How Microsoft Missed The Next Big Thing
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Mon 13th Dec 2010 23:11 UTC
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless It's hard to predict the future because we humans prefer to think in terms of familiar paradigms. Even the most brilliant of our species are subject to this flaw. Now, Microsoft faces its turn. The owner of the operating system that likely runs your personal computer, the company that achieved monopoly with Windows and ducked the Department of Justice's scythe to keep it, faces a midlife crisis as the world goes gaga over portable consumer devices. This is the story of what's happening to Microsoft in the handheld operating system markets -- and how it parallels the earlier, similar journeys of IBM Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation. Can Microsoft achieve dominance on mobile devices?
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lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

Is that people overall don't have much of an appreciation for it as a brand. Google and Apple are both loved by many many followers and have earned the respect of the public by creating excellent products. Microsoft managed, with a lot of effort, to produce Windows 7, which isn't really "loved" but mainly seen in a positive light after compared to Vista. I mean, people does not use Windows / Office because they love them, but because it's compatible with what everyone else uses, so it's not a surprise if other Microsoft branded products don't feel "attractive"... after all one does not associate them with "cool", even if there is nothing wrong with them..


I think there is another issue entirely which has very little to do with the concept of "brand".

This issue is perhaps best explained by Peruvian Congressman's Dr Edgar David Villanueva Núñez rebuttal to Microsoft FUD in 2002.
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.htm...
To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.

To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.

To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties.


My bold.

The "battle" in mobiles at the moment is perhaps best framed as the battle between the closed iPhone/AppStore ecosystem versus the more open Android ecosystem. Which of these will win?

Certainly, in therms of the points raised by Dr Edgar David Villanueva Núñez, Android is preferable over the iPhone OS.

If Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 offers only another "iPhone OS" style closed ecosystem, it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, does it?

Regardless of branding differences.

Edited 2010-12-14 02:24 UTC

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