I find it hilarious how every year is the year when "NO 1 WILL BUY THIS LOL LINUX FTW! M$ ARE DONE FOR"-type of comments come about every time Microsoft makes a big business decision. People underestimate them far too much.
The word you are looking for is not underdog, it is irrelevant. MS is irrelevant (to personal computing) in the same way that IBM is irrelevant. They will continue to make enterprise money, they will continue to update zOS, hell they'll continue to produce POWER9 CPUs which are very nice chips for their target market. But they will have very little relevance to anything I personally buy.
So it will be with MS. At the same time that Apple and Google are girding up for "Mobile Wars 2: The Wearening", MS has basically admitted they couldn't even compete in Mobile Wars 1. If they have any plan for the PERSONAL side of such future markets as HomeKit and HealthKit address, they've kept them pretty damn secret.
MS used to (and for all I know still does) power parts of Apple's network infrastructure like the iTunes store. They can provide BACKENDS to things like HealthKit. But I don't see their consumer facing side as growing. (Which means I don't see what they think the endgame is for providing Cortana or Bing for iPhone and Android --- there's no money in running those as services.)
And something no-one has mentioned --- what happens to the grand plans, announced two months ago, to be able to essentially just recompile your apps against MS libraries and mostly have a working MS phone version of you Android/iOS app?
Personal bias and choices should not blind oneself to the reality, Microsoft still has 90% Global marketshare in Desktop, laptops space and the growth rate may have slowed down but still almost everyone buys and uses a PC, so your first sentence "MS is irrelevant (to personal computing)" is just a pipe dream.
And regarding recompiling of Android and ios apps, it is on the way as announced earlier, Windows 10 mobile is under insiders preview now and should launch in September or October along with all the said features.
"recompiling of Android and ios apps" is also a pipe dream. Many players in the computer industry have tried this exercise before (nothing revolutionary about it). It could many years (if it ever works) to get Android and iOS apps to work *acceptably* under Windows 37 (27 versions after 10!). By then, the world will have moved on a few times.
This shows your ignorance about the platform you hate, Recompiling of ios and android apps is already a reality, Candy crush game in Windows Phone store is a recompiled ios app and the performance is so good that people didn't even notice it on low-end phones running on Snapdragon 400, those same tools will be available to all Developers with Windows 10.
I can confirm that Candy Crush runs great on slow hardware, despite actually being recompiled from the iOS codebase. Tested it on an old Lumia 822. I hope more developers take advantage of this for Win10 and make Universal Apps out of them too.
I have to agree with your "personal bias" remarks and I am a Linux software engineer. Evolution is normally a function of economics as an offset to new capability (you get this at what price). The cost of corporate migration combined with human short term thinking/planning usually provides enough inertia to discourage any wholesale changes.
I also think that their core business - being so deep into corporate/government/... is much safer than anything Apple and Android can even dream about. If any of those two runs out of fashion, they will suffer a lot. MS cannot run out of fashion - MS was never in fashion. But while replacing MS Servers and services is possible in theory, effort required to do complete IT infrastructure resurrection is so huge it is all but impossible in real life. They have managed to elevate (at least) that level of their offerings a necessity, while iPhones, iPads and Android gadgets are still just a commodity, and fancy as they are, they are still much easier to swap with the next best thing, should such products emerge.
Re Windows phones. I believe that decentralization of MS in the past has caused them to be unable to play on their best cards, but I also think that new CEO just might change that. With some thinking and, maybe, iron hand, MS can make Windows phone much more attractive to everyone who is using Windows PC at work and/or at home, by creating platform with in-house integration that Apple and Google cannot reach, being outsiders. They have failed to maximize on that opportunity under Balmer, but even as is, Windows phone does move close to 40 million units a year, which is at least sustainable if not runaway success, and something worth building upon. We can think of it as MSs "hobby", such as AppleTV and AppleWatch are for Apple.
I think that Win phone is here to stay. They might have missed opportunity to make it into Windows PC equivalent in mobile world, but they will grow to competitive levels in following years. they have money, they have patience, they have tech and patents... and they don't have anywhere else to go on laptop/desktop/server markets, being at the top already.
