Why did Microsoft fail with smartphones?

[desura]

Windows phone was pretty cool when it launched back in like 2012. My first smartphone was a windows phone and I liked it a lot.

What went wrong?

1. They pushed Bing way too much. The search button on windows phones are useless because all it does is launch the Bing app. The search button really should launch an in-app search, and I believe at first it did do this.

2. They did not have a good desktop client. Windows Phone 7 had the Zune Desktop which was pretty good, better than itunes IMO, but the windows phone 8 desktop sucked.

3. No good platform lockin. One big reason to stick with iOS is all your contacts are there, and you can pick up where you left off in safari. Windows Phone AFAIKT did not do any such lock in, or, all they did was dependent on IE and did not extend to Chrome or firefox.

4. No marketing.

5. No big 3rd party apps.

 

[deathBOB]

They just didn't move fast enough and they weren't consistent with their direction.

 

[Commodus]

Microsoft will get back into the game in early 2017.

3 Steps to relevance:
1) Purchase Sprint or anther national carrier.
2) Roll out Surface phones
3) Leverage Office 365 and phone business together to offer a truly killer enterprise phone option.

End result could be too good for any mid to large size corporation to pass up. Once the user base expands app developement will take off.

All this could be done for less than Balmer wasted on Nokia.

Think you're being more than a little optimistic.

First: it's probably not going to buy a carrier. That would easily cost over $10 billion... and Sprint is off the table, since SoftBank acquired it not long ago. What would Microsoft do, anyway? Push Windows phones a little more? It's not going to make any money if it doesn't sell Android phones and iPhones. Microsoft would be better-off pouring that money into phone design or paying major developers to bring all their apps to Windows 10 Mobile for life.

The Surface phone (assuming it launches) isn't a magic bullet. Part of why the Surface Pro eventually became popular was that it's ultimately a computer, where Windows still has the lion's share of the market and plenty of software. Unless the Surface phone is a fundamental leap forward in phone tech, it'll be yet another flagship... just without apps.

Office 365 works just fine on iOS and Android, and it's not clear that Microsoft will get much through special Windows-only features or discounts (Continuum can only do so much, at least right now). Besides, this isn't Ballmer's Microsoft -- Nadella is happy to put the best features on other platforms if he thinks they'll help.

 

[Artdeco]

Buy Cyannogen, fork Android, allow side loading, open up an App Store, cultivate the sh1t out of it, pay the major app developers to participate in the store. Promise to support/update their phones for 2 years. Pander to the early adopters to get their product(s) in people's hands, unlocked boot loader, liberal warranty, exceptional tech support.

Develop Surface phones/tablets in parallel.

A low margin Android phone would keep the factories running, and establish working relationships with them, and give them some credibility in the sector, right now, there's 0 faith in a MS phone. And it would be a nice middle finger to Google.

 

[Strk]

Microsoft will get back into the game in early 2017.

3 Steps to relevance:
1) Purchase Sprint or anther national carrier.
2) Roll out Surface phones
3) Leverage Office 365 and phone business together to offer a truly killer enterprise phone option.

End result could be too good for any mid to large size corporation to pass up. Once the user base expands app developement will take off.

All this could be done for less than Balmer wasted on Nokia.

MS just missed the mark so many times. They forever to get decent, non-carrier exclusive phones out. They now have some nice low-end devices and the 950/950xl are really nice, but it is 2016. The iPhone is what, a decade old at this point? The Droid/Galaxy (I'd say those two are what really let Android take off) aren't came out only a few years later. MS is still not wanting to play nice with everyone, although they are doing way better than they ever were with that.

I'm not saying I would never go with a Windows Phone, but it would be hard to get me off of Android.

 

[sm625]

This is why:

People dont want to deal with that on a phone.

And no, it doesnt matter if they replaced all that with this:

 

[Ketchup]

Eh, everything crashes at some point (even iOS crashes. Of course, their crashes always blame a "3rd party.")

Anybody with an Android will recognize a screen like this:

 

[Crono]

Eh, everything crashes at some point (even iOS crashes. Of course, their crashes always blame a "3rd party.")

Anybody with an Android will recognize a screen like this:

Yeah, I think people forgot how bad Android used to be pre ICS and Jelly Bean. It was pretty buggy and slow, especially on old hardware. I didn't even consider switching to Android until the UI was smooth and battery life was decent on LTE devices. I think right after Krait-based Snapdragon phones with 2GB RAM running Jelly Bean started releasing (2012) is when I considered using Android at least for a secondary device.

Got the Nexus 7 (had a Amazon Kindle Fire prior to that) when it launched and then the HTC One M7 after launch the following year. I switched back and forth between Android and Windows Phone a few times since I love to try new devices, but I've pretty much given up on Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile... at least for now. If Microsoft makes a solid commitment to a Surface Phone or something along that line, I'll think about switching back.

