To: Eric L who wrote (134) | 7/10/2015 5:49:38 PM | From: zax | | | Hey Eric,
Microsoft Winding Down Windows Phone ... "Winding Down Windows Phone" doesn't seem like appropriate language.
Nadella stated, "I am committed to our first-party devices including phones,"
They certainly are paring back manufacturing and are indicating they no longer wish to be in a position of competing handset for handset against Chinese handset manufacturers in the low end in hundreds of markets. But I believe your language implies something other than what anyone has stated.
Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, thinks Microsoft will continue with phones for now in a bid to build out its hardware/software ecosystem. "Microsoft will have something very similar to where the Surface line is now," he said. "The idea will be to create inspiring hardware that motivates their ecosystem. They'll go after the 'halo' effect."
Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, sees it the same way. "The issue for me was always, if Microsoft owns Nokia, why would others want to make Windows phones? You're basically telling your OEMs, 'Compete directly with us,'" Gold said.
Regards,
-- Zax |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (138) | 7/13/2015 1:14:23 PM | From: Eric L | | | Windows on Mobile Devices ...
<< What went wrong? Nadella was not a mobile device CEO, he pretty much gave up on that part of the company from the outset. >>
There is no question about that. He's not a 'devices and services' guy but a software (as a service) guy whether in the cloud or on a device.
He kept Elop and Harlow hidden from public view and perhaps internal function. I suspect evolution of devices (particularly smartphones/phablets) was not supported well and was a low prioity.
<< Nokia-Microsoft mobile devices needed a different Microsoft leadership in order to succeed. >>
At the CEO level to be sure. I think Elop/Harlow were rhe right division leaders, but also that Nadella viewed Elop as a threat and by extension Harlow as well.
Devices have never been Microsoft's forte and Nadella may have repositioned Microsoft onto a sensible track, but we'll have to wait and see.
Cheers,
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
To: zax who wrote (139) | 7/15/2015 10:05:46 AM | From: Eric L | | | Paul Thurrott on the future of Windows Phone ...
"Let's be clear, Windows Phone is a failure. ... There's no future for Windows Phone." - Paul Thurott, July 9, 2015 -
... from last week's What The Tech Episode 266:
youtube.com (Video)
There is of course no more 'Windows Phone.' We are back to 'Windows Mobile' (specifically Windows 10 Mobile) and we'll evidently see 4 to 6 new 1st party Microsoft (Lumia?) Mobile devices released at an event on September 24th where the company will launch Windows 10 Mobile officially.
Paul's take on the future of the platform is discussed for 15 minutes starting at 25:16 of the webcast linked above. His lates comments are in the article below:
>> On Eve of RTM, Terry Myerson Speaks About Windows 10, Windows Phones and More
Paul Thurrot July 14, 2015
thurrott.com
Microsoft’s Terry Myerson spoke at the Worldwide Partner Conference keynote yesterday, and as you might expect, his presentation focused largely on Windows 10. But as a Windows phone fan, I was most interested in what he said—or didn’t say—about this beleaguered platform.
So let’s address the elephant in the room first.
It’s pretty clear that my take on Microsoft’s smart phone moves has been perceived by many as being negative or at least overly-fatalistic. I don’t see it this way, obviously. In fact, I think the warning signs have been there for Windows phones for years. But I do spend an inordinate amount of time parsing what Microsoft says, and regardless of your take on my Windows phone opinions, you may find this mini-assessment of Mr. Myerson’s phone comments of interest. This is especially true as some see Myerson’s comments yesterday to be some kind of indication that Microsoft has recommitted itself to smart phones.
He did not do that.
Myerson did utter a version of the word “phone” 25 times during his bit at the WPC keynote. He repeatedly mentioned phone as a component of the Windows 10 device lineup—”the Internet of Things, on phones, tablets, PCs, Surface Hub and HoloLens,” for example—and there was a major Windows phone demonstration during his speech. These collectively indicate to me that Microsoft is trying to at least soften the blow of last week’s bad news.
My big takeaway, however, is that Myerson simply corroborated my belief that Microsoft’s short-term goal with Windows phone is to find some niche in which this platform can provide a unique and valuable differentiator for the short term: Continuum, a way to turn your phone into a PC. There was a lengthy Continuum demo that should excite the fans of this platform.
