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The war Microsoft should have won

medium.com

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Re: The war Microsoft should have won

#51

Post by tbyehl »

pjc50 wrote: post #30
mamurphy wrote: post #9

I think the article is a nice summary of why Microsoft lost, but it doesn't fulfill the promise of its title. "Should have won" implies that there were steps Microsoft should have taken to overcome the difficulties it faced. Let's explore some: Lack of vendor trust, not wanting to get locked in with Microsoft like PC-makers did. No easy solution there. Hampered by success of cash-cows like Windows/Office. Shouldn't M…

They had just the same opportunity to do mobile web as Apple - CE devices could run a real browser. Unfortunately, that browser was IE. I think Apple's real innovation was the App Store, combined with a usable (non-resistive) touchscreen. Prior to the App Store, it was remarkably hard to get apps onto phones. You were dependent on the mobile carrier, whose levels of customer gouging made Microsoft look like newbies.…

> The other problem was that the CE UI was not adapted for mobile

I had the AT&T flip-phone pictured in the article and it is my favorite phone ever. The CE shell and bundled apps for non-touch devices were extremely well adapted to the constraints. The one thing I remember well is that I could open it up, punch in 666, and besides showing dialing that as a number it would bring up a list of matching contacts to select from. 666 == MOM. I've never held another smartphone which did that.

Microsoft lost because their successful platform was a fantastic phone with so-so data features and the iPhone flipped the game around.

Re: The war Microsoft should have won

#52

Post by erikpukinskis »

awm17 wrote: post #24
pfarnsworth wrote: post #14

They lost because their ultimate strategy was "All Roads Lead to Windows." This is what handcuffed all their talented developers and product managers into creating extremely inferior products. The ones that had freedom from the Windows ecosystem, like X-Box, did relatively well in terms of competitiveness. Steve Ballmer was stuck in his dinosaur thinking and couldn't see the writing on the wall. The break away from t…

Microsoft hasn't really given up "All Roads Lead to Windows." They are pushing very hard in the VR/AR space for Windows to be the prime OS, partnering with Oculus, creating HoloLens, adding Windows Universal App support for AR devices. And XBox no longer has the independence it once had -- it must also run a standard offering of Windows.

If that's true, they're just going to get screwed in exactly the same way iPhone screwed them. Mobile VR is going to be substantially more popular than VR-plugged-into-a-giant-expensive-Windows-box. The subset of people who want to maintain a PC is dwindling. New-to-computing users basically go straight to mobile. Untethered VR is better for social (no cords to tangle, we each control our own device), and that's not even talking about what's going to happen when AR hits. AR tied to a PC makes zero sense outside of industrial uses.

Microsoft better have a dedicated VR-centered mobile skunkworks going, or they're just going to repeat this entire "Two Windows' In One!" fiasco all over again. Except now it's going to be three Windows'.

You know Apple does. They're going to come out swinging hard with dedicated VR hardware, a dedicated VR OS and I suspect dedicated VR silicon too. With some kind of VR Facetime, VR iMovie, and partnerships with some major iOS app makers. Samsung is already shipping. Microsoft is already struggling not to slip into 4th place, in terms of profit. And Valve is, for the first time, in a position to offer a complete Microsoft-free platform of their own. While Microsoft is trying to compete with Apple at their new game, Valve is gunning hard to out-Microsoft Microsoft at their old game (an open PC platform).

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