Summary: Zune and Windows Mobile are both still failing, as indicated by reports

THE CNN carries this report in its wires, under the headline "Microsoft's Zune HD Could Be Too Little, Too Late"

As we pointed out before, the Zune may not survive.

The company will be hoping to jump-start lackluster entertainment sales through Zune HD, among other things. Revenue from the company's entertainment and devices unit, which makes Zune and Xbox, fell by 25% in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, ending June 30.

Roughly Drafted offers this explanation of the tough situation Zune is in because it is so closed and scarce.

The bottom line: Microsoft knows there’s no real money in Zune software and doesn’t want to invest its resources (the company has plenty of cash) in developing low value software. The problem: mobile developers have no incentive to leave the iPhone App Store in order to support the Zune HD, and consumers have little reason to buy the Zune HD without any software.

According to some new numbers -- even from a source favourable to Microsoft -- Microsoft carries on falling in mobile phones too.

Onwards and upwards for smartphones and their apps

[...]

As for the latter, Gartner notes that Microsoft's share continued to drop year-on-year to account for 9 percent of the market.

Microsoft is now leaning on Nokia/Symbian (a market leader) for some morsels of impact in this highly strategic area.

Microsoft And Nokia Need Deal To Remain Relevant To Mobile Business Market

[...]

Microsoft, whose Windows Mobile is currently in third or fourth place and slipping in the mobile market, knows it needs to expand that share in order to increase the revenue of its Office and Exchange products. And that can only be done by offering complete functionality of its applications on multiple platforms to remain relevant in the mobile world in the face of the popularity of BlackBerry devices, Gold wrote.

Linux was built to fit computers large and small alike (granularity indifference), so its future in this area looks very promising. Windows, on the other hand, was branched or even forked to facilitate mobile devices. Lack of modularity doomed Microsoft and not even familiarity with the Windows metaphors enabled the monopolist to gain significant share. Microsoft is now relying on other parts of the 'stack' such as Office. ⬆