Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Phone Business as Dead as Zune, But Apple Too Loses Its Mind

Kin is the new Zin

Zune logo in black



Summary: How Microsoft failed -- quite utterly in fact -- to reignite interest in its mobile business; a leak of an Apple iPhone prototype leads to criminal investigation at the behest of Chairman Jobs and his morbidly-vain group

OUR previous two posts helped expose Microsoft's rather abysmal financial situation and systematic tax evasion (which it can pretend not to be an evasion because it controls the law through former employees and lobbyists). One area where Microsoft is/was losing billions of dollars would be the whole mobile business, whose losses Microsoft was trying to hide over the years using tricks that Microsoft Watch explained about 3 years ago (before it became a Microsoft PR outlet, post-morphing). More recently, the SEC started probing Microsoft about this allegedly inappropriate reporting of cash flow. People will hopefully be allowed to know what's going on inside Microsoft (press releases are spin; they are rarely connected to reality, but reporters rely on them).



“More recently, the SEC started probing Microsoft about this allegedly inappropriate reporting of cash flow.”Pogson continues to write about the true impact of GNU/Linux on the price of Windows (and thus Microsoft's financial performance). Sub-notebooks are an area where Microsoft's competition is so great that Windows is given away almost for free and some sources say that Microsoft even pays OEMs to preinstall Windows (instead of charging for it).

Another area where Microsoft faces overwhelming competition is phones and as we showed last week, Microsoft stands not a chance with "Kin". It's just too far behind and the South African press seemingly agrees.

I just think that the company should be focusing its energies on getting Windows Mobile 7 out the door. The longer that OS is delayed the more customers Microsoft will lose and the more people will speculate that Microsoft doesn't actually have a product to match the iPhone or Android.


More importantly, Microsoft can hardly charge for it, so what is its business model? Selling mobile phones as hardware? With designs like that (it seems like a Palm ripoff from ages ago), Microsoft's mobile reality is a really gloomy one. Kin is nothing. It's probably just another Zune (Microsoft can't use this name for the phone because it's tarnished just like "Vista" or "Live"), but this "Zune phone" enjoys far less hype than the Zune. A few days ago, Dvorak pointed out that:

We hear very little from [Microsoft's] outside agencies and almost nothing from the inside PR department.

Where are the exciting news stories about what the company is doing? This can't be good for the company, it has always relied on a blanket of often obfuscating PR, especially when leading into the next generation cash cow.


Given Microsoft's enormous debt, maybe it's just not renewing contracts with PR agencies. The lack of buzz generated about Kin sure surprised us last week (we expected a massive blitz and journalists did too). Is this another sign of Microsoft's demise?

Forbes has this new article which is titled "Microsoft's Dismal Future" (it mostly speaks about phones, operating systems, and search).

Instead, since 2008 Microsoft has busied itself launching two very expensive operating system upgrades, Windows Vista and 7, in an effort to defend and protect its historical PC operating system business. They've been a huge investment, but both have won a less than enthusiastic response from the vast majority of users. Microsoft has turned to forcing new computer buyers to purchase them, since almost no one chooses to buy them. Additionally, it is in the midst of planning Office 2010, an enormously expensive upgrade of Office 2007, even though a huge number of customers still use Office 2003, completely ignoring or rejecting 2007 since it came available.

Instead of working hard to get into new growth markets, Microsoft, in the tradition of Xerox and Kodak, pours its talent, energy and money into trying to defend its PC operating system and office products markets, which have much slower growth and are under attack from new mobile devices.

[...]

Apple broke out of defending and extending the Macintosh platform, and Google avoided falling into merely defending the search business (unlike Alta Vista and AskJeeves). They did so by strategically using white space, meaning they've supported unfettered, unencumbered opportunities to pursue entirely fresh ideas and move them into solutions and then to the market quickly and effectively. Fundamentally, both companies are very different from Microsoft, because Microsoft hasn't learned to use white space teams.


We are not proponents of Google or Apple. Both companies sell products and services that are proprietary (and sometimes painted as "open"). A few days ago Apple was sued yet again for its arrogant behaviour and shoddy products. This week we also learned that a police probe (no kidding!) was launched because secrecy was not honoured by Apple employees/partners.

Silicon Valley police are investigating what appears to be a lost Apple iPhone prototype purchased by a gadget blog, a transaction that may have violated criminal laws, a law enforcement official told CNET on Friday.


Apple is all about fake hype. It adds to the allure. It's just hilarious when Apple has the police involved because its hype machine failed. If the "alien test" was applied (hypothetical extraterrestrials watching from above), Apple's behaviour would make it akin to China's [1, 2].

Chairman Jobs

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
 
Links 27/05/2025: Science Defunded, India Arrests an Academic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2025: From Celsius to Fahrenheit and Deleting Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025
Links 25/05/2025: 15 Years of UK Legal Aid Applicant Data Grabbed and 2 Billion Discord Messages Leaked Online
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Farming and OpenBSD 7.7 on Acer Aspire ES 15
Links for the day
Fighting for Freedom is Much Better Than Fighting for Money
If life is about accumulation of money, then people will be "busy making money" till they die prematurely (with nothing to do with this money)
The Microsoft SLAPP Dossiers
A rather likely outcome is, they'll lose their licence to operate
Links 25/05/2025: Harvard’s Troubles and New Openwashing Examples
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Whales and Battery Replacement
Links for the day
Links 25/05/2025: Climate Action Ridiculed and "Tesla Executive Admits That Self-Driving Is Going Nowhere Fast"
Links for the day
The Next Two Phases of Our Open Source Initiative (OSI) Series
Whatever people used to think about the OSI is no longer applicable and its current acronym is a misleading misnomer
Richard Stallman Has Barely Changed
Collecting "estate" "assets"? That's not "success" in the eyes of Dr. Stallman
Public Talk by Richard Stallman (RMS) Tomorrow
Still advertised
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Konsole Layout Changes and Capitulation to Surveillance World
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 24, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 24, 2025