Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Takes the Axe to Another Product, Future Grim Based on CES



Summary: Windows Mobile continues dropping into oblivion, Microsoft kills Mobile2Market, and CES reveals an empty future for the most part

THE harsh reality of Windows Mobile is one that Microsoft is unable to deny. Nowadays, Microsoft groks only vapourware, which it hopes will keep partners waiting. Some are losing their patience and sure it seems like a lost battle for Microsoft (probably because of Linux for the most part, especially in recent months). As the Korea Times puts it:

Unlike Windows Mobile, the platform developed by a massive cross-industry alliance led by Internet giant Google, is based on open source Linux software and enables greater flexibility for programmers building applications and features tailored to handsets.


Windows Mobile has gotten so scarce (an advertising company claims a 4-fold decrease in just one year) that Microsoft will discontinue its Mobile2Market program:

Microsoft will discontinue Mobile2Market, its mobile application certification and marketing program for independent software and hardware vendors.


This has just been added to our growing list of dead products from Microsoft. It is still being claimed that Windows Mobile 7 might be one year away. What a disaster. They keep it pushing back.

Precious little is known about Windows Mobile 7. Last November, Phil Moore, Microsoft's head of mobility in the U.K., let slip that Windows Mobile 7 had been delayed until late 2010 and would include features that appeal both to enterprises and consumers. Earlier this week, The Bright Side Of News, quoting unnamed sources from a number of chipmakers and handset manufacturers, said that Windows Mobile 7 has been "definitely delayed" until 2011.


According to IDG, "another account reports that Korea’s LG Electronics let slip at CES that Windows Mobile 7 will be released in 2010, probably in the Fall." Microsoft sympathisers are not sure if this is true and some are even giving tips for a multiple-times convicted monopolist to save Windows Mobile. But as one pundit puts it:

Windows Mobile 7: Should Microsoft even bother?



[...]

When looking at all the competitors for smartphone supremacy, you might say the Windows Mobile is DLF in the rankings (although a recent report places it at third place). Some would even contend that Microsoft would have been better off never entering this race if it weren't going to put up a good fight. That may shock the 7.2 million users of the Microsoft smartphone OS, especially those in the enterprise who don't see the iPhone as a serious contender at all (due in part to Apple's history of ignoring the needs of the enterprise in favor of the individual user).


Danger/SideKick did not save Microsoft's mobile business [1, 2, 3]; It just got Microsoft sued (class action). Microsoft is said to be considering just buying some market share (maybe RIM).

Microsoft is currently insisting that it was not talking about Windows Mobile 7 at CES. Why would Microsoft distance itself from it unless it's truly delayed and shattered? There are rumours about Pink phone coming around April, but it gives the impression of being another Zune-type failure-to-be. Too little, too late, lacking value.

In general, Microsoft had nothing substantial to show at CES. We wrote a lot more about this several times before. Many attendants felt that way too, including:

ITWeb: 10 reasons why Microsoft disappointed at CES

Hopes were high that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address at the 6 January opening of the Consumer Electronics Show would bring renewed excitement about multiple Microsoft products, such as Windows 7, Windows Mobile 7, Bing and Project Natal. But in the end, the keynote was very much a disappointment. Here is why the usually dynamic Ballmer's lacklustre keynote likely let down many listeners.


Reuters: Microsoft lacks wow at CES. Do investors care?

But once again, most attention turned instead to the latest gadgets from Apple and Google Inc, which weren't even exhibitors at the world's largest tech show.

It's a familiar story for Microsoft, which has struggled to translate its dominance in the business and home personal computer software market into leadership of hot new consumer sectors, or to capture the buzz that some rivals generate.


Microsoft just did a lot of strutting at CES, but it's generally a shrinking company in managerial disarray. The reality behind Vista 7 is very different from what PR says and since adoption is very patchy, Microsoft has begun floating some buzz about an anticipated Service Pack, probably using this fake leak [1, 2, 3] which shows nothing interesting; It just generates some headlines. There are also the illusion/artificial scarcity 'leaks' that we showed before, just before Vista 7 was released. Apple, the fake hype company, is no better.

It is worth adding that Microsoft has already buried the name "Vista". We have found 0 headlines about "Vista" in the past two weeks, as opposed to 18 clusters of headlines about "Windows 7".

