back to article Everything I see is Windows 10, says Microsoft's SatNad

Satya Nadella has been hitting the road to undo the damage to perceptions of Microsoft's mobile strategy caused last week by, um… Satya Nadella. When the Great Communicator "clarified" Microsoft's plans last week, he was so effective that many reporters and analysts assumed Microsoft was giving up on its own mobile platforms, …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nokia will be soon making android phones along with Blackberry. Time to raise the white flag and cut your losses MS.

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      But ... he just said that unlike last week, this week they are in mobile. Who knows what next week will bring, and if they'll be rehiring all the mobile staff they just sacked. Maybe Flop or even Blamer will be back on the scene. Maybe Sinofsky will need to be rehired to demo Windows 10, and once again show how it runs Internet Explorer, with a majestic sweep of his arm.

      1. Schultz

        "Sinofsky will need to be rehired to demo Windows 10, and once again show how it runs Internet Explorer, with a majestic sweep of his arm."

        I like the moment where he declares that you get '30% more' at the end of the video. It sounds like the latest laundry detergent special.

    2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      I thought that was Nadella's plan

      We already have office for Android and Linux on Azure. In a few years, he will anounce the next release of Windows will use a Linux kernel.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Mobile strategy is working where it matters

      Centrica (British Gas) have announced internally to all staff this week that they are replacing Blackberry devices with Windows Phones (mostly the Lumia 640) by October - so the strategy is apparently working where it really matters for Microsoft - in large enterprises.

      From the internal posting:

      "Windows Phones are coming! Over the next few months we will be replacing BlackBerrys with Windows phones. Look out for an email inviting you to book in for your phone swap. "

      and

      "we are completely removing BlackBerry devices from both Centrica Energy & BG. "

      1. x 7

        Re: Mobile strategy is working where it matters

        cheap, simple, reliable -and it works

        also easy to lock down and restrict.....

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Nadella, time to shut the fuck up

    If you spend every other week doing damage control about what you said the week before, it is high time you delegated your speeches to a committee which will vet your words and put them in the mouth of someone who is trained to speak in public.

    Because you sure as Hell aren't.

  3. x 7

    so Microsoft phones are just a front end for Microsoft cloud services. Which makes the choice simple: who do you trust more with your data: Google, Apple or Microsoft?

    Which one is more secure? Which one is more trustworthy>

    1. Kunari

      "...who do you trust more with your data: Google, Apple or Microsoft?"

      Trick question if there ever was.

    2. adnim

      None

      of the above. I will never trust any cloud service.

      I don't even trust that my own servers are beyond hacking and I like to think I know what I am doing.

  4. John Sanders
    Windows

    Pardon me?

    """The other thing that matters is rapid application development. In our case, we take a Lumia device, you power up Azure App Services, and out come Universal Apps that automate workflows. I think that's unbeatable in terms of a value proposition."""

    Look at all this code, it writes itself, look how it automates the work-flow itself and gives value itself.

    Wait what?

    1. thames

      Re: Pardon me?

      You just don't understand. It's cloud! It's better than that, it's mobile cloud! It can do anything!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF?

    Has the soul of Jobs been damned to spend eternity running MS?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WTF?

      If it were at least their tablet and phone efforts would sell, I think it's more likely the soul of Adam Osborne.

  6. Tim 11

    BYOD anyone?

    "The fact that ... some social networking app is not available is not much of an issue (in business scenarios)."

    So it's goodbye BYOD and welcome to the world of having a separate phone (and presumably separate tablet) for work.

    1. P. Lee

      Re: BYOD anyone?

      >So it's goodbye BYOD and welcome to the world of having a separate phone (and presumably separate tablet) for work.

      And this is why MS will fail here. People will pay for a status-symbol phone but companies will not. People can work around network outages, but companies don't want to do that. Why would a company pay for a laptop to run your apps... and then pay for a phone (probably costing as much as the laptop) to run more limited versions of the same apps?

