Windows Phone 8 hasn't slowed Microsoft's mobile freefall
Four months after its formal launch, not only has Windows Phone 8 failed to win Microsoft a bigger piece of the mobile pie, but Redmond's share of US smartphone subscribers is actually still shrinking, according to the latest figures from analytics firm comScore. You may recall that last November CEO Steve Ballmer was crowing …
This topic is closed for new posts.
They are OK, but they are late to the party and are just MS's take on existing ideas. Nothing new. There is also no room for another player unless they offer something new and radical.
iPod & iOS drove Mac OS sales.
Win 8 phone will not drive Win 8 sales as the sales are small and win 8 desktop won't drive win 8 mobile sales as the sales are small so they are in a catch 22 disadvantage.
The best thing would have been to make Win 8 desktop more palatable and I think ordinary users would have enjoyed the seamless transition between Win 8 devices that is offered with MS ID login and skydrive.
Failure?
In the short term, almost certainly, but that's never been the MS way.
They haemmoraghed (sp, cant be bothered checking) money with the X-Box, which took IIRC nearly 3 years to simply break even.
This isn't about instantly being top-dog, it's about the long-term strategy. It's largely the same strategy is Apple - get them onto the eco-system, make that work seamlessly and don't let go.
Microsoft want you to have a desktop, a phone and an X-Box, with your Live! account on all of them.
What would be interesting to know is what the contract Nokia have with MS states regarding exclusivity.
It broke with expectations
The people who were looking forward to Windows Phone were expecting it to be a bit more like Windows. Microsoft would mandate some common hardware standard and you could update your operating system independently of your hardware vendor. People expected that device to be independent of the "cloud".
However this has never happened. What's left is a system which is at least not much better than Windows CE, but carries all the cruft of a full blown Windows.
What will be will be
Having read the comments I find myself wondering why people get so animated and revel in the apparent difficulties of a given OS.
Many people like IOS, many people like Android, many people (yes relatively less according to the myriad of analysts keen to tell us - for a price/agenda) but nonetheless many people also like Windows Phone 8.
One's liking of an OS doesn't negatively impact nor imply foolishness of anothers fondness for a different OS.
Lets all just peace out and enjoy the current variety we have on offer and hope that we continue to enjoy such in the future.
Currently running Lumia800, ticks my boxes as I like the smaller form factor and visually find the OS compelling and my Dell Venue Pro (first gen Winpho7) got updated yesterday which was a nice surprise.
I've also run with an SII for a good while which I was thoroughly impressed with and my old iPhone still works great and is a good loaner when required and the new Blackberry OS has my attention, some nice ideas in there, although the Z10 does look awfully like... ;)
P.S - Eadon get some serotonin reuptake inhibitors. stat. I don't think Ballmer is reading these dude, relax. Have a pint.
The art of the bleeding obvious ..
This isn't the 90s, or even the 2000s. The market dynamic has changed - forever. Nobody (and I mean NOBODY) I know is in any kind of hurry for a *new* smartphone. I have my (works) Win7.8 HTC. My lad has a Nokia 5800, and wifey[1] has her HTC Android. The only person I know who does regularly update their phone is the (retired) mother in law. Who's drunk the Apple kool-aid, so will only get the latest iPhone.
So Win8, Win9, Win10 with four "M's" and a silent "Q" are a total and utter irrelevance.
It's the same for desktops. We're all running 4 year old machines, with Win7. Absolutely no need to upgrade.
There's a certain schadenfreude here. Your Microsofts and Apples et al had a field day when the IT landscape was new, unknown, and scary. But it's evolved into a mature market now, and all those old-fogies who were left behind by the tech rush are now your greatest assets, as they are much more familiar with working in a mature market. If you want to sell Windows8, you need to get someone who's successfully sold cheese, or pot noodles on board - they'd have a better idea than someone who's only ever done tech.
Amusing that the US is seen as an arbiter of good taste only when it suits...
It might not be doing well in the US, no doubt because the best 920 option is way too heavy for the average american blogger to cope with. Seems to be doing significantly better in the rest of the world, UK figures are geting better and relatively strong growth in the rest of Europe. Perhaps a slightly lower corn syrup intake in Europe allows the strength to cary a whole 60g extra weight in the hand?
A message for Microsoft
Microsoft was starting from SO far behind that it had to do something mega to win market share.
We all know that Apple shafts you good and proper where the sun don't shine, Samsung is charging way over the odds, i.e. I would rather pay less for Apple's last model than pay for a Galaxy III.
So rather than wasting 3bn on Dell what Microsoft needs to do is subsidise the Win8 phones so that they can be sold for a song, people will realise that they are actually quite a decent phone and start raving about them, then the price can slowly increase.
Of course there are laws about this sort of thing so it comes down to offering a better contract, e.g. a Nokia 820 for FREE with umlimited text, 1gb Data and 500 mins talk time for £10 a month for 36 months. But also to include 0845, free texts to shortcodes and free calls to voicemail. So yes the contract is longer which means they keep the customer for longer and they differentiate themselves by including those annoying extras.
Another example would be the same as above but £15 a month for unlimited talk time or £20 a month to include EU and cheap countries by routing over Voip.
Like any competitve situation, they have to offer something compelling, it would really shake up the market which has become a bit too complacent.
Re: A message for Microsoft
> Microsoft was starting from SO far behind that it had to do something mega to win market share.
Windows Mobile had a 42% market share in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile#Market_share
> Microsoft needs to do is subsidise the Win8 phones
It is subsidizing them to the tune of $1billion a year that it is sending to Nokia. That is about $100 per phone.
> so that they can be sold for a song
They have been discounted and remaindered, especially the WP7 phones.
> e.g. a Nokia 820 for FREE with umlimited text, 1gb Data and 500 mins talk time for £10 a month for 36 months. But also to include 0845, free texts to shortcodes and free calls to voicemail.
I am sure that many businesses are glad that you are not in their marketing department. But then your grasp of economics shows that you are probably 12, and think that Santa Claus is real.
This topic is closed for new posts.