I just hope they will significantly reduce number of Lumia SKUs available. One Lumia 5xx, one Lumia 7xx and one Lumia 9xx should be all that is required each year.
It'd be sad to see them back away from the phone market, tho it does seem like they have a glut of low end & midrange models. To me it seemed like there was still room for a third player, and they clearly have the capital to sustain it, seems maybe investors don't care for that. As an Android user, WP was always more appealing than iOS...
Not sure why... As an iOS and Android user, I would pick MS last. The advantage of iOS is ease of use, stability, and a slightly better app support over Android. The advantage of Android is better hardware options, and more customization. Moving to Microsoft is taking the worst of both worlds. Poor App support in a locked system, with limited hardware options.
There's still more choice of hardware than with iOS (or there was before WP started fading into obscurity and Apple started selling phones in more than one size), and the OS itself straddled the line in a similar way. Glass half full half empty I guess... I've used iOS plenty too FWIW (at work and via an iPod touch).
Poor phone selection, poor carrier adoption, and no apps.
AT&T is basically the exclusive carrier for Nokia. You can get one unlocked for T-mobile. Last I checked the only WinMo phone T-mobile carried was the HTC 8XT. Verizon and Sprint don't seem to have any WinMo phones in their stores.
But even if you buy that bad-ass Lumia 930 on AT&T, outside of the Tier-1 apps, there's nothing. Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Office, yes.
Tapatalk, Google Maps, and accessory support are the real problem for me. There is no smartwatch support unless you get that funky Microsoft band and I am a watch person.
I use HERE maps and it works pretty darn well. I love having the entire country offline like a dedicated GPS. Those who insist on Google maps or bust will literally be impossible to please in any way shape or form, so there's no point there. Even if you had every other necessary app. Google is locking people in almost as well as Apple these days. Anyway, regarding Tapatalk? Been on the platform for a while now. Heck nowadays Tapatalk has a newer Universal app that works on Windows Phone as well as other versions of Win8, and that extends to Win10 on multiple form factors. The "No app" argument is increasingly fading for typical use, but that won't stop it from getting regurgitated ad nauseam by carrier sales personnel.
Regarding smartwatches... still a niche product, I think. I'm not even interested in something like the MS Band at this point. Personally I wear a Seiko non-smart watch with synthetic sapphire and have minimal interest in a watch I have to plug in often. Maybe when someone comes out with a really nice next-gen e-ink model that lasts for a week? Needs to resist scratches - I'd settle for GG3+. Frankly I'd have to disable any sort of text message notifications on one immediately because I really don't want incoming messages displayed publicly (especially while at work). Just my opinion, obviously, and no offense to those who can't live without smartgear.
I do miss street view on Here maps on occasion (I don't think they have any street view here in NZ), but in general they work great, country-wide offline cashing is excellent, speed limits are accurate. Do Google Maps show speed limits in SatNav mode, these days? I was told by Android using friends they don't, but that was some time ago.
You know... I used iPhones for a bit over 4 years, from late 2009 till early 2014. I had 3Gs all that time as my personal phone and got 4s later on.
I replaced my personal iPhone phone with Lumia 920 (which was already a year on the market and very affordable), while my wife remained on iPhone with 5s. I guess beauty is in the eye of beholder... but much as my eyes go, I enjoy Win Phone a lot, and would not consider returning to iPhone. Eventually, early this year I have chosen Lumia 830 as my new work phone. Looking at my wife's experience - her 5s had more issues along the way than my Lumia 920. Nothing major, but a few more freezes, more rogue apps going crazy in the background and discharging battery in a few hours - my Lumia was rock-solid, and even being 3 years old, all the updates I have received through Preview for Developers were working great, not crippling my phone's performance like it happened back in 3Gs days.
Hardware options in Win phone are badly formed, I must agree with that. Gazillion of SKUs on low-end, mostly differing in name but not in specs in any meaningful way, while high end was well overdue. New flagship rumors look promising, and I hope they will be followed with reduction on low-end offerings, resulting in not more than 3 units every year - single low, mid and high-end models.