What Myerson didn’t do was say anything new about flagships. “Last week, we announced the focusing of our Lumia lineup,” he said. “But let me be clear, soon you will see premium new Lumias designed for Windows 10.” This was met by applause, even though we already knew this. And he was the only Microsoft executive to even utter the word “Lumia” during the entire WPC keynote on Monday. Several mentioned Surface, by comparison.
Long story short, I don’t feel WPC did a thing to change the picture I’ve presented about the future of Windows phones. We’re going to get at least two new flagship devices this year, Microsoft will make fewer and better-targeted handsets, and the firm has no intention of growing this business.
Again. We already knew all that. ... <snip rest> # # #
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (2) |
|
To: Eric L who wrote (142) | 7/15/2015 10:20:59 AM | From: zax | | | Eric, these statements don't jive with Nadella's.
Nadella: Microsoft isn't killing Windows Phone and will go it alone if it has to Windows Phone has a role to play as the mobile branch of the Windows 10 ecosystem, so it's here to stay.
pcworld.com
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.
</snip> Read the rest here: pcworld.com
More:
Microsoft may have just shut down most of its handset manufacturing business — but Windows Phone is far from dead, according to CEO Satya Nadella.
mashable.com
There are many more references to this. Microsoft even made this a lead story on Bing. In fact, new flagship phones to be released later this year, after Windows 10. |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
To: Eric L who wrote (142) | 7/15/2015 11:05:57 AM | From: Eric L | | | John C. Dvorak on the future of Windowa Phone ...
>> Windows Phone Has a Future (Maybe)
All it takes for some success is for Microsoft to do one little, itsy-bitsy thing: talk about the stupid Windows Phone.
John C. Dvorak PCMag,com July 15, 2015
pcmag.com
There have been many articles lately bemoaning the flop known as Windows Phone. But I've been keeping up with the latest builds, either by visiting a Microsoft Store or borrowing a friend's device, and Windows Phone is not half bad anymore.
In fact, it's as competitive as anything out there, and Cortana seems better than Siri.
What's bad is the half-hearted sales and marketing efforts. If the Windows phone is dead, it is because Microsoft has sunk billions into the technology but virtually nothing into actually selling the device.
I've observed this lackluster effort over the past few years. It's also reflected in the media. Take, for example this Computerworld piece titled "Microsoft gives Windows phones one last shot. "The negative headline makes the whole phone strategy sound like a hopeless rescue mission.
In the piece, which emphasizes the failure of the Nokia acquisition and the $7.6 billion dollar write-off, there is this commentary, which struck a nerve: "Microsoft's smartphones will follow the trailblazing of the more successful Surface tablet line, which after two years with little return hit its stride in 2014 with the debut of the Surface Pro 3."
More successful? Hit its stride? That got my attention. Why would the Surface Pro be any more successful than Windows Phone? The phone is the basis for the whole Metro OS, from Windows 8 to the present. The focus for the latest version of Window is almost entirely the phone, yet it almost universally declared a pre-destined flop.
It looks more and more to me like the Windows Vista of smartphones: misunderstood and poorly marketed.
There was a Vista TV ad that came along after Vista failed to catch fire in the marketplace called The Mojave Experiment. A bunch of people were taken to a faux focus group and shown the OS of the future. The features were emphasized, the ease of use promoted. The pretty appearance was factored in. Everyone in the focus group said the future looked rosy and they would definitely buy this futuristic OS. Then it was revealed to be Vista. Everyone gasped.
The ad told me one thing: Microsoft botched the Vista marketing. The company realized that this ad was not showing the marketing in a good light. It was quickly taken out of circulation.
So what is the difference between the Surface and the Phone? Advertising.
When Windows Phone first came out, there were a few ads that were humorous but actually showed the phone in a bad light by emphasizing that other phones currently had people's attention, while the Microsoft phone was "efficient." The subtext was that the phone was boring.
Meanwhile, the folks who advertise the Surface were showing off its unique features in a jazzy eye-catching manner. Can you name one unique feature ever presented regarding the Windows phone? Nope. In fact, Microsoft seems to have killed advertising for the phone while staying the course with the Surface tablet/laptop.
There has been almost no effort to make this phone a success.
Windows Phone is never included in the discussion about phones. Listen to podcasts, read blogs. Who uses any Windows Phone as a point of comparison? It never happens. It's as if the Windows Phone does not exist.
