys mindless repeating a mantra they haven't even thought about more than 2 minutes in their lives.
It's not an excuse for such practices. Or one can use it to excuse any dictator as well. There is no "fuss". Such practices are straight despicable and unacceptable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_theorem_(game_theory)
Eat or be eaten. I don't know what you mean by ethical. Ethical means a different thing to different people. You can subscribe to your notion if you operate a small business. If you have are in charge of a megacorp - there are other things to take into consideration.
Lock in is an example of unethical business practice. And it can't be excused with "if we won't engage in it, someone else will".
Take the browser wars as an example. Bundling IE got massive share which then bred arrogance, stagnation, and lack of standards compatibility. That set that stage for IE becoming reviled for all of those things and the rise of Chrome/FireFox.
There was certainly a bad ride for consumers along the way, but the situation worked itself out. It probably would have had the same outcome even if the DOJ and the EU didn't get involved.
Full disclosure: I worked at Microsoft for eight years and left a couple of years ago. I'm typing this on Chrome on my Mac now.
Are you suggesting that those tactics are so ingrained that they cannot be repaired? Sure ie isn't the thought leader, but who gives a shit when you are printing money like they are? I think the hipster chic only matters for growth, they are a dividend company now. They've shown an incredible resiliency and the industry is such that mistakes are costly. I just can't imagine counting them out.
Resiliency in crooked tactics is not a good trait.