09.12.10
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft Forces Linux Phone Users to Use Bong [sic] Just Like it Forces Linux Users to Buy Windows With a New PC
Summary: Microsoft’s strategy against rivals like Google and GNU/Linux is removal of choice, patent extortion, and public ridicule
CHEATING by limiting choice is the modus operandi at Microsoft. If users are left with no choice but to become clients of Microsoft, how can Microsoft possibly lose? It ‘wins’ by default.
It is common knowledge that Microsoft is losing in the mobile arena (market share low and steadily declining), so Microsoft is busy making threats with software patents [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] in order to make profit from Linux phones, which Microsoft wrote not a single line of code for.
One company that pays Microsoft for Linux phones is Samsung, which gives buyers no choice but to pay Microsoft for Android. Moreover, Samsung sells out again, this time by forcing buyers to use Microsoft’s Bong [sic]. The source of this claim is this review which was analysed further by Android Guys. It’s being compared to Verizon’s half-a-billion-dollars deal with Microsoft [1, 2, 3]:
Samsung Fascinate Uses Bing Instead of Google Search (Updated)
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I’m severely disappointed in Verizon and Samsung. The Samsung Fascinate, Big Red’s version of the Galaxy S, has been reviewed by the folks over at Engadget. They were quick to point out that the search widget is BING, not Google Search.
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UPDATE: More bad news. According to Engadget, there is no way to change the search engine to Google. You are stuck with Bing. Hopefully we will have something in the market. We will have to wait and see on this.
In a later post from Android Guys the author talks about the Verizon-Microsoft arrangement: “My guess is that this comes from some form of licensing or exclusive deal between Microsoft and Verizon. If I were to throw a dart, I’d say that there will be probably be a few months of releases like this. I really hope this doesn’t become the norm for Verizon or any other carriers. Paying for Striking a deal to grow your market share is shady stuff and this only angers people.”
He ends with a question: “I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter. What do you think of Verizon and Microsoft climbing into bed over the Fascinate? Is this a deal breaker for you?”
“My guess is that this comes from some form of licensing or exclusive deal between Microsoft and Verizon.”
–Android GuysMore from the same author comes later. He is clearly unhappy about it (the title says “Verizon’s Bing Deal Could be a Very Big Deal”).
The Bong deals are actually not such a big deal compared to the extortion Microsoft has got going with Asian distributors of Android. ‘Microsoft tax’ on Linux in phones affects not only Japanese and Korean companies but also HTC, which remains a Google Android front runner. In fact, many of the top Android phones are now taxed by Microsoft for their use of Linux. That’s just inexcusable and the problem ought to be addressed, preferably by buying phones only from companies that do not pay Microsoft for Linux.
In his recent talks (e.g. [1, 2]) Professor Eben Moglen explained that Microsoft’s products were not very good anymore and therefore Microsoft sought to make money from other people’s products, using software patents of course.
Another disturbing trend we’ve noticed is that Microsoft is busy just attacking its competitors’ products and publicly ridiculing them. How about making better products instead? Microsoft has launched a shameful publicity stunt and Engadget helps them by covering it. Basically, Microsoft is just mocking the competition, mocking a funeral as though their to-be phone with 0.00% market share is already burying phones which sell over 100,000 units per day. That’s just ridiculous and it makes Microsoft look petty. OpenBytes responds as follows:
It is being reported that there’s been a “parade” (and I use that term loosely) to “celebrate” Windows Mobile 7 hitting RTM. Now normally parades are something to be celebrated, but remember this is a Microsoft product which is being celebrated, so you know it will go wrong. The organisers of this Windows Mobile 7 parade decided not to go down the boring, silly normal route and instead seem to believe that people would want to see a fake “funeral” of Apple and Blackberry in light of Windows Mobile 7.
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Now it could be said that this is some clever PR stunt by Microsoft in order to get Windows Mobile 7 talked about, after all how many people do you know that have even heard of it, let alone want one? So I thought I would remind everyone of Microsoft’s previous phones and efforts just so you can keep it in the back of your mind if someone tries to sell you one of these devices later. These links can be found at the end of the article.
Earlier this year Chris Pirillo covered a video interview with Microsoft, “showcasing” Windows Mobile 7, and from what I saw the misfitting menu system that tries to copy Android’s slide feature with the titles of the menu not seeming to fit comfortably on the page, the “innovations” which we’ve seen for a long while with Android merely rebadged under a different name and the Microsoft salesman trying to say “people I care about” ten times a minute in relation to contacts on the phone to try and convince people that the “friendly”Microsoft wants people to enjoy its “friendly” phone. Side note: Microsoft, get yourself a new salesman, this ones more transparent than one of Steve Ballmer’s sweaty shirts. But none of this obvious selling could prepare anyone for the horror when the phones menu pans down and I see the two icons ”Internet Explorer” and “Zune”.
Watch Chris Pirillo serving Microsoft again. A lot of coverage about Vista Phone 7 is fake (made up, paid for through ‘compensation’), for reasons we named last week. Microsoft is said to be spending half a billion dollars just seeding blogs, seeding the press, and probably manipulating social networking sites too. It’s no secret that this is where marketing money goes at Microsoft.
As for that mock funeral, the one to eventually have real a funeral is Vista Phone 7. Several years ago Microsoft put an “amnesty bin” in campus, advising staff to “bury” their hypePods in there (very few employees did). A number of years later we discovered that all the “KIN” units ever sold can comfortably fit one such bin (or coffin). So who had the last laugh? █
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