I, for example, have never received a press release or a briefing or even a note announcing a new feature for the device. I've been in the scene writing about this stuff for 30 years. I don't solicit press material, but it is very noticeable when there is none whatsoever. They are not even trying or care to do much of anything. I've never seen anything like it. No ads, no promotions, no nothing. And yet Redmond wonders why there is no traction.
It's obvious. Someone threw in the towel after the first round
When someone suggests the company is being smart by cutting its losses and folding its tent I ask, "when did the company ever try to market the phone in the first place?" There has never been any effort except for the early ads and they were counter-productive. When the entire enterprise boils down to a $7.6 billion write-off, you have to wonder what it's doing.
There is upside potential, Microsoft. Just do something! # # #
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (2) |
|
To: zax who wrote (143) | 7/15/2015 12:46:29 PM | From: Eric L | | | The Windows Phone (Windows 10 Mobile) Future (continued)
<< Eric, these statements don't jive with Nadella's. >>
They don't jibe with them either (vbg) but although I've been trying to figure out what Microsoft has been trying to do with 'devices and services' and how effectively they have done (or not done) so since Microsoft acquired Nokia's 'devices and services business' I don't see much of a future for Microsoft designed and manufactured mobile devices running on ARM architected silicon and Intel doesn't yet have a near term viable alternative and keeps pushing the latest Atom chips out.
The Mark Hachman article for PC World you linked states "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. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put those fears to rest, however, in an interview with ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley."
They didn't put my fears for what is currently branded as 'Lumia' to rest even though some 4 to 6 Lumia devices will be released in a few months and hopefully will ship shortly afterwards to select network operators in select countries.
What Satya said to Mary Jo is in the article in the next post.
Cheers,
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
To: Eric L who wrote (146) | 7/15/2015 12:49:41 PM | From: Eric L | | | Nadella talks about Microsoft's Mobile Ambitions ...
... in the most exhaustive piece writen recently expanding on what was said by the horses mouth in his 'letter to emplyees.'
>> Exclusive: CEO Nadella talks Microsoft's mobile ambitions, Windows 10 strategy, HoloLens and more
Microsoft CEO talks about his thinking around product differentiation and being ahead of the curve in this Q&A with Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley.
Mary Jo Foley ZDNet | All About Microsoft July 14, 2015
zdnet.com
Minutes after he left the Worldwide Partner Conference stage after delivering a keynote for 14,000-plus resellers, integrators and other Microsoft partners on July 13, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sat down with me in the backstage green room for a 30-minute interview.
His appearance at the annual partner show followed by just a few days the latest of his "hard choices" kicking off Microsoft's fiscal 2016. Last week, Nadella announced Microsoft would be cutting 7,800 employees, most of which are in the hardware and devices unit. Despite the fact that he committed to continuing to make up to two new Lumia handsets in the value, flagship and business segments each year, moving forward, many company watchers considered last week's moves as signifying Microsoft's abandonment of Windows Phone and concession of the mobile market to its competitors.
I asked Nadella about his plans for continuing to compete in the phone/mobile markets; his expectations for Microsoft's HoloLens augmented-reality technology; and his partnership plans, in particular with regards to Microsoft's long-time nemesis, Google.
I've edited this transcript for clarity and length.
MJF: You just got off the stage. What do you hope partners take away from your keynote this morning?
SATYA NADELLA: I really mean this when I say I want us to be a very mission-driven company in the choices we make and the things that we do and how we do it, because the lesson learned for me has been to not conflate or mistake a particular goal with a particular technology and your mission.
When I joined the company in '92 it was about the PC in every home and on every desk. Guess what: We achieved that. And a company has to outlast any given technology paradigm and any ambitious goal. And so for me this going back to what is it that drove Bill (Gates) to build even the BASIC compiler or the interpreter to what we did in terms of inventing productivity or democratizing client-server computing.
That's where I come back to this notion of empowerment. When I even think about the three broad ecosystems out there in the world, we are the only ones who both (consumer and business). Because of what we do in our economic model, we are fundamentally focused on saying it's about our customer's product. IT can be a student writing a term paper or a big enterprise driving their own differentiation of productivity. Both of them are the things that we as an ecosystem care about. And that's what grounds me on what choices we make, what markets we participate in, how we do it.
