"I do hope that the suit can help demonstrate that Microsoft's claims of succeeding through innovation are a complete fraud. Their only innovation has been in inventing predatory business practices. Other than that, they have been perhaps the greatest borrowers in the history of the software industry."

--Sybase Chairman Mitchell Kertzman

Summary: Time has nearly run out for Vista Phony 7 [sic] and Steve Ballmer's chair is said to be in jeopardy

Red Hat's Harish Pillay writes that Microsoft's "phone OS is so bad, that they'll give you two for the price of one just to make the numbers." He refers to articles like this one, which help show that Vista Phony 7 [sic] quickly follows the "KIN" trajectory [1, 2] due to inability to sell. [via the good Slashdot summary with many links under the headline "Windows Phone 7 Sales Continue To Struggle"]

"Even with the pre-Christmas buying rush, Microsoft is already desperately offering a new buy one get one free offer similar to the ones they gave for the KIN. According to the article, 'Windows Phone 7 devices can't even manage two per cent of the fortnight's sales.' These aren't official Microsoft figures; they come from online shopping sites. But since Microsoft official sales figures seem subject to manipulation, this is perhaps one of the better guesses we will get at the success of Windows Phone 7 until well into next year. This also strongly backs up other reports of deeply disappointing phone sales. Even Microsoft supporters have been wondering for a while whether it's time for Ballmer to go. If the sales reports are true, then he may be pushed before he jumps."

Microsoft resorts to using Oprah again, obviously as an advertiser (Oprah Winfrey promotes Microsoft products in exchange for payments [1, 2], not to mention her recent promotion of Gates Foundation agenda which include taking over schools [1, 2]). As Goblin (Tim) puts it in his Web site last night:

We looked at this during episode 13 of the TechBytes show which can be found here, but it does beg the question: Is Oprah soon to promote WP7? I would think that it certainly needs all the help it can get (Bing certainly does) and if she gives it away to her audience members (like she did the 360) then Microsoft can claim some more sales of the “new” phone.

Talking of sales, why is Microsoft being so tight lipped about the figures? If, as some Microsoft advocates suggest it’s a raging success, why are we not seeing Microsoft proudly claiming this? Why is AT&T trying to offer 2 for the price of 1 on the WP7 and why is it that there seems (in my experience) to be very little excitement anywhere about it?

2 for 1, Oprah, I wonder what other “incentives” can be thought up to try to get people interested in Microsoft tech? This union between Oprah and Microsoft hasn’t been received well by some and prior to the “Xbox Oprah show”...

The Register says that even shortly after a PR blitz from Microsoft (costing around half a billion dollars in just marketing expenses) the Linux-based Android outsells Vista Phony 7 [sic] more than 15 times over.

Figures from comparison service Mobiles Please show Windows Phone 7 being outsold by Android more than 15 times over and by Symbian three times.

That pretty much sums it up. As the Slashdot summary put it, Ballmer's chair is under threat and it's not under threat from Ballmer. ⬆

"But rather than a search engine or even a “decision engine”, Bing also appears to be a spin engine, in that it provides partisan answers to controversial topics, such as Steve Ballmer’s propensity to throw chairs to blow off stress."

--Christian Einfeldt