Re the software. This is the shady area. I don't game on phones and mostly use core apps - sms, mail, calendar, FB, weather, maps/satnav... and those, among others, are well executed on Win phone. For those who do crave to play latest Destiny Sword and whatnot, or need speciffic app that lives somewhere else... well... one shoe doesn't fit everyone.
Microsoft is not backing away from the phone market, they are just trimming the lineup down to 3 segments with 6 phone per year, instead of 12-15 models per year.
Were they really putting out over a dozen phones a year? By themselves or including OEM partners? Half a dozen a year for the ex-Nokia division still seems like a lot, I know that was child's play for Nokia back in the day but the market's changed drastically... Four tops IMO.
MS has released Lumia 4xx, 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx series. Some series have 2-3 phones, so it is way more than a dozen phones a year. Now, they will trimming down to three segments with two phone each.
MS won't move away after phone market. With windows 10 they are finally getting to where they should be and can finally leverage the huge user-base of desktop windows with the universal app store. I do believe it has a lot of potential. Google should be afraid.
hell apple should be afraid.. once people see tv ads of microsoft phones being hooked to a HDMI monitor and unleashing a full pc, everyone's gonna shit a brick and go buy one. apps will be fixed with windows 10 with the unified library. bluetooth keyboard and mouse ftw
Windows 10 is gonna make Microsoft a lot of money, and make iphones look like mp3 players in comparison.
i predict we'll see more x86 windows phones as well. dont even need the unified bridge or whatever it's called with that.. Google dont wanna make a app for WP? well no problem, we'll use your x86 app.
I don't agree. The situation now is clearly different. The software and hardware will be available to make this happen...if Microsoft plays their cards right.
You do realize that "full PC's" are cheap as dirt? We're living in 2015 not 1985. If anyone wants a "full PC" today, they can pick one up at the local Goodwill store; hell they can scan Craigslist and probably get one for free that's being thrown out.
Full PC'ness is not suddenly going to become more desirable because it can be created in a messy configuration based on plugging a phone into a TV and attached a bluetooth keyboard.
The story you are peddling solves a non-existent problem (the supposed high cost of PCs or something) and does not actually solve the real problem (that most people feel uncomfortable about PCs and they don't really understand all the layers of history and compatibility crap that have built up).
Seriously. Your average smartphone without a 2 year contract subsidy is between $600 and $900. You can get a dedicated PC from Wal-mart for $259.98 that can do everything that smartphone can and more. Price is not an argument here, and plugging a phone into a dock to create some sort of laptop hybrid thing is not appealing.
No your average very high end latest model smartphone is that price.
Does your PC from walmart have A GPS, Cellular Modem, 8MP+ camera Gyroscope etc. Can it fit in your pocket does it run for 24hours without being tethered to a wall socket. No a normal PC is not as useful to the majority of people than your run of the mill $200 smartphone.
What foreigners? Microsoft is a Global company with employees all over the world, Most people who were laid off this time were from Finland, i guess that makes you happy since they were not 'Murican.
Don't troll by bringing a separate topic here, Microsoft is a Global company which sells products and services worldwide and also has offices all over the world and this layoff affects everyone. So, nobody is a foreigner here, go spew your 'Murican stuff elsewhere and remember that posting such comments/crusade won't help you from getting priced out in a Globalised World.
Apparently your one of the globalist sucking of Americas tit. I see my country overrun with illegals and losing its job to foreigners while our politicians only care about votes and cheap labor so you can spew your one world globalist crap all you want I can care less.
If you _can_ care less, you deserve to be overrun by illegals. All things considered, they probably have more command over your native language than you do.
You do know that America sucks everyone's tits, so that the American public can get their cheap clothes, electronics, cars, etc.
If American companies only made/built/whatever in America, the American public would riot, cause their shirts now cost $200, pants cost $300, the iPhone would be $2000, the base model Ford Fiesta is now $35,000, etc.
Everyone would just start buying imported items and you'd hurt the US economy, as all the money would flood out to foreign companies. Increasing import taxes would just mean price hikes for foreign products coming in. So everyone loses out that way too.