In this world we have these three big ambitions (reinvention of productivity and business processes; building the intelligent cloud; more personal computing). Of course they're grounded in real product today, But it's also beyond what we're delivering today, beyond the brand names of today. Where are we going? That's where the morning's keynotes were all about and that's what I'm focused on.
MJF: That's a great jumping-off point to one of the things I want to talk about. After last week a lot of people I'm talking to -- partners and customers -- are really worried about your prospects in mobile. You just said not to conflate the technology with what you're going to do next. So, does Microsoft cutting back on the number of Windows Phones you make mean you are getting out of the mobile market?
NADELLA: Not at all. Quite frankly I think it's sort of about the lens through which you view what's happening. I view the mobile opportunity, even today in its broadest sense, and in the future, as being richer.
First, I want to be able to be present on every mobile endpoint. That's a very explicit core goal. It's not (just) the notion of having our application endpoints, Skype, Outlook, Wunderlist, Sunrise, on every one of the two billion devices. We want to have Microsoft experiences, because to me that's a platform play. It's not like, oh, they're just application endpoints. Guess what is behind those applications? It's One Cloud. It's Office 365, either for the consumer or for the enterprise. There's MSA (Microsoft Account) in there.
So to me it's very important to think of our operating system more broadly than some old definition of an operating system. So we want to be in every device, not only have our application endpoints on every device. I want the identity management. It's not MSA alone, it's Azure Active Directory. It is managing those devices, securing those devices in terms of data protection. These are all core capabilities that we have.
Then on top of that, to me, one of the great structural pieces is we don't have with Windows is this problem of Mac OS/iOS. I'm not in some quest to say let me try and replicate Mac OS and iOS or iOS and Mac OS. We don't have the Chrome versus Android. We are Windows, from Raspberry Pi to HoloLens. And when you saw the demo of HoloLens today, to me it's part of my mobility strategy. When the person was using Autodesk and Maya on the desktop and just moved to a 3D model and interacted, they weren't using their phone.
If anything, one big mistake we made in our past was to think of the PC as the hub for everything for all time to come. And today, of course, the high volume device is the six-inch phone. I acknowledge that. But to think that that's what the future is for all time to come would be to make the same mistake we made in the past without even having the share position of the past. So that would be madness.
Therefore, we have to be on the hunt for what's the next bend in the curve. That's what, quite frankly, anyone has to do to be relevant in the future. In our case, we are doing that. We're doing that with our innovation in Windows. We're doing that with features like Continuum. Even the phone, I just don't want to build another phone, a copycat phone operating system, even.
So when I think about our Windows Phone, I want it to stand for something like Continuum. When I say, wow, that's an interesting approach where you can have a phone and that same phone, because of our universal platform with Continuum, and can, in fact, be a desktop. That is not something any other phone operating system or device can do. And that's what I want our devices and device innovation to stand for.
Last week's announcement was not about any change to our vision and strategy, but for sure it was a change to our operating approach. The way we're going to go about it. I'm not going to launch a phone a day. I'm going to focus on a few phones that actually grab share that, in fact, showcase our uniqueness. When you have three percent share of that (phone market), but you also have a billion desktops, you have Xbox, you have innovation in HoloLens; you have Band. It's a graph. It's not any one node. It is the entirety of the device family. And I want to be able to think about our strategy, our innovation, and progress as one.
If anything, the thing that I'm signaling most to the investors, to the employees is let's stop this thing about trying to atomically dissect any one. They will all have a temporal current position and a future ambition. But it is one thing that we need to move on.
MJF: It sounds like you're saying that right now when people talk about "Windows mobile," (lowercase m), they only think it's the phone operating system. But you are saying it's much more than that. You're saying Windows mobile, going forward, is bigger?
NADELLA: That's why whenever I talk about Windows 10, I talk about mobility broadly across all of those devices. For sure there is a form factor today which is the below six or seven inches, which is powered by a very specific operating system instance of Windows 10, which is Windows Mobile. But what do you call that (device) when you use Continuum and then you're using applications on a big screen with a mouse and keyboard? It's Windows 10.
That's why I like to think about Windows 10 as not being bound to any one form factor. What is Alex (Kipman) doing with a HoloLens? It was a Windows 10 UAP (Universal App Platform). I think is what we need to do a better job of communicating.
In my case I have a Band. I have my phone. I have my Surface. I have my Surface Hub and I'll have a HoloLens. And that to me is all Windows 10. And I'll seamlessly move between all of these. I want the notifications to flow between all of these. I want my data and apps to flow between all of these things.
