The Windows Phone – another disconnect from the consumer?# PDA - 掌中宝
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by Vic Laurie
From what I have observed over the years, Microsoft management has had
little understanding of, or interest in, what average people want from
computing devices. A classic example of this institutional blindness was
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s 2007 pronouncement, “There’s no chance that
the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Belatedly reacting to the consumers’ rush to mobile platforms, Microsoft is
making a mighty effort to gain a share in the tablet and smartphone markets
. Microsoft has regiments of smart engineers and mountains of money to throw
at the problem. So why aren’t they dominating in their accustomed way? The
answer is that their lock on markets in the past no longer has the same
overarching power to control—in other words, the problem is Windows. The
dogmatic Microsoft view that Windows applies to any and all computing
devices has become a hindrance. Without monopoly power to tell consumers, “
It’s Windows or nothing”, Microsoft does not know quite what to do.
For example, Windows Phone is barely alive in the smartphone market as the
graph below illustrates (source:Splatf).
Statistics for smartphone market share
At ReadWrite, Brian S Hall has an interesting piece, The Real Reason Windows
Phone Is Failing, where he analyzes why the Windows Phone has only 2% of
the global smartphone market. He writes:
The real reason why Windows Phone has failed because there is no good
reason for it to exist.
Go on, try to think of one. Think of just one reason – one customer-
facing reason – why Windows Phone should exist? Is it better? Cheaper?
Faster? Simpler? More secure? More connected?
Microsoft has designed a smartphone operating system that might be
better, maybe even much better, for those things that Microsoft is good at
– such as Word, Outlook, Xbox Play. The problem is, those do not seem to be
the things that smartphone users want or need.
That last sentence puts the finger squarely on Microsoft’s problem. They
have never concerned themselves with what consumers want or need. For a long
time it was Windows or nothing. But for mobile platforms the consumer now
has a choice. And that choice isn’t Windows.
From what I have observed over the years, Microsoft management has had
little understanding of, or interest in, what average people want from
computing devices. A classic example of this institutional blindness was
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s 2007 pronouncement, “There’s no chance that
the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Belatedly reacting to the consumers’ rush to mobile platforms, Microsoft is
making a mighty effort to gain a share in the tablet and smartphone markets
. Microsoft has regiments of smart engineers and mountains of money to throw
at the problem. So why aren’t they dominating in their accustomed way? The
answer is that their lock on markets in the past no longer has the same
overarching power to control—in other words, the problem is Windows. The
dogmatic Microsoft view that Windows applies to any and all computing
devices has become a hindrance. Without monopoly power to tell consumers, “
It’s Windows or nothing”, Microsoft does not know quite what to do.
For example, Windows Phone is barely alive in the smartphone market as the
graph below illustrates (source:Splatf).
Statistics for smartphone market share
At ReadWrite, Brian S Hall has an interesting piece, The Real Reason Windows
Phone Is Failing, where he analyzes why the Windows Phone has only 2% of
the global smartphone market. He writes:
The real reason why Windows Phone has failed because there is no good
reason for it to exist.
Go on, try to think of one. Think of just one reason – one customer-
facing reason – why Windows Phone should exist? Is it better? Cheaper?
Faster? Simpler? More secure? More connected?
Microsoft has designed a smartphone operating system that might be
better, maybe even much better, for those things that Microsoft is good at
– such as Word, Outlook, Xbox Play. The problem is, those do not seem to be
the things that smartphone users want or need.
That last sentence puts the finger squarely on Microsoft’s problem. They
have never concerned themselves with what consumers want or need. For a long
time it was Windows or nothing. But for mobile platforms the consumer now
has a choice. And that choice isn’t Windows.