They are just restructuring the phone lineup to three segements, This email from Satya Nadella clarifies Microsoft's position on smartphones:
""We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We'll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they'll love."
Yes, I read this and thought, OK, sounds good, straightforward, and... and wasn't that what they were trying to do all along? What have they been up to? Which customer segments were they targeting? Not business customers? Not the value phone buyers?
I can see that the flagship devices have been lacking, the 1020 was nearly there, but hardware wise it was too strapped. So essentially they are moving away from the mid range segment? Trying to move upmarket? While keeping the low end happy.
Nope, they were not doing this all along. Microsoft was releasing 12-15 phones every year like old Nokia/ samsung with throwing everything to the wall strategy now it will be a trimmed lineup with just three segments and 6 phones.
Where did they state 6? And why so many? 1-2 flagships (like the iPhone, Z3/Z3c, etc), 1-2 value models, and a solid mid tier is more than enough... Seems to me they should be able to cover everything with four, mayybe five.
Oh, finally. Their mobile devices are too many to keep track. They function as a mobile device maker but Microsoft isn't like that and Apple isn't like that which Steve wants to emulate. Like Google and Apple, MS should focus on the operating system then work on one or two models of each class of a device.
I feel for Nokia and their employees though. This is a waste of many things. Nokia will start anew and get back some of their employees.
There are no changes to maps: you have Here Drive and Here maps from Nokia and Bing maps too which uses data from Navtaq but still there is some different between the two. Apart from these you can get other map apps in windows phone store.
Jesus freaking christ. So the phone more or less naturally comes with TWO map systems built in? That's the story of MS in a nutshell right there... Pathological inability to focus and make a decision.
No need to swear on Jesus here and providing two apps as OPTIONS is the best thing to do for the customers, you are just nitpicking just for the sake of it besides windows phone allows you to uninstall preinstalled apps with just single click unlike other OS's , if it was your favourite OS then you would be singing praises for such a thing, specially when you consider the fact that you get free Lifetime voice added navigation with every windows phone along with the ability to download the maps for the entire country, continent and even World at once with no need of data while travelling.
I have a Lumia 830 and is 50/50 happy with it. Primary driver for the purchase was: Nice camera, call, messaging and global off-line mapping/navigation. I have used Nokia maps for years when traveling and it is just great. The phone has replaced my Canon for holidays. But app support?? Bummer. Really bad. OK you have the big names, but all the nice smaller ones is simply not there. If MS does not get this more attractive it is out. But this is also what they try. But my good it will be difficult!!
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Pneumothorax - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
C'mon Microsoft. Seems like they're the poor underdogs these days....nandnandnand - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Net income in 2014: $22 billion. Google: $16.5 billion. $39.5 billion for Apple.Microsoft may look terrible and have an uncertain future, but they are no underdog.
kspirit - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
I find it hilarious how every year is the year when "NO 1 WILL BUY THIS LOL LINUX FTW! M$ ARE DONE FOR"-type of comments come about every time Microsoft makes a big business decision. People underestimate them far too much.WelshBloke - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
Funnily enough as we are taking phone OSs "NO 1 WILL BUY THIS LOL LINUX FTW! M$ ARE DONE FOR" is pretty accurate.jakoh - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
He didnt say they are underdog, He said Seems.name99 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
The word you are looking for is not underdog, it is irrelevant.MS is irrelevant (to personal computing) in the same way that IBM is irrelevant. They will continue to make enterprise money, they will continue to update zOS, hell they'll continue to produce POWER9 CPUs which are very nice chips for their target market. But they will have very little relevance to anything I personally buy.
So it will be with MS. At the same time that Apple and Google are girding up for "Mobile Wars 2: The Wearening", MS has basically admitted they couldn't even compete in Mobile Wars 1. If they have any plan for the PERSONAL side of such future markets as HomeKit and HealthKit address, they've kept them pretty damn secret.
MS used to (and for all I know still does) power parts of Apple's network infrastructure like the iTunes store. They can provide BACKENDS to things like HealthKit. But I don't see their consumer facing side as growing. (Which means I don't see what they think the endgame is for providing Cortana or Bing for iPhone and Android --- there's no money in running those as services.)
