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Windows Phone isn’t going away.
You might think it was doomed, following Microsoft’s reorganization of its phone business just days ago, especially after Microsoft wrote down the value of the business. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put those fears to rest, however, in an interview with ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley.
Nadella has emphasized, time and again, that his goal is for Microsoft to establish new product categories that partners can build upon. In the phone business, however, partners haven’t followed Microsoft’s lead.
Nadella seems to be fine with that. “If there are a lot of OEMs, we’ll have one strategy. If there are no OEMs, we’ll have one strategy,” Nadella said of Windows Phone's future. Microsoft seems content to go it alone, or if a hardware partner like HTC or Samsung commits to the platform, that’s fine too.
Nadella has previously characterized Windows 10 as an operating system that straddles multiple hardware platforms: the desktop PC, the notebook, the tablet, the phone, the Surface Hub, HoloLens, and the Xbox. The market hasn't really bought this story so far, at least where Windows phones are concerned.
[...]
Still, we now know this: Microsoft’s in phones for the long haul. And that’s reassuring both to fans of the platform and to those who are keeping an eye on Microsoft’s long-term vision for Windows 10.
Original Submission
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @08:11PM
How dare you! There are at least 5 Windoze Phone users!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday July 15 2015, @08:40PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @08:55PM
If there needs to be competition it should be from someone more competent than Micro$hit.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:17PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:23PM
I'd rather see Sailfish or something like it succeed more than another pile of proprietary shit from Micro$hit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:29PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @12:58AM
Yes, they are lacking certain resources (such as cash, reputation, market penetration, etc) but Microsoft has all of those things and it's not helping them at all.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:17AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:18PM
Who would be the ones with the magical combination of technical background, legal muscle, and the pocketful of cash to throw at R&D for years to make it happen?
Frankly, I'm not surprised by the news. The MS Windows 10 presentation from earlier this year had a solid chunk of it dedicated to "and here's how this integrates with your MS phone, and it's all because of ONENOTE(did we mention ONENOTE?!)." I didn't watch the whole thing, because I'm not that excited about MS crap, but it's clear that they're putting a good number of the chips in on this. It would be silly to toss it all out after that.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:21PM
It would be silly to toss it all out after that.
And yet they tossed away Windows Mobile back when it had like 10x the market share that Windows Phone does now.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:26PM
Hey, everyone makes mistakes. I do it all the time. It sucks and it's painful, and I try to learn from them and not repeat them, because sometimes they're painful.
I guess we'll have to see if MS does the same.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:25AM
This is a good point, but personally due to Microsoft's behemoth size in the computing market, I'd rather it not be them to be a big competitor to the other two. If they actually figured out how to make a decent phone that most people wanted, we'd be back to another monopoly with them doing embrace, extend, extinguish in the phone market.
I'd like to see some good competition too, just not from MS. It's too bad RIM has mostly withered away; they even tried to make their phones compatible with Android apps, but it didn't save them.
I'm hoping that alternative Android firmwares like CyanogenMod will take off, and create competition that way. As we saw with Windows on the desktop, the availability of 3rd-party apps is what really makes a platform popular, and this is likely one of the big reasons (aside from the butt-ugly UI) that WinPhone has bombed. Developers only want to support so many platforms, and MS made their totally unlike the other two, so no one bothers making any apps for it because it's too much effort for too few users. But alternative Android firmwares don't have this problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:05AM
> Am I the only one that wants to see Microsoft attain at least some success with these phones? I'd like Google and Apple to have some competition.
(1) I own a bunch of windows phones (520 and 521) because I could pick them up for $20 brand new and I needed a bunch of distinct phone numbers. I actually like using them because the UI is fast and smooth and, other than the lack of firefox, are sufficient for my needs.
(2) The problem is the kind of competition - MS is just doing "more of the same." App-store, tracking the shit out of you, locked down firmware, etc. Improvements to the UI are an insufficient value proposition to overcome the fact that whole philosophy remains identical.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday July 16 2015, @06:27AM
MS is just doing "more of the same." App-store, tracking the shit out of you, locked down firmware, etc. Improvements to the UI are an insufficient value proposition to overcome the fact that whole philosophy remains identical.
Nokia produced a Windows phone that was three-quarters digital camera.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday July 16 2015, @08:25AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:53PM
> Nokia produced a Windows phone that was three-quarters digital camera.
Judging a product line by its oddball step children doesn't provide much insight.
95% by model and 99.99% by sales volume, Nokia/MS winphone is just more of the same.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday July 16 2015, @11:11PM
Yes, you are the only one. The reason for that is that Microsoft does not compete. Locking out the competition through a closed ecosystem instead of providing features and support that users want is their method of gaining market share.
Another significant competitor in the market might be good news for smartphone buyers, but not Microsoft.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday July 16 2015, @11:34PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