05.02.11
Gemini version available ♊︎Windows Phone 7 is Dying, So Microsoft is Just Attacking, Extorting Android
Summary: Microsoft plays an urban game as it fails to produce a compelling product and instead it wages war in the boardroom
LATER today we hope to cover these issues in TechBytes as the gist of it all is that Microsoft loses the battle and there is abundant evidence. For starters, my co-host Tim notes Microsoft’s “largest dip in two years” and writes about more bricking/malfunctioning of Windows phones, noting: “When I predicted that the WP7 would be lacking even months before the first phone touting it had hit the shelves, little could I imagine the issues that the phone would have post-release. To say it beggars belief is an understatement.
“The upgrade problems/bugs of WP7 have been documented here, along with the features missing, the real sales figures that Microsoft seems to still be keeping close to its chest and the continuing search for me to actually find someone I know who owns one of these devices, so its only right we continue that tradition of pointing and laughing with this piece of news.”
Here it is right from the horse’s mouth: “Microsoft admits to more Windows Phone update problems”
Yet another problem has cropped up preventing some Windows Phone 7 users from getting two software updates, adding a new chapter to the update saga that started in February.
Microsoft acknowledged that some Samsung Focus owners in the U.S. haven’t yet received notification that the updates are available for them. “They’re looking into the situation, but I’m afraid there’s not much to report yet,” wrote Michael Stroh, a Microsoft employee who is answering questions posted to the comments section on the Windows Phone blog.
There is more information in Windows sites:
Today, Microsoft announced that they are halting the NoDo update for Samsung Omnia7 due to technical issues. According to Windows Team Blog writer Michael Stroh, the update team found a technical issue which is causing the update process to fail.
Microsoft simply cannot compete in this market, so instead it has been trying to make GNU/Linux more expensive than Windows, using extortion and market distortion. “It’s a brilliant strategy,” says Microsoft booster Matt Rosoff [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] in his new article “Microsoft Charges More For Patents To Use Android Than It Does To Use Windows Phone 7″ (it sounds like he celebrates this). To quote:
Microsoft charges more to Android resellers for licensing six of its patents than it does for its entire Windows Phone 7 operating system.
It’s a brilliant strategy, since Android’s most obvious advantage is its “free” price for handset makers.
Yes, Microsoft is a patent extortion company and there are formal complaints being filed about it. We mentioned this at the end of last week [1, 2, 3]. Truthfully, Apple and Steve Jobs’ friends at Oracle are not helping, either. “Oracle has won an early round in what is sure to be an epic battle against Google over Android’s use of Java,” says one report that gets cited by foes of Google and Linux, such as Microsoft Florian, who are desperate to use anything that can repel Android users, e.g. this story: [via]
Two Oakland County women have filed a $50 million class-action lawsuit against Google Inc. to stop the company from selling phones with Android software that can track a user’s location.
The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, comes a week after Google acknowledged that phones running its Android software store some location data directly on phones for a short time from users who have chosen to use GPS services.
Ultimately, even Microsoft is coming to realise that patents are a bad thing and if enough cases like the i4i case get filed against Microsoft, then maybe the abusive monopolist too will have to step back and squash software patents along with everyone else. The following video is several months old:
Here it is as Ogg: (via TinyOgg)
The success of Linux is now hinged upon the success of abolishment of software patents. Week of software patents opposition resumes today even though it’s Bank Holiday in the UK. According to the president of the FFII, “Microsoft NZ is organizing a seminar in Aukland “Patent and Intellectual Property Monetization Seminar” http://ur1.ca/41obc ” (still trying to manage other countries’ patent policies).
Based on “Think IP Strategy” (which links to IAM Magazine, a patents booster), Microsoft’s and Gates’ patent troll, Intellectual Ventures is not just lobbying for harsher patent laws but is also opening “EU: Opportunities [...] for NPEs with a new EU patent” (yes, of course, and we warned about this).
NPEs is a euphemism for patent trolls, which have thus far been rare in Europe. The new legislation can change that and patent trolls obviously like it, including Intellectual Ventures, an extorter of Linux/Android. From IAM Magazine we also have this new article:
Intellectual Ventures has issued a vote of confidence in Europe, says firm’s Euro chief
Raymond Hegarty, the new head of Intellectual Ventures’ operations in Europe, is an excited man. I spent a few minutes talking with him on the phone on Wednesday to learn more about what IV plans to do now it is fully established over here. And while Hegarty was not giving much away there was no doubting that he believes a considerable opportunity has landed on his lap. Although Hegarty has been involved in technology and IP deal-making for many years, and has established a …
“Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures pushing for the EU patent, EU patent could be a game-changer for trolls,” remarks the FFII’s president. It’s not about products anymore. Linux wins based on merit, but can it defeat bad laws that Microsoft and Co. lobbied for? █
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NotZed said,
May 2, 2011 at 11:14 pm
I do actually know someone with a windows phone, and this is what he told me about it.
Basically it simply doesn’t have an ‘operating system’ in any meaningful sense. This is why it’s missing fundamental features like multitasking.
It just has a single-process unprotected-memory implementation of silverlight in which the current application executes. I presume this means that any ‘multitasking’ features need to be coded into the shell/launcher thing which runs the main menu. It also means adding these features properly isn’t trivial – i.e. a real operating system needs to be written first.
It sounds like a research team put together a prototype implementation of silverlight on phone hardware, and were then ordered to ship it as a finished product.
He says his reboots (using a now-familiar distinct vibrating ring) about once a day. I’m not sure which make and model he got, but he waited a few months before shelling out for it so it should be a fairly recent one.
But despite this he’s still recommending it to others – although i’m not sure whether he’s just taking the piss and just winding me up, or not.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 11:20 am
WP7 is a massive failure, but given the low expectations, maybe not. What Microsoft may try to do now is use NPEs as mercenaries against Linux and then compel companies to accept WP7 as the only affordable choice (Apple has a monopoly on the hardware). Elop is killing Symbian anyway and…
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-announces-big-partnership-with-research-in-motion-2011-5
Microsoft cannot compete, but when it manages to destroy all competition, then people have no choices left.
Needs Sunlight said,
May 3, 2011 at 7:02 am
What is “NPE” ?
saulgoode Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:40 am
It is an acronym for “non-practicing entity”; a patent holder who is not actually using the patent which he is suing over in order to prevent others from using.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 11:16 am
Sometimes the NPE did not actually earn the patent, either.