And something no-one has mentioned --- what happens to the grand plans, announced two months ago, to be able to essentially just recompile your apps against MS libraries and mostly have a working MS phone version of you Android/iOS app?
BMNify - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Personal bias and choices should not blind oneself to the reality, Microsoft still has 90% Global marketshare in Desktop, laptops space and the growth rate may have slowed down but still almost everyone buys and uses a PC, so your first sentence "MS is irrelevant (to personal computing)" is just a pipe dream.And regarding recompiling of Android and ios apps, it is on the way as announced earlier, Windows 10 mobile is under insiders preview now and should launch in September or October along with all the said features.
texadactyl - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
"recompiling of Android and ios apps" is also a pipe dream. Many players in the computer industry have tried this exercise before (nothing revolutionary about it). It could many years (if it ever works) to get Android and iOS apps to work *acceptably* under Windows 37 (27 versions after 10!). By then, the world will have moved on a few times.BMNify - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
This shows your ignorance about the platform you hate, Recompiling of ios and android apps is already a reality, Candy crush game in Windows Phone store is a recompiled ios app and the performance is so good that people didn't even notice it on low-end phones running on Snapdragon 400, those same tools will be available to all Developers with Windows 10.Source: http://www.windowscentral.com/you-have-been-runnin...
Alexvrb - Saturday, July 11, 2015 - link
I can confirm that Candy Crush runs great on slow hardware, despite actually being recompiled from the iOS codebase. Tested it on an old Lumia 822. I hope more developers take advantage of this for Win10 and make Universal Apps out of them too.texadactyl - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
I have to agree with your "personal bias" remarks and I am a Linux software engineer. Evolution is normally a function of economics as an offset to new capability (you get this at what price). The cost of corporate migration combined with human short term thinking/planning usually provides enough inertia to discourage any wholesale changes.nikon133 - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
I also think that their core business - being so deep into corporate/government/... is much safer than anything Apple and Android can even dream about. If any of those two runs out of fashion, they will suffer a lot. MS cannot run out of fashion - MS was never in fashion. But while replacing MS Servers and services is possible in theory, effort required to do complete IT infrastructure resurrection is so huge it is all but impossible in real life. They have managed to elevate (at least) that level of their offerings a necessity, while iPhones, iPads and Android gadgets are still just a commodity, and fancy as they are, they are still much easier to swap with the next best thing, should such products emerge.Re Windows phones. I believe that decentralization of MS in the past has caused them to be unable to play on their best cards, but I also think that new CEO just might change that. With some thinking and, maybe, iron hand, MS can make Windows phone much more attractive to everyone who is using Windows PC at work and/or at home, by creating platform with in-house integration that Apple and Google cannot reach, being outsiders. They have failed to maximize on that opportunity under Balmer, but even as is, Windows phone does move close to 40 million units a year, which is at least sustainable if not runaway success, and something worth building upon. We can think of it as MSs "hobby", such as AppleTV and AppleWatch are for Apple.
I think that Win phone is here to stay. They might have missed opportunity to make it into Windows PC equivalent in mobile world, but they will grow to competitive levels in following years. they have money, they have patience, they have tech and patents... and they don't have anywhere else to go on laptop/desktop/server markets, being at the top already.
I just hope they will significantly reduce number of Lumia SKUs available. One Lumia 5xx, one Lumia 7xx and one Lumia 9xx should be all that is required each year.
Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
>muh solipsismAside from that, wearables are dead as in dead, your imaginary war is fought by zombies with no future whatsoever.
Impulses - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
It'd be sad to see them back away from the phone market, tho it does seem like they have a glut of low end & midrange models. To me it seemed like there was still room for a third player, and they clearly have the capital to sustain it, seems maybe investors don't care for that. As an Android user, WP was always more appealing than iOS...JeremyInNZ - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Not sure why... As an iOS and Android user, I would pick MS last. The advantage of iOS is ease of use, stability, and a slightly better app support over Android. The advantage of Android is better hardware options, and more customization. Moving to Microsoft is taking the worst of both worlds. Poor App support in a locked system, with limited hardware options.Impulses - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
There's still more choice of hardware than with iOS (or there was before WP started fading into obscurity and Apple started selling phones in more than one size), and the OS itself straddled the line in a similar way. Glass half full half empty I guess... I've used iOS plenty too FWIW (at work and via an iPod touch).Samus - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Poor phone selection, poor carrier adoption, and no apps.AT&T is basically the exclusive carrier for Nokia. You can get one unlocked for T-mobile. Last I checked the only WinMo phone T-mobile carried was the HTC 8XT. Verizon and Sprint don't seem to have any WinMo phones in their stores.
