Huawei claims nobody made money off Windows Phone

[Bateluer]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/1/7316285/huawei-claims-nobody-made-any-money-in-windows-phone

In an interview with The Seattle Times, Huawei’s head of international media affairs, Joe Kelly, has revealed the company didn’t make money from its two handsets running Windows Phone, and that "nobody made any money in Windows Phone."

The bold statement comes just months after Microsoft made Windows Phone free for device manufacturers, and more than a year after Huawei previously described Windows Phone as "weak." Since then, Microsoft has also launched a web-based hardware partner portal alongside Windows Phone 8.1, allowing smaller device manufacturers, stores, and operators to create white-label Windows Phone devices with low specifications and low prices. Microsoft is trying to boost Windows Phone sales and usage through this and many other efforts.

Windows Phone hasn't passed ~3% market share.

 

[Zstream]

Look at Microsoft, again this is the third iteration of a service/os. You had 7.5, 8.1 & 10. Microsoft can't seem to get anything right until the third time. Goes with anything that they produce.



It's a strange concept to me and most consumers. Microsoft must change as we have competition in the enterprise and consumer markets but the company is slow, archaic and lacks the fundamentals in a 2014 consumer era.



I'll probably have to take this post back as windows 10 could be awesome but im tired of being a beta tester on real products.

 

[soccerballtux]

think of all the visual studio licenses they'd have if people had windows phones and not androids

 

[fr]

Can you lock the rotation on those phones yet?

 

[Zstream]

Can you lock the rotation on those phones yet?

Yep, that's actually on a really old release of 8. The latest version has a pull down notification and action centre, live lock screens etc.

 

[zokudu]

I'd say it's more of an issue with the Chinese market than with Windows Phone. No one outside of China wants a Huawei device and China doesn't want Windows Phone. Europe does like Windows Phone, probably because of Nokia but now that is drying up so who knows where Windows Phone will be in the future.

I hope Microsoft does well because I really like the platform and will purchase their next flagship device on AT&T, but I'm on an iPhone for now until one releases. My 920 was just too dated.

 

[notposting]

Some of the European markets have been over 10%, actually surpassing iPhone in sales numbers. Nokia WP's have been selling well in developing markets as well.

US/Canada sales suck. Crap marketing, carrier exclusives (that aren't promoted), etc, etc.

Maybe they should have more ads with people fucking dancing over the holidays to sell their stuff.

(their typical regression doesn't help either -- WP7 devices were close/on par with Zunes. WP8 took away wireless syncing, device backups, still didn't add gapless playback, had crap playlist support, and all sorts of buggy ass cloud/local storage issues and overwriting tag problems. Break up the system in WP8.1 for faster updates, regress the Music app back to alpha levels of quality. Change the interface, make performance terrible, rapidly introduce new bugs -- err, update the app, I mean -- STILL have no fucking gapless playback in 2014, have now added crackle playback, and they have now announced they are basically stopping development to go work on whatever abortion they will cock up for Windows 10, Mobile Edition 2015)

(I haven't updated any of my phones to WP8.1, of course two of them don't even have the update officially available, so yay fragmentation. Bitter WHS/MC/Zune/heavenknowswatelse/likelyWP sufferer. Microsoft should rename themselves MS90. As in they get 90% of the way on their products and then abandon them. /argh)

 

[gmaster456]

I like Windows Phone and would like to use it full time, but the app situation just isn't there. I don't care what anyone says. I've been using iOS since the beginning and Android since v.2.0. Once you are accustomed to getting any app you want on either platform without even having to think about it, it is hard to go back. I never have to worry if my Android phone supports a certain app, I just search it and there it is. Same with iOS. With Windows phone, I have to worry if it supports anything more than the major apps. And even then support for those is limited. For basic functions WP is great, such as texting, email, social media, phone GPS etc. But if you're an app user at all, I just find WP's app store to be a junk yard of sorts, filled with broken or poorly done 3rd party titles with a few first party apps sprinkled in. Things are getting better though, and it looks like business is starting to adopt WP more which is good.

 

[Commodus]

Huawei has said it before, but in a sense, he's right. Even Nokia (now Microsoft Mobile) hasn't had a lot of success with Windows Phone -- it gave the platform a lot of attention, but it wasn't a strong enough seller to offset the deaths of Symbian and basic phones.

For other manufacturers, it's not even that important; why devote a lot of attention to Windows Phone when Android already does many things just fine and makes you money? Companies like Huawei, HTC and Samsung only really make Windows Phones to lower their patent royalty payments to Microsoft, and they won't change their minds unless sales pick up in a big way. And frankly, I'm not sure that's going to happen in the current situation. You're not going to get people to switch platforms if your software is merely "good enough," or even a little bit better -- it has to be so dramatically improved that you'd be a fool to stick with what you're using now.

Basically, Microsoft needs an iPhone moment where it fundamentally rethinks the mobile experience, where Windows on phones is so much better that you don't have to spend much time explaining it. Until that happens, Windows isn't going to be a money-maker on mobile; it'll mostly appeal to either Microsoft loyalists or those few Anything But Apple types who don't go Android.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Sounds about right.

Good thing Microsoft bought Nokia, because they'll be the only ones making Windows phones soon (pretty much are now).