MJF: I saw (COO) Kevin Turner's mail about the moves you made last week, and he made a Surface analogy. He said now what we're doing with phone is more like what you're doing with Surface. Your phones are going to be more of like showcase devices for what Windows mobile can look like on a phone.
NADELLA: Correct. There's a little bit of a distinction because, in some sense, in the world of PCs, we are trying to create new categories like Surface did. Now every OEM has a two-in-one, which I celebrate, which is great. Surface Hub -- I'm sure next year there will be many OEMs with Surface Hub like devices. We will do HoloLens, and then, since the holographic computing platform is right there in Windows, there will be people who will build holographic computers beyond HoloLens. So I want all of that to happen.
If no OEM stands up to build Windows devices we'll build them. There will be Lumia devices. So I'm not afraid of saying, okay, it's all about the OEMs, or it's all about the ecosystem. It's about Windows. It is about the overall health of Windows and being grounded in any given day's reality, but having ambition of where the market is going versus being bound by current definitions.
MJF: Does that Surface analogy break down, though? Microsoft built Surface but there were still many other OEMs building successful Windows devices. But with Windows Phones phones, that's not the case, right?
NADELLA: We will do everything we have to do to make sure we're making progress on phones. We have them. Even today Terry (Myerson, the head of Windows and Devices) reinforced, again, yes, we will have premium Lumias coming this year.
If there are a lot of OEMs, we'll have one strategy. If there are no OEMs, we'll have one strategy. We are committed to having the phones in these three segments. And I think the operational details will become clear to people as they see it. I want people to evaluate us on the phones that we produce, but not the inside baseball -- what are we doing to produce -- because that should not be relevant to our broad consumers. It may be relevant to people like you who are critiquing us. That's okay. But what matters to me is what customers care.
MJF: I'm curious if you see last week's decisions around Windows Phone affecting your universal app strategy. Some believe that if Microsoft makes fewer Lumias -- and Microsoft is making more than 95 percent of all the Windows Phones in the market -- doesn't that kill, or at least weaken, your universal apps play, which is key to Windows 10? Why as a developer do I now want to build an app that runs on Windows Phone if there's going to be even fewer Windows Phones?
NADELLA: Universal Windows apps are going to be written because you want to have those apps used on the desktop. The reason why anybody would want to write universal apps is not because of our three percent share in phones. It's because a billion consumers are going to have a Start Menu, which is going to have your app. You start the journey there and take them to multiple places. Their app can go to the phone. They can go to HoloLens. They can go to Xbox. You talk to somebody like Airbnb. It might be more attractive, given our three percent share on phone, for them to actually build something for the desktop and for the Xbox.
And by the way, when we hook them on that, we have a phone app. This strategy is path dependent, which is a term I use that means where you start is not where you end up. And therein lies a lot of the nuance. The fundamental truth for developers is they will build if there are users. And in our case the truth is we have users on desktop.
Why then make all these changes to the Start Menu with Windows 10? It's not because I just want to bring back the old. It's because that's the best way to improve the liquidity our store. Windows 8 was great except that nobody discovered the store. In Windows 10, the store is right there and done in a tasteful way.
I want that to translate into success for our developers. That's what's going to get them to write to the phone. If anything, the free upgrade for Windows 10 is meant to improve our phone position. That is the reason why I made that decision. If somebody wants to know whether I'm committed to Windows Phone, they should think about what I just did with the free upgrade to Windows, rather than -- hey, I making four more phone models of value smart phones.
MJF: How does making Windows 10 free show that you're committed to Windows Phone? I'm not quite following that.
NADELLA: Because all of this comes down to how are you going to get developers to come to Windows. If you come to Windows, you are going to be on the phone, too. Even if you want to come to Windows because of HoloLens, you want to come to it because of Xbox, you want to come to the desktop, all those get you to the phone. It's not about let's do head-on competition. That will never work. You have to have a differentiated point of view.
MJF: I have a HoloLens question. I've heard that when you first saw HoloLens -- back when it was Project Fortaleza -- you said we need to expand this beyond just gaming. Where do you think the initial demand for HoloLens is going to be? Is it going to be more in gaming, or is it going to be more in business and research?