But even if you buy that bad-ass Lumia 930 on AT&T, outside of the Tier-1 apps, there's nothing. Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Office, yes.
Tapatalk, Google Maps, and accessory support are the real problem for me. There is no smartwatch support unless you get that funky Microsoft band and I am a watch person.
jakoh - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
the band is not funky. its cool, its the future, get on it.Alexvrb - Saturday, July 11, 2015 - link
I use HERE maps and it works pretty darn well. I love having the entire country offline like a dedicated GPS. Those who insist on Google maps or bust will literally be impossible to please in any way shape or form, so there's no point there. Even if you had every other necessary app. Google is locking people in almost as well as Apple these days. Anyway, regarding Tapatalk? Been on the platform for a while now. Heck nowadays Tapatalk has a newer Universal app that works on Windows Phone as well as other versions of Win8, and that extends to Win10 on multiple form factors. The "No app" argument is increasingly fading for typical use, but that won't stop it from getting regurgitated ad nauseam by carrier sales personnel.Regarding smartwatches... still a niche product, I think. I'm not even interested in something like the MS Band at this point. Personally I wear a Seiko non-smart watch with synthetic sapphire and have minimal interest in a watch I have to plug in often. Maybe when someone comes out with a really nice next-gen e-ink model that lasts for a week? Needs to resist scratches - I'd settle for GG3+. Frankly I'd have to disable any sort of text message notifications on one immediately because I really don't want incoming messages displayed publicly (especially while at work). Just my opinion, obviously, and no offense to those who can't live without smartgear.
nikon133 - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
I do miss street view on Here maps on occasion (I don't think they have any street view here in NZ), but in general they work great, country-wide offline cashing is excellent, speed limits are accurate. Do Google Maps show speed limits in SatNav mode, these days? I was told by Android using friends they don't, but that was some time ago.nikon133 - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
I'm watch person, but not smartwatch person. My watches don't require support from my phone ;)nikon133 - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
You know... I used iPhones for a bit over 4 years, from late 2009 till early 2014. I had 3Gs all that time as my personal phone and got 4s later on.I replaced my personal iPhone phone with Lumia 920 (which was already a year on the market and very affordable), while my wife remained on iPhone with 5s. I guess beauty is in the eye of beholder... but much as my eyes go, I enjoy Win Phone a lot, and would not consider returning to iPhone. Eventually, early this year I have chosen Lumia 830 as my new work phone. Looking at my wife's experience - her 5s had more issues along the way than my Lumia 920. Nothing major, but a few more freezes, more rogue apps going crazy in the background and discharging battery in a few hours - my Lumia was rock-solid, and even being 3 years old, all the updates I have received through Preview for Developers were working great, not crippling my phone's performance like it happened back in 3Gs days.
Hardware options in Win phone are badly formed, I must agree with that. Gazillion of SKUs on low-end, mostly differing in name but not in specs in any meaningful way, while high end was well overdue. New flagship rumors look promising, and I hope they will be followed with reduction on low-end offerings, resulting in not more than 3 units every year - single low, mid and high-end models.
Re the software. This is the shady area. I don't game on phones and mostly use core apps - sms, mail, calendar, FB, weather, maps/satnav... and those, among others, are well executed on Win phone. For those who do crave to play latest Destiny Sword and whatnot, or need speciffic app that lives somewhere else... well... one shoe doesn't fit everyone.
BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Microsoft is not backing away from the phone market, they are just trimming the lineup down to 3 segments with 6 phone per year, instead of 12-15 models per year.Alexvrb - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
That would be a good start. They do need to get Win10 Mobile finalized so they can get the 940 on the market.BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
yeah, the Windows 10 Mobile + 940, 940XL is expected in September/October.Impulses - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Were they really putting out over a dozen phones a year? By themselves or including OEM partners? Half a dozen a year for the ex-Nokia division still seems like a lot, I know that was child's play for Nokia back in the day but the market's changed drastically... Four tops IMO.BMNify - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
MS has released Lumia 4xx, 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx series. Some series have 2-3 phones, so it is way more than a dozen phones a year. Now, they will trimming down to three segments with two phone each.BillBear - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
So when Nadella announces that Microsoft will no longer attempt to “grow a standalone phone business” you don't believe him?jakoh - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
i think more like 4 phones a year or less.beginner99 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
MS won't move away after phone market. With windows 10 they are finally getting to where they should be and can finally leverage the huge user-base of desktop windows with the universal app store. I do believe it has a lot of potential. Google should be afraid.Morawka - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
hell apple should be afraid.. once people see tv ads of microsoft phones being hooked to a HDMI monitor and unleashing a full pc, everyone's gonna shit a brick and go buy one. apps will be fixed with windows 10 with the unified library. bluetooth keyboard and mouse ftwWindows 10 is gonna make Microsoft a lot of money, and make iphones look like mp3 players in comparison.
Morawka - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
i predict we'll see more x86 windows phones as well. dont even need the unified bridge or whatever it's called with that.. Google dont wanna make a app for WP? well no problem, we'll use your x86 app.pSupaNova - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Your not serious?We have heard this wait till Microsoft WP "insert a release" argument for years and all what happens is IO and Android get stronger.
Windows Phone will be a money blackhole for Microsoft until they decide to can the whole project.
vortmax2 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I don't agree. The situation now is clearly different. The software and hardware will be available to make this happen...if Microsoft plays their cards right.Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Stronger as in total stagnation outside of piss-poor no ROI third world markets? Well, ok.name99 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
You do realize that "full PC's" are cheap as dirt? We're living in 2015 not 1985.If anyone wants a "full PC" today, they can pick one up at the local Goodwill store; hell they can scan Craigslist and probably get one for free that's being thrown out.
Full PC'ness is not suddenly going to become more desirable because it can be created in a messy configuration based on plugging a phone into a TV and attached a bluetooth keyboard.
The story you are peddling solves a non-existent problem (the supposed high cost of PCs or something) and does not actually solve the real problem (that most people feel uncomfortable about PCs and they don't really understand all the layers of history and compatibility crap that have built up).
Mushkins - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Seriously. Your average smartphone without a 2 year contract subsidy is between $600 and $900. You can get a dedicated PC from Wal-mart for $259.98 that can do everything that smartphone can and more. Price is not an argument here, and plugging a phone into a dock to create some sort of laptop hybrid thing is not appealing.pSupaNova - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
No your average very high end latest model smartphone is that price.Does your PC from walmart have A GPS, Cellular Modem, 8MP+ camera Gyroscope etc. Can it fit in your pocket does it run for 24hours without being tethered to a wall socket. No a normal PC is not as useful to the majority of people than your run of the mill $200 smartphone.
Zak - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Are they staying in the tablet market or infuriating the entire world with Windows 8 was for nothing?Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Where is your credentials for speaking for "entire world"?svan1971 - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
wonder if the jobs will be replaced by lower wage foreigners?BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
What foreigners? Microsoft is a Global company with employees all over the world, Most people who were laid off this time were from Finland, i guess that makes you happy since they were not 'Murican.svan1971 - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/07/28/microsoft-lays-...BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Don't troll by bringing a separate topic here, Microsoft is a Global company which sells products and services worldwide and also has offices all over the world and this layoff affects everyone. So, nobody is a foreigner here, go spew your 'Murican stuff elsewhere and remember that posting such comments/crusade won't help you from getting priced out in a Globalised World.svan1971 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Apparently your one of the globalist sucking of Americas tit. I see my country overrun with illegals and losing its job to foreigners while our politicians only care about votes and cheap labor so you can spew your one world globalist crap all you want I can care less.Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
If you _can_ care less, you deserve to be overrun by illegals. All things considered, they probably have more command over your native language than you do.khanikun - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
You do know that America sucks everyone's tits, so that the American public can get their cheap clothes, electronics, cars, etc.If American companies only made/built/whatever in America, the American public would riot, cause their shirts now cost $200, pants cost $300, the iPhone would be $2000, the base model Ford Fiesta is now $35,000, etc.