 

[notposting]

Basically, Microsoft needs an iPhone moment where it fundamentally rethinks the mobile experience, where Windows on phones is so much better that you don't have to spend much time explaining it. Until that happens, Windows isn't going to be a money-maker on mobile; it'll mostly appeal to either Microsoft loyalists or those few Anything But Apple types who don't go Android.

And they aren't. They are basically rolling back to Android-lite, losing a lot of the little things, doing the typical MS "one step forward, three steps back" tango.

:|

They had a vision -- but most of those people are gone and the rest, who knows?

 

[thilanliyan]

I've been using a Nokia 1020 for about a week now going from an HTC One M7. Some oddities I don't like...can't turn data on and off from the action center. I can turn Wifi on and off but not data...wth? And no 3rd party keyboards!!

Besides that annoyance, I use it mostly as a phone so no real problem with apps. The camera is MUCH better than the M7 of course.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Meh, the only reason WP still have tiny marketshare left was solely because of MS throwing the almost free Lumia 520/525s into the market before the wave of cheap but good wave of Android took over. Now that has happened WP is pretty much a goner.

 

[Bateluer]

With advertising; I hear adverts for the Lumia 635 every hour on the radio here. Its a budget phone, but seems like its getting a really heavy advertising push for the holidays.

 

[gmaster456]

Yeah you're right. I've seen 635's plastered everywhere. Especially on prepaid carriers.

 

[Zstream]

Bought a 635 for $39 this week. Great deal of you ask me.

 

[mmntech]

Windows Phone largely suffers from the same issues as the Zune. Came too late to the party with poor marketing, poor availability, and too much focus on the US market. Their flagship Lumina Icon isn't even available outside the United States. Even there, it's a carrier exclusive, which really limits the market.

Windows Phone has largely established itself as a mid to low end brand as a result. Off contract pricing puts it right into line with a lot of superior Android handsets like the Nexus and OnePlus One. There's very little differentiating the hardware from the competition. Nor does it have that cool factor that Apple and Samsung have established.

I'm not sure Microsoft knows exactly who they want to sell these phones to. Which is symptomatic of larger problems at the company. If they want to focus on low cost devices, take emerging markets by the bullhorns. Ultimately, it's going to be a rough ride. They first need to get a marketing team that knows phones, then get them in sync with the developers. Tweak the branding. Maybe even change the name. Like Apple, focus on their own hardware ecosystem instead of licensing it out. Microsoft may even have to subsidize porting of popular apps to the platform. Open up the API up to indies and really push app development on the platform.

I do thing Windows Phone has potential, it's the business side of things that has to change. They're in a better situation than BlackBerry because at least they do have money to burn. It's going to take serious investment to make this thing a success.

 

[dagamer34]

Windows Phone largely suffers from the same issues as the Zune. Came too late to the party with poor marketing, poor availability, and too much focus on the US market. Their flagship Lumina Icon isn't even available outside the United States. Even there, it's a carrier exclusive, which really limits the market.

Windows Phone has largely established itself as a mid to low end brand as a result. Off contract pricing puts it right into line with a lot of superior Android handsets like the Nexus and OnePlus One. There's very little differentiating the hardware from the competition. Nor does it have that cool factor that Apple and Samsung have established.

I'm not sure Microsoft knows exactly who they want to sell these phones to. Which is symptomatic of larger problems at the company. If they want to focus on low cost devices, take emerging markets by the bullhorns. Ultimately, it's going to be a rough ride. They first need to get a marketing team that knows phones, then get them in sync with the developers. Tweak the branding. Maybe even change the name. Like Apple, focus on their own hardware ecosystem instead of licensing it out. Microsoft may even have to subsidize porting of popular apps to the platform. Open up the API up to indies and really push app development on the platform.

I do thing Windows Phone has potential, it's the business side of things that has to change. They're in a better situation than BlackBerry because at least they do have money to burn. It's going to take serious investment to make this thing a success.

The Lumia Icon is the Lumia 930 outside the US.

 

[IamDavid]

Not sure the fascination people have with the success or failure of Windows Phone. I personally switched to WP @7.5 and used both Android and IOS alongside. I've recently went to 100% WP and couldn't be happier. Do I care about vendors of MS making money? No. Don't care, never will. Do I want the best device possible for the best price? Absolutely! Will devices be better with 2 or 3 OS's competing for market share? 3 of course.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Not sure the fascination people have with the success or failure of Windows Phone.

Because getting blocked out of mobile market share threatens MS's future.

 

[Zstream]

Because getting blocked out of mobile market share threatens MS's future.

Yep, the future of Windows as a mainstream OS is dependant on it.



We can all put blinders on but sooner or later your phone WILL be your desktop/laptop/phone. It might take 5-10 years to get there but it's coming. This is why Windows 10 runs on arm and x86 with all devices being supported. In addition to the OS, consumers are now being locked into to an ecosystem I.e., itune store, google play, Microsoft etc.



If Microsoft doesn't adapt, it will be left to software services such as OneDrive, office and enterprise OS'. Eventually OneDrive and office will be commodities, leaving enterprise software as the sole revenue.



Just my predictions. You can see storage services already being commoditized and now pages (apple) is working on their own office version.