Microsoft to Shed Up To 7,800 Jobs, Mostly in Phone Business

[silvarios]

vicrock wrote:
The biggest problem they seem to have is that they see something that Apple has success with, and then try to do the same - and it is never as good.

Seems like they need to start innovating on their own instead of trying to ride someone else's coattails!

The first Windows Mobile devices with phone functionality date back to the early 2000s. Similarly, Samsung, another common target for the copying Apple crowd, had both MP3 phones and smart phones back when Apple was just releasing the iPod. If anything Apple has been consistently behind the curve when it comes to hitting markets. Doesn't mean Apple hasn't brought innovation or had good devices, but they haven't been first for years.

[silvarios]

D. Lawson wrote:
I'm quite content with the Windows Phone experience and price-to-performance ratio, and have been for a couple of years. It clearly isn't for everyone, but the FUD surrounding the capabilities of the platform is pretty tiresome...not unlike the FUD surrounding a certain computer company that had a ~3% market share a couple of decades ago.

Yeah, Windows Phone is pretty decent. I don't necessarily care if the platform continues, but I want some options

[silvarios]

MGS_forgot_password wrote:
They bought Nokia's phone division. Nokia's still around and doing ok. (not great, but nobody in that industry is)

I thought Nokia was doing pretty well in network communications, no? Been a while since I checked their financials, but things looked better in many ways after the phone business spinoff.

[Speedy]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=vicrock]
The biggest problem they seem to have is that they see something that Apple has success with, and then try to do the same - and it is never as good.

Seems like they need to start innovating on their own instead of trying to ride someone else's coattails!

The first Windows Mobile devices with phone functionality date back to the early 2000s. Similarly, Samsung, another common target for the copying Apple crowd, had both MP3 phones and smart phones back when Apple was just releasing the iPod. If anything Apple has been consistently behind the curve when it comes to hitting markets. Doesn't mean Apple hasn't brought innovation or had good devices, but they haven't been first for years.
Never first, just better.

[silvarios]

Speedy wrote:
[quote=silvarios]
[quote=vicrock]
The biggest problem they seem to have is that they see something that Apple has success with, and then try to do the same - and it is never as good.

Seems like they need to start innovating on their own instead of trying to ride someone else's coattails!

The first Windows Mobile devices with phone functionality date back to the early 2000s. Similarly, Samsung, another common target for the copying Apple crowd, had both MP3 phones and smart phones back when Apple was just releasing the iPod. If anything Apple has been consistently behind the curve when it comes to hitting markets. Doesn't mean Apple hasn't brought innovation or had good devices, but they haven't been first for years.
Never first, just better.
Sure, that's a perfectly valid narrative to debate. As you note, while Apple may offer an arguably better device/service, it still doesn't explain how someone copy Apple when they were already in the market before Apple? Are Rhapsody and Spotify copying Apple with Apple Music?

Honestly, I think Microsoft was in a better place in mobile when they worked hard to make partnerships with the phone manufacturers themselves and not when the tried to directly compete by buying Sidekick, destroying Sidekick, releasing the Kin (a featurephone at smartphone prices that was likely no better than the Sidekick and had far less brand recognition), and then buying Nokia's phone division.

As a pretty heavy user of Nokia phones, I never made the conversion to Windows Phone. Largely because I was absolutely livid about the N9 being DOA, and not available in the USA to boot, and then later as a protest against software patent extortion. However, as all that slips into the history books, I do find Windows Phone to be an interesting platform. One that would do better with some more partners.

[D. Lawson]

silvarios wrote:
the Kin (a featurephone at smartphone prices that was likely no better than the Sidekick and had far less brand recognition)

The Kin was actually based on Windows CE, but wasn't a true smartphone by any means (and had no user-installable apps), and the initial decision to require a data plan for all of the "social" stuff was a disastrous choice. They later revamped the OS to remove all of the "social" stuff and make it more of a feature phone with Wi-Fi (keeping the browser and mail client, which were more robust than anything you find on a BREW-based feature phone even to this day), something which should have been done out of the gate. It was, of course, too little and too late, but I have a soft spot for the thing (the revamped "m" version, at least) just the same.

You are correct that both Kin models were considerably more crippled than the most recent Sidekick models preceding them.

[silvarios]

D. Lawson wrote:
[quote=silvarios]
the Kin (a featurephone at smartphone prices that was likely no better than the Sidekick and had far less brand recognition)

The Kin was actually based on Windows CE, but wasn't a true smartphone by any means (and had no user-installable apps), and the initial decision to require a data plan for all of the "social" stuff was a disastrous choice. They later revamped the OS to remove all of the "social" stuff and make it more of a feature phone with Wi-Fi (keeping the browser and mail client, which were more robust than anything you find on a BREW-based feature phone even to this day), something which should have been done out of the gate. It was, of course, too little and too late, but I have a soft spot for the thing (the revamped "m" version, at least) just the same.

You are correct that both Kin models were considerably more crippled than the most recent Sidekick models preceding them.
Great info. Thanks.