  7. Tim 11

    Windows 10 is just a name

    If there's one pattern we've seen again and again from Microsoft it's this - pick a buzzword and re-brand all your product lines to that buzzword (Remember "live"?). The technology behind it is irrelevant.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IoT

    I found the linked article interesting - the graphic for Windows 10 IoT.

    Let's see - there's "Industry", which we can call "Windows" (desktop), there's "mobile" which we can call "Windows Phone", there's "Compact" ["Athens"], which we could call "Windows Embedded CE", and there's "Micro", which we could call "something running .Net Micro framework".

    Doesn't exactly sound groundbreaking or earth-shattering.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeh! Go-Nads!

    Journalists what do they know? Yeh! Go-Nads! You tell'em!

    Go-Nads! Go-Nads! Go-Nads! (with stamping of WPC 2015 participants feet)

    Sadly, you can feel the love, all two of 'em, given he's all but killed new Microsoft Lumia Phone sales running Windows 10 mobile.

    Interesting too, a Demo of a Microsoft Lumia running Continuum, a Demo at WPC this week was continually referred to as a Phone, Yeh, its a phone, you getting me - its a phone (as we were told) NOT a Microsoft Lumia. Also the first demo to show Cortana collaboration was with an iPhone. (which was referred to as an iPhone, and not a phone)

    http://youtu.be/CBWp77t91Gg

    Writings on the wall. What a balls up.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Yeh! Go-Nads!

      So the successor to Windows Phone 8 is Windows 10, which will now be running on Windows Phone hardware.

  10. Khaptain Silver badge

    SadNads

    SadNads just doesn't cut it as the head of such a large corporation. I'm beginning to think that our ex-incumbent sweaty chair throwing lovable monkey was actually better at the job... At least Balmer had some character and he brought us W7, which is quite easilly their best desktop OS...( Let's give W10 some time before making judgement).

    SadNads just doesn't have the panache, the clear vision, the flair or the presence to hold the chair... he just has a pair of emtpy, sad nads....

    1. Zog_but_not_the_first
      Facepalm

      Re: SadNads

      Nostalgic for Balmer. Who'd have thunk it?

      I do feel that Win 7 might be the high-water point.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: SadNads

      SadNads is so much better name than SatNads, thanking you!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: SadNads

        I prefer Go-Nads! (maybe that's not the best way to phrase things)

  11. IJC
    Trollface

    Spin, Spin, Spin

    Seems to me a few journalists need to go on a basic listening/reading comprehension course.

    Of course if they stopped trying to put a "how can we make Google/Linux/Apple* look good/Microsoft look bad" spin on everything life would be much simpler.

    *Depending on the Journalist.

  12. Mikel

    Continuum

    One of the things that has made the smart phone popular is that it is not like a desktop PC with Windows. So desktop Windows on a phone is a natural fit. In bizarro world.

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Continuum @Mikel

      "One of the things that has made the smart phone popular is that it is not like a desktop PC with Windows."

      They're popular because the fit into small place and work without mains power. They're not at all like desktop computers and are in completely different beasts.

      And WTF are you whining about? Android devices can be hooked to BT keyboard and the display can be projected with Mira/Chromecast. Is that feature somehow verboten in your bizarro world? Why?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Continuum

      If you have a Windows phone that is essentially running the same kernel as desktop Windows, using an x86 CPU of some sort, why not?

      I've long thought Apple should do this as they could steal share from Windows (though maybe they're worried they'd only steal share from OS X) It isn't quite the slam dunk but they do already have most popular apps on OS X, and adding a OS X GUI to the iPhone that only runs when you "dock" it to a keyboard/mouse wouldn't be hard. It isn't going to replace a real PC for demanding work, but for browsing on a full sized screen, writing term papers, etc. it would be ideal for students and twenty-somethings who are already buying PCs in far fewer numbers than older people.

      Maybe when Microsoft finally does it, if it is even a little successful, Apple will finally do it too. They've ported the OS X GUI to iOS in their lab, so they've obviously considered this or at least experimented with it. Maybe they need someone to do it wrong so they can see where the problems are and show them how to do it right.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People might like Windows if it was any good at all

    Microsoft seems to just assume that Windows is great and any decline in sales or enthusiasm is just because of market forces beyond their control.