Everyone would just start buying imported items and you'd hurt the US economy, as all the money would flood out to foreign companies. Increasing import taxes would just mean price hikes for foreign products coming in. So everyone loses out that way too.
BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
They are just restructuring the phone lineup to three segements, This email from Satya Nadella clarifies Microsoft's position on smartphones:""We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We'll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they'll love."
Source:http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-rumored-re...
Gadgety - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Yes, I read this and thought, OK, sounds good, straightforward, and... and wasn't that what they were trying to do all along? What have they been up to? Which customer segments were they targeting? Not business customers? Not the value phone buyers?I can see that the flagship devices have been lacking, the 1020 was nearly there, but hardware wise it was too strapped. So essentially they are moving away from the mid range segment? Trying to move upmarket? While keeping the low end happy.
BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Nope, they were not doing this all along. Microsoft was releasing 12-15 phones every year like old Nokia/ samsung with throwing everything to the wall strategy now it will be a trimmed lineup with just three segments and 6 phones.Impulses - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Where did they state 6? And why so many? 1-2 flagships (like the iPhone, Z3/Z3c, etc), 1-2 value models, and a solid mid tier is more than enough... Seems to me they should be able to cover everything with four, mayybe five.BobSwi - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
We'll see, but 'experiences' and 'services' don't sound like phones, at least Windows fans will get 'devices' (surfaces?) heh.BMNify - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Read the first two lines: "we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software" Hardware in mobile phone division means phones.khanikun - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
Shrink the Surface 3 into a 5" tablet, add in cellphone service and texting. Call it the Surface 3 Phone. I'd buy it.zodiacfml - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Oh, finally. Their mobile devices are too many to keep track. They function as a mobile device maker but Microsoft isn't like that and Apple isn't like that which Steve wants to emulate. Like Google and Apple, MS should focus on the operating system then work on one or two models of each class of a device.I feel for Nokia and their employees though. This is a waste of many things. Nokia will start anew and get back some of their employees.
Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I`d like to know what happens to maps in WinMo.BMNify - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
There are no changes to maps: you have Here Drive and Here maps from Nokia and Bing maps too which uses data from Navtaq but still there is some different between the two. Apart from these you can get other map apps in windows phone store.name99 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Jesus freaking christ. So the phone more or less naturally comes with TWO map systems built in?That's the story of MS in a nutshell right there... Pathological inability to focus and make a decision.
BMNify - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
No need to swear on Jesus here and providing two apps as OPTIONS is the best thing to do for the customers, you are just nitpicking just for the sake of it besides windows phone allows you to uninstall preinstalled apps with just single click unlike other OS's , if it was your favourite OS then you would be singing praises for such a thing, specially when you consider the fact that you get free Lifetime voice added navigation with every windows phone along with the ability to download the maps for the entire country, continent and even World at once with no need of data while travelling.Michael Bay - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Your jumping to conclusions is pathological._One_ map system, with separate directions app developed by Nokia that leverages stock maps on the platform.
Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
This will free up a bunch of money for more stock buybacks. Aint this recovery grand?!?AkulaClass - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
I have a Lumia 830 and is 50/50 happy with it. Primary driver for the purchase was: Nice camera, call, messaging and global off-line mapping/navigation. I have used Nokia maps for years when traveling and it is just great. The phone has replaced my Canon for holidays.But app support?? Bummer. Really bad. OK you have the big names, but all the nice smaller ones is simply not there. If MS does not get this more attractive it is out. But this is also what they try. But my good it will be difficult!!
flyingpants1 - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
Windows 8. Office 2013 or whatever. Office 365. Windows phone. Surface. Xbox One.All horrible failures.
Surface is kinda cool, but an extremely niche product when it's clear they expect it to replace macbooks and laptops