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posted by janrinok on Wednesday July 15 2015, @07:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-wants-to-rule-the-world? dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday July 15 2015, @08:42PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2015, @08:42PM (#209575)

    That doesn't follow MS's history with phones. We'll believe it when we see it. They wouldn't be in this spot if they didn't 404 their previous phone's marketplaces and support. Nobody wants a smartphone that not only has few apps but the entire app store could cease to exist unexpectedly. Developing for them sucked too because each device was a different build target. I don't know how this latest generation is/was though, they could have improved. If it is still around in a few years i'll take a look.

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  • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:04PM

    by mtrycz (60) on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:04PM (#209591)

    ...but then I already found lots of hate already, so I'll just post something thoughtful instead.

    In Windows10, which will be available for ARM too (free for Raspberry, for example), you will have to develop an app just once, and export it into a variety of platforms, including the desktop, the arm, and the mobile, and some other minor things I guess. I can certainly see a strategy here.

    Them declaring that Windows Phone isn't going to die is a clear signal to the business market (I'll get to that soon) that they're safe. It's a good thing to do, I guess.

    Microsoft has all the resources to take their time to prepare the Windows10 move, because:
    1. They're relevant in the desktop/laptop matket - their OS is preinstalled on virtually all consumer/office hardware sold; also virtually every office worker that is not in IT, knows Windows, and Windows only
    2. They're relevant, surprise surprise, in the server market (OS/Office/SQL/ActiveDirectory/.NET/etc), expecially for the small-to-medium (and departments of big) business where you need SLAs and support etc. and when your MBA boss is convinced that open source sucks; expecially outside US, I think, which is the big part of business OS market.

      It's not like because the've never have really penetrated one of their markets, they're in "trouble".

    Just to be clear, I really think that bug- and backdoor-ridden OSes need to die, but they won't just die because one of their products didn't have as much success as the first and the second mover.

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    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:28PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:28PM (#209613)

      you will have to develop an app just once, and export it into a variety of platforms, including the desktop, the arm, and the mobile...

      I think the key thing here to remember is that they are talking specifically about Windows 10. So as soon as windows 11 is a thing they will kill the windows 10 market and with it all the devices. That is exactly what has happened with all their previous phones. Anyone with existing windows 8 phone applications will have to port to the new platform. It's still Windows but it cannot run apps from different versions. Each iteration of their phone OS has been like a complete rewrite. You can imagine how happy that makes developers.

      Could you imagine Apple or Android pressing the reset button on their app market after each major release? Madness.

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    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:35PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:35PM (#209622)

      It's not like because the've never have really penetrated one of their markets, they're in "trouble".

      Its their IBM-ification. IBM used to mean all computers. Period. End of line. Kind of like "xerox" means all photocopiers or "iphone" means all smartphones today even when they're androids.

      Once they started to give ground to PCs in the 80s, it was all over, bye bye mainframe other than as a joke. Once that freight train starts runnin down hill, its all over till it reaches bottom. Guess who took over from IBM as defining "computing" to the general population?

      20 years from now MS might be in IBMs place today, that consulting company that used to do something with those desktop things that people used to use, as they post nostalgically on their apple iContactLens or google direct brain stem interface or whatever.

      My kids have tablets at school. They don't really use desktops anymore. Maybe when they're older they'll use a web browser to log into google drive and type in term papers, but they're at the "one page essay" age now. To my son, microsoft means "xbox" and nothing else, and my daughter has no knowledge of them other than Auntie temporarily had a shitty phone with no apps till she got a real iphone. Microsoft is dead as a major force. Like IBM they'll be around till the end of time, doing consulting and whatever and there will be legacy megacorps that haven't moved to China yet that still use MS office products...

    • (Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:41PM

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2015, @09:41PM (#209626) Journal

      Portability is already a solved problem. You don't need Microsoft smoke and mirrors to achieve it.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:01PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:01PM (#209663) Journal

      So was Novell... lasted for a while, but 10-12 years is still a short time.

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    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 16 2015, @12:42AM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday July 16 2015, @12:42AM (#209711)

      In Windows10, which will be available for ARM too (free for Raspberry, for example)

      Why in God's name would anybody want Windows on a Raspberry Pi? "Oh yeah, now that I've got this homebrew do-it-yourself gizmo I can fiddle with and build from the ground up, let's slap some mainstream nonconfigurable shiny interface on it!"

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      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:20AM (#209800)

        Because they aren't a cock-gobbling faggot like you are?