    What they don't seem to realize is that Windows is actually s*** and maybe that's why people don't care about it or want to use it.

    When I use Windows, it's just a constant barrage of different visual themes and design languages and UI organizations from the last umpteen times Microsoft did a half-assed job of reworking the UI. When I click on something, I have almost no idea if the OS will show me some Windows 95-era UI, or if it will take me to the new world of big rectangles that seem to be sized and organized according to a fractal art algorithm, or maybe something in between (XP, Vista, 7...).

    If Microsoft took the time to sort this out, maybe people would be excited to give them money for a new version of Windows.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      Re: People might like Windows if it was any good at all

      You're so right. Sometimes when I get board at work, I count the number of different styles of close buttons and scroll bars my current desktop is showing and it's depressing how many man hours must've been wasted on re-coding the same UI controls again and again rather than spent making Windows a bit less Pat Butcher.

      And the very worst offenders are Microsoft products. Why the hell the Office team won't follow any of the Windows UI design language at all is beyond me. Visual Studio has got equally ugly - here's the tool we're supposed to develop the next great Windows applications in, and it looks terrible. Not great encouragement.

  14. TheOtherHobbes

    Go Nad!

    Oh - wait...

  15. Mr.Bill

    windows 10

    at the end of the day "windows" is only relevant as regular old desktop windows that we all need at work, else, as we've seen, the masses could care less. He can call the Band windows 10 but that's meaningless except an extra bit to get someone just that much more excited about just how "universal" it is, or not (more likely).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: windows 10

      >>at the end of the day "windows" is only relevant as regular old desktop windows that we all need at work, else, as we've seen, the masses could care less.

      This is a holdover from Microsoft's monopoly days. Make every single thing part of (and dependent on) the Windows empire.

      Ballmer once had to have vocal cord surgery because he blew them out yelling Windows.

      It's basically Microsoft's religion. They will only get past it when all the employees that were there in the 90s are long gone.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    40% market share for Windows Mobile

    That was back when the smartphone market was a few million phones a year. Nadella thinks Microsoft can regain those Windows Mobile users they lost - maybe they can, but that's less than 1% of today's market.

    Almost all smartphone users became smartphone users after Windows Mobile was already dead. Bringing back that brand name means nothing to them, and is a joke to those of us who remember it.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Most people are invested in Apple and Google stuff

    Mr Nadella's proposition sounds interesting but most people just aren't interested in partaking in Microsoft's ecosystem when it comes to mobile.

    When Nokia was acquired by Microsoft, Elop tried so hard to convince everyone that there is room for a third ecosystem. That didn't happen. So why should it happen now, when the others are even more entrenched in Apple and Google?

    There is no Microsoft killer app that's only unique to Windows. Office is a moot point, few people are about Office on mobiles. And Microsoft had already admitted defeat by porting Office to iOS and Android.

    Don't forget the bridges Microsoft had burnt with the OEMs and users of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7.

  18. x 7

    Differing market sectors have different views....

    I find it interesting that most of the immigrant working girls I've met have Lumias running Win8.

    The phones are cheap, do what they want i.e. phone calls/e-mails/facebook/check their personal websites for customer contact.

    It seems that if you're Polish or Romanian or Czech or Spanish and female, brands such as Apple or Android have zero significance. All they want is a phone that does the minimum they need, has reasonable battery life, and is cheap. These girls don't give a monkeys about technical fashion name branding - they just want something that works and is value for money - which at present, Lumias are. Of course it also helps that a lot of current Lumias look a bit girly with their bright plastic cases.....

    My belief is Microsoft will go down a similar route, offering cheap, reliable, functional phones to countries like Brazil, Argentina, South Africa......Countries with a demand, but no preconceived marketing notions, especially among the women. Wouldn't surprise me if they tried aiming Lumia as a brand at women globally - something on the lines of "Lumia - the phone for people fed up with Android and iPhone penis envy...." I'm sure they'd phrase it differently, but you get the idea

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like