The thing that really drove me away from Windows Phone/Mobile is how Microsoft screwed up Zune/Xbox Music. Before Spotify it was the best streaming music service (and with 10 mp3s to keep a month) and one of the reasons I bought into Windows Phone at all.

 

[Commodus]

This is why:

People dont want to deal with that on a phone.

And no, it doesnt matter if they replaced all that with this:

That's something of an oversimplification, but it does tie into what I was talking about with Ballmer's overvaluation of Windows.

"It's Windows! You automatically like that, right?" Er, no. For many people, Windows is synonymous with complexity, crashes, viruses... work. Whether or not those have been true for a while, it's hard to sell someone on a phone that reminds them of the crappy PC they're forced to use in Accounts Receivable.

 

[elitejp]

I don't know anyone who thinks windows is crappy or buggy outside of people who like to talk on a forum and just straight up like complaining.
I think windows phone never took off because they never released anything new. When I first bought one it was the same phone but you had your choice of who made it. Years would go by and no new phone would be on the market.
I really don't care if the app store has over a million apps and every app having hundreds to choose from. But when banking apps and dslr control apps etc weren't even participating in the windows app marketplace then I didn't have a choice but leave.
It always struck me as strange that windows should be the easiest system of all to develop apps for yet some very basic apps are missing.

 

[Commodus]

I don't know anyone who thinks windows is crappy or buggy outside of people who like to talk on a forum and just straight up like complaining.
I think windows phone never took off because they never released anything new. When I first bought one it was the same phone but you had your choice of who made it. Years would go by and no new phone would be on the market.
I really don't care if the app store has over a million apps and every app having hundreds to choose from. But when banking apps and dslr control apps etc weren't even participating in the windows app marketplace then I didn't have a choice but leave.
It always struck me as strange that windows should be the easiest system of all to develop apps for yet some very basic apps are missing.

I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but the point is that Windows doesn't have much cachet to it. It's utilitarian, it holds no special value unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft fan.

There were plenty of new phones... it's just that some of them never reached key countries, and what did show up was frequently inconsistent or locked behind exclusives. Phone X doesn't get any kind of sequel until 2 years later, or nothing at all; phone Y is awesome, but it's only on one carrier unless you buy unlocked.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Windows phone was pretty cool when it launched back in like 2012. My first smartphone was a windows phone and I liked it a lot.

What went wrong?

1. They pushed Bing way too much. The search button on windows phones are useless because all it does is launch the Bing app. The search button really should launch an in-app search, and I believe at first it did do this.

Couldn't agree more with this. It was contextual. And devs were building it into apps. Then they changed the record, for whatever stupid reason. And apps had to be changed again. it was annoying. Still is, seeing how bing app on W10M is just a awful, terrible disgusting web wrapper.

2. They did not have a good desktop client. Windows Phone 7 had the Zune Desktop which was pretty good, better than itunes IMO, but the windows phone 8 desktop sucked.

Zune was awful as well. For the life of me, I never ever figured out how to avoid duplicates, or create photo albums or playlists. It looked awesome, but from UX it was a disaster.
They should have had file explorer and drag'n'drop.

 

[Anon_lawyer]

Speaking of Microsoft's phone business: "Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to streamline the company’s smartphone hardware business, which will impact up to 1,850 jobs. As a result, the company will record an impairment and restructuring charge of approximately $950 million, of which approximately $200 million will relate to severance payments."

http://news.microsoft.com/2016/05/2...re-business/#sm.0000139fmwo1xlei0vjyd76u5lec1

 

[Artdeco]

Speaking of Microsoft's phone business: "Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to streamline the company’s smartphone hardware business, which will impact up to 1,850 jobs. As a result, the company will record an impairment and restructuring charge of approximately $950 million, of which approximately $200 million will relate to severance payments."

http://news.microsoft.com/2016/05/2...re-business/#sm.0000139fmwo1xlei0vjyd76u5lec1

Damn, they should have just taken the $ they spent on Nokia and had a bonfire, what a mess.

 

[luv2liv]

so now it's a good time to buy MS phones for dirt cheap right?
is there any phone that has OIS, 1080p 60fps, or shoots 4k under $100? heheh

 

[Commodus]

Zune was awful as well. For the life of me, I never ever figured out how to avoid duplicates, or create photo albums or playlists. It looked awesome, but from UX it was a disaster.
They should have had file explorer and drag'n'drop.

I don't know about needing file explorer and the like, but I'm always baffled at how some people insist that the Zune app was the best thing ever and it would surely have doomed iTunes if only more people were aware of it.

No, it wasn't, and it wouldn't! It looked good, but there were times where it wasn't clear how to do some standard things, like jumping between play modes. I remember having to occasionally restart the app simply because there was no clear way to get back to the view I wanted. iTunes has been overburdened for a while, but at least its local music browsing has always been relatively direct.

 

[Gunbuster]

oh let me count the ways.