NADELLA: For sure in the first version, it's going to be more about developers and enterprise scenarios
I did buy Minecraft to create a new genre of gaming for mixed reality. We bought Minecraft for many reasons: because it's the number one PC app; it's the number one console app; it's the number one paid mobile app on iOS and Android. I wanted a hit game even for the new medium of mixed reality. And we will have that. Gaming will always be a scenario and there will be other entertainment broadly. But, with the V.1 of HoloLens, I want us to push a lot more of the enterprise usage.
In general Microsoft's approach will be always this dual-use focus, or this multi-focus. What we can uniquely do is bridge consumer to enterprise. That's in our DNA. That's why it's even in our mission statement of empowering people and organizations. I want every technology of ours to seek that out. In the HoloLens case, when I look at the interest, it's amazing how many are in hospitals, healthcare, retail. That's where I'm seeing the interest and we'll definitely go after it.
MJF: A question on partnerships. Since you've been the CEO, it feels like Microsoft is very different in how it's approaching partnerships. If you look at how (former CEO Steve) Ballmer dealt with companies like Salesforce and Adobe, and how you're dealing with them, it's very different. What is the difference in your philosophy here?
NADELLA: Microsoft, even during Steve's time and Bill's time, was a platform company. Rhetoric aside, and stylistic approaches aside, at the core I'm just doing what we have always done well. How many multi-billion-dollar software companies got built on top of Windows? Google wouldn't exist if they couldn't have built a browser for Windows, they couldn't have put toolbars on IE. We were the most open ecosystem on the planet ever.
We were always a platform company. I want us to be able to live that in our approach. That means Salesforce should extend Office, they should integrate, they should use Azure. Same thing with Dropbox, Box, Adobe. They should build great applications. It makes all the sense in the world for us to think about the construct fundamentally as non-zero sum. We may compete with many of these folks in some categories, but at the core we are a platform vendor. In fact, we have three platforms I like to talk about: Windows, Azure and Office. I like to think all three of these will be open for others to extend and, of course, we will construct them together.
MJF: In that vein and you're thinking about partnerships, do you think there's any hope you're going to have a partnership with Google where they build apps for Windows 10?
NADELLA: I would love to. It's for them to decide. I would love for them to have YouTube on Windows Phones. I would love for them to do their best work like they have with Chrome on Windows.
MJF: Is Microsoft actively talking with them about these things?
NADELLA: We'll talk to every developer. Some of these relationships with large players require a level of maturity, which I'm sure we will achieve with all players. I'm hopeful that there are more applications. After all, we now have our apps on Android, and that's good. And then we just hope that it's reciprocated and our users mutually benefit.
MJF: You just announced here at the show a new service and app called GigJam that seemingly creates a whole new application category. It crosses a lot of boundaries. I've heard you talk about Microsoft making fewer, bigger bets. So how does something like GigJam fit in here? Aren't you going off in a whole other non-established category?
NADELLA: It is about the core. It's one category. It's about productivity and business process. Think of it as a new module of Office 365. It's not bound to today's definitions of categories. It's not just a creation tool. It's not just a communications tool. It's not just a development tool. It's all of that. And it spans all devices. It's not bound to one device.
The notion is to be able to generate applications on the fly to adjust to the work that you're doing versus sending you off to five different apps, five different devices, and five different communications sessions. We brought all of that. That's a very revolutionary concept. If you think about the first time you saw Outlook, up to that point I had a contact management app, I had e-mail, and I had a calendar. Outlook took those three categories, came up with a new scaffolding, and since then, nobody has thought about these three things as separate on the desktop. So it's fewer, but big bets with growing addressable markets, not looking back.
MJF: We've heard stories about your decision that the Surface Mini -- that small, ARM-based tablet that nearly came to market last year -- was not differentiated enough, so you axed it. How do you decide what's differentiated enough when it comes to new devices?
NADELLA: What I want us to stand for is not have envy for somebody else's success. I want us to stand for what is it that we've done that customers actually care about. Why is this important for us to take to market? I actually don't even care as much about initial grand success in terms of volume or share. Does it meet a specific scenario that we have done very well for some set of plans? It's a shorthand for doing customer scenarios that are differentiated.
I want to be more customer-led. When we say customer-led, that doesn't mean just listen to customers about X and then do the same feature. It's about being able to anticipate what we can do to really differentiate their own lives. GigJam wouldn't have come from the thinking of let's look out there and see who is doing something.