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 11/04/2025: Microcosmographia Academica and Ada Language
Links for the day
At the Root of the SLAPPs There Are Matters of GitHub Corruption and Microsoft Competition Crimes
Keep both eyes on the ball; this is about monopoly abuse and attempts to muzzle critics
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: More on the Complaint, Which Also Points the Finger at Stefano Mafulli and Deb Nicholson
Focus on what they are attempting to distract from
"Linux" Foundation, Besieged by Microsoft, Isn't About Science But Against Science and Against Facts
(and for Microsoft Dogma, Microsoft Domination, Microsoft Money)
IBM Pays IDG's IDC to Market Proprietary Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Under the Guise of "Research"
Proprietary RHEL promoted by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt or just plain fear-mongering)
 
Links 11/04/2025: LLMs as Worthless Gimmicks, People in Trouble for Saying Too Much in (or Before) 'Cheeto Era'
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2025: "Getting Screamed At" and LLM Crawlers as Vandals Online
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2025: Microsoft Mass Layoffs Again, Zelensky Doubles Down on Claim That Many Chinese Are Fighting for Russia
Links for the day
Slopwatch: A Sea of LLM Slop About SparkyLinux, Kubernetes, Ubuntu, and Linux Kernel
Welcome to the future? The future of the Web?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 10, 2025
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: "Secret of Happiness" and Overthinking POSSE
Links for the day
Links 10/04/2025: NNCPNET Email Network, RSS Readers, and IRS as 'Immigration Enforcer'
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Markham (Canada) Apparently Still Happening
"Still going on... Got laid off today. TEL Canada, Band 9, 19 years with IBM."
Links 10/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) Perils and Internet Shutdown
Links for the day
Microsoft's "Linux" Foundation Pays Writers to Publish Propaganda and Then LLM Slop Sites (Slopfarms) Repeat the Propaganda, Using Microsoft LLMs
consider the latest LLM slop
Once You Slop You Can't Stop and If You're a Serial Slopper Nobody Will Believe You Really Wrote an Article (Even If You Did)
It's a lot like, "if you're a serial liar people won't believe you even when you say some truth" (or "once a cheater, always a cheater")
Pressing Against SLAPPs (From Americans Who Strangle Women While Microsoft Pays Their Salaries) is a High Priority for Us
We also need to ensure that greedy firms/people that facilitate the SLAPPs get "disbarred" or "struck off"
Mozilla Firefox Already Down to 1% in Brazil
Don't people crave the surveillance and the slop?
Links 10/04/2025: Hardware, Politics, and Internet
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: Creativity and Agitation, Life in the USA, CSS Naked Day 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 09, 2025
Alleged Layoffs at IBM Consulting in Australia
IBM loses many government contracts these days
The Rumours Were Likely True: Sixth Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in 2025 (Days After "50" Anniversary and About 5,000 Layoffs)
5 hours ago, by Ashley Stewart
Malware in Proprietary Software - Latest Additions
Original by Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Links 09/04/2025: More Trade Wars and Wars, Chinese Army Troops Found Fighting in Ukraine
Links for the day
Linux Clickbait by Slop
Give it up for Brian Fagioli, the Serial Slopper
IBM and MCC: Layoffs Coming Again to Metro Connect Company Limited (MCC) as Tariffs Bite and IBM's Shares Fall
Blacklists applicable to Chinese suppliers also mean that IBM can no longer cooperate with key partners in Asia
Microsoft's Entire Premise for Its Future Existence Goes Up in Flames
32 minutes ago
GNU/Linux on a High in Colombia
Stereotypes much?
Go Static
Please don't Go(lang) or JavaScript or PHP or...
Techrights Be Like...
K.I.S.S.
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Autism, Cybersecurity, and LLMs Attacking Services Online
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Would be Measured at Over 5% Globally (by statCounter) Had the Data in India Not Been Changed
GNU/Linux grew a lot in many countries and has expanded since then
Keeping Track of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
So here's a quick roundup of 2025
The Sixth Anniversary of the Lightweight Alternative to the Web (Gemini Protocol)
Now 11 short of 3,000 active capsules. 65 short of 4,500 total.
Links 09/04/2025: Quartz Fires All Writers (Shutdown, LLM Slop or Slopfarm Instead), "Bitcoin Is Crashing Hard"
Links for the day
People Are Sick of LLM Slop. Offer Them Alternatives.
We never used LLM slop for anything and we never will
Web Surveyor statCounter Sees Apple's macOS Falling From 5.6% to 3.6% in Two Months, It Might Soon be Smaller Than GNU/Linux
Apple's "value" (faked, exaggerated) is back to "pandemic times"
UK House of Lords Recognises the SLAPP Issue in the UK and EFF Pursues "Bill (That) Could Put A Stop To Censorship By Lawsuit" in the US
"A House of Lords inquiry into how the news industry can survive into the future has accused the government of “failing to prioritise” action on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)."
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: Seeking Class Action Against the OSI
"LETTER SEEKING CLASS ACTION REPRESENTATION"
The Value of Slop, by Alexandre Oliva
Original by Alexandre Oliva
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Neocities, Tinylogs, and Inter-community Protocols
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 08, 2025
You Can Be an A--hole to Women (Even Strangle Women) as Long as You Work for Microsoft
Recalling the Mark Shuttleworth origin story
Canonical is a Proprietary Software Reseller With a 'Debian Base'
"Canonical Ubuntu" is just Debian with some proprietary things sold on top of it