1: Little investment in original winmo
2: F-those winmo users, Windows phone 7!
3: F-those WP7 users, WP8!
4: F-those WP8 users, WM10!
5: F-all WP8 and WM10 users we stalled the hardware pipeline and had ZERO phones on carriers when 2 year contracts were up.
6: WM10 is a hot mess
7: The Lumia 950 twins were uninspiring plastic heaps priced wayyyyy too high.
8: Failure to leverage any WP7, WP8, WM10 assets in automotive infotainment (they could have owned this space)
9: Never sucked up to store salespeople, should have showered them in handsets and merch. instead 95% of sales peoplle would dog on the Windows Handset.
10: Got screwed with by Verizon, let themselves get bent over to produce f'd up exclusive models.
11: Sold gimped handsets with low storage and no Qi on the whim of ATT.
12: Feature parity with iOS and Android often years behind. Then would be reset with a new set of lacking features when they did a clean start on WP8 and WM10.
13: "Coming Soon™" "Coming Soon™" "Coming Soon™" Features, Apps, Handsets, Carrier OS updates, accessories, all a constant stream of don't worry, that's "Coming Soon™"
14: Trained customers NEVER to buy a handset at launch with a track record of poor MSRP control. No one is going to drop $700 when they know a buy one get one, or fire-sale discount is around the corner or that $30 Lumia 640 is out there.

 

[Artdeco]

so now it's a good time to buy MS phones for dirt cheap right?
is there any phone that has OIS, 1080p 60fps, or shoots 4k under $100? heheh

I wonder if you can put Android on any of them... Hmmm... Wanders off to XDA...

LOL, the reviews are all bad "Windows 10 Mobile is a hot mess."

 

[Red Storm]

They might have had a chance if they acted sooner, but like Intel they did not foresee mobile becoming as big as it has. And for some reason Microsoft assumes that everyone loves Windows.

 

[blankslate]

Too little too late.

their initial phone OS was meh.

by the time it became good most mobile app developers became used to making apps for iOS or Android or both.


_______________

 

[Artdeco]

Too little too late.

their initial phone OS was meh.

by the time it became good most mobile app developers became used to making apps for iOS or Android or both.


_______________

I missed the part where "hot mess" = good.

The advocates kept saying, wait for the next OS update, and the updates kept getting worse.

 

[Torn Mind]

Yeah, I think people forgot how bad Android used to be pre ICS and Jelly Bean. It was pretty buggy and slow, especially on old hardware. I didn't even consider switching to Android until the UI was smooth and battery life was decent on LTE devices. I think right after Krait-based Snapdragon phones with 2GB RAM running Jelly Bean started releasing (2012) is when I considered using Android at least for a secondary device.

Got the Nexus 7 (had a Amazon Kindle Fire prior to that) when it launched and then the HTC One M7 after launch the following year. I switched back and forth between Android and Windows Phone a few times since I love to try new devices, but I've pretty much given up on Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile... at least for now. If Microsoft makes a solid commitment to a Surface Phone or something along that line, I'll think about switching back.

The thing that really drove me away from Windows Phone/Mobile is how Microsoft screwed up Zune/Xbox Music. Before Spotify it was the best streaming music service (and with 10 mp3s to keep a month) and one of the reasons I bought into Windows Phone at all.

I bought a refurb gen 1 Nexus 7 with Android 4.2. First thing I did was install an update to the OS. The screwed me up because the install botched itself and I had to use my PC to load up the old OS through software and googling. Now, I NEVER install updates any Android device, even simple security ones because I'm not wasting my time until I have plenty of free time to burn, which I don't have now and might not for a while. I got a ZTE Speed smartphone, and I'm not pushing that button because I don't want to go through that again.

 

[Muse]

While I won't go that far, I do think that WP still has the greatest potential of all 3. If a Surface gets announced, I will pay close attention.

Saw info today that Surface phone could happen in 2016, myself I'm clueless about it.

Now, I read today in the paper and ink SF Chronicle I get that MS has just announced major layoffs in its mobile staff, just gutting what they were trying to do after the Nokia acquisition.

Dang, I just replaced my first smartphone (Nokia Lumia 520) with my second, MS Lumia 640. I thought the 520 was cheap at $60, but the 640 seemed super cheap at $30! Myself, I don't miss Facebook on mobile, I barely use it on my Windows 7 desktop.

Just got email today, linking to From bad to worse: The sad reality about Windows Phones which considerably mirrors a lot of the article I read today in the paper.

I like my 640, it supports a 120GB microSD card, AFAIK iPhones don't support external storage at all, a complete show stopper for me. AFAIK, a move to Android would be no piece of cake, I don't expect to be glad to do that. I'm hoping I don't have to do that...

I'm still waiting for Windows 10 support for my 640 on AT&T network, not sure it's gonna happen, that would be a promise broken. Maybe I'll just go ahead and get it through the Windows Insider program.

 

[Artdeco]

The constant broken promises is what killed me, promise the moon, and deliver a rusty Edsel...

What's the VP coming back to? An empty office building?

 

[tidy]

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