That is how we created Microsoft. Nobody had done Visual Basic. Nobody had done Access. Nobody had done Outlook. We created categories or democratized categories. We either took something very complex and made it simple so that everyone in the world could adopt it, or created something where it didn't already exist -- where nobody came to us and said, this is what we want. Once we did it, everybody wanted it. That's the bar for devices and our software and services.
MJF: So back to phone, then. You've said one of the three categories of phones you want to make are "business phones." What's the differentiator for you there?
NADELLA: Businesses are actually the place where we're growing fastest among all our phone ones. Think about it. Some of the real (attraction) of Windows devices is management and security. The fact that your latest soccer app is not available, or some social networking app is not available is not much of an issue (in business scenarios). What matters to you is identity management, security, protection.
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. That's why we have something unique to contribute.
Those three segments, I picked them because we have something unique to contribute. For people who love Windows, we'll have a flagship device. It's not just a flagship device, but it also supports things like Continuum. For business customers, it's about custom apps they want to deploy onto those endpoints with management and security. For the value smart phone segment, I want to focus on where we can put Office and our communications and Skype, so it's more like a Skype and Office phone for the first time smart phone buyer. Those are places where I feel like, yes, that's a kind of uniqueness. Let's grow from there.
You've got to remember even the Apple regeneration started with colorful iMacs. So let us first get the colorful iMacs. I think with what we're doing with Lumia, we're at that stage. I want to do good devices that people like, and then we will go on to doing the next thing and the next thing.
MJF: Are you using a Windows Phone yourself?
NADELLA: Absolutely I do.
ZDNET: I heard you might use Talkman (one of the next expected premium Windows Phones) pretty soon.
NADELLA: I don't think I said that.
MJF: Not publicly, at least :)
NADELLA: This is the 830. Of course I'm using a Windows Phone, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to make sure that everyone I see with an iPhone here, I'm going to get them to download one of our apps. And that's our goal.
We had a CEO conference recently and I did a demo of all the things that we have on the iPhone so that they could all walk out with Wunderlist, and OneNote, and Outlook. By the way, Outlook client on the iPhone is the best Gmail client and the Exchange client on iOS. Now that to me also signals our mobility strategy.
MJF: So bottom line -- your mobility strategy is not just about phones.
NADELLA: It's about phones. It is about our apps on other end points. It is about EMS (Enterprise Mobility Suite). It is about new categories like HoloLens. In the full arc of time, that's what people really value. It's not about one mobile device that rules them all. That would be like saying there's one PC that's going to rule all as a hub. # # #
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
To: Eric L who wrote (144) | 7/15/2015 12:56:59 PM | From: Eric L | | | James Kendrick view of The Windows Phone (Windows 10 Mobile) Future ...
>> Yes, Windows Phone is well and truly dead
James Kendrick kOnTheRun
jkontherun.com
In spite of Windows Phone apologists, er, enthusiasts claiming that the phones from Microsoft aren’t going away, they might as well. The hardware, and thus the platform, is on life support.
The situation with Windows Phone reminds me of a space movie where the lone remaining crew member is walking on a barren landscape in some distant galaxy. A glance at the remaining oxygen level in the HUD shows it nearly in the critical red zone.
He gazes at the stars above and wonders how it would be if everything had gone according to plan, far-fetched though it was. Doesn’t matter anyway, the plan tanked and the end is drawing near. The sound of his breathing in the helmet reminds him that there’s not many breaths left to be drawn. He feels so cold and alone.
That’s how the situation with Windows Phone appears to me. The phones and soon after the platform will be going away, as there’s no reason for Microsoft to keep them around. Once it wrote off the Nokia purchase and laid off the thousands of remaining Nokia employees the writing was clearly on the wall.
“Windows Phone is not going anywhere!”
“Windows 10 Mobile will change everything!”
These are the reactions on enthusiast web sites to the Microsoft announcements about the phone business. You’ll also find the company’s claims to change tactics and aim Windows Phones at business, which hasn’t wanted them so far, and at enthusiasts, who are already its best (and only) customers.
Developers who continue working on Windows Phone apps, Windows 10 Mobile included, are crazy in my view. Who will buy your apps, not even Microsoft is behind your efforts.
Yes, Windows Phones are dead and Windows 10 Mobile will quietly fade away soon. The only thing you’ll hear in the helmet is the rasp of the final breath going in and out # # #
- Eric L. - |
| Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| |