07.17.12
Gemini version available ♊︎Windows on Phones is Hopeless
Summary: Lack of inertia and technical flaws prevent Microsoft from ever adapting to a newly-discovered/realised and ever-increasing (in terms of usage) form factor
THE mobile failures of Microsoft are numerous and there has been no exception. Microsoft lost a lot of money in this area. According to this one educated developer, targeting Windows phones would be foolish. To quote: “While it’s possible to download applications from the Windows Phone Marketplace in Slovenia and many other countries, it’s impossible for developers to publish them with their own account. You simply cannot register a developer account. We are not even talking about the possibility of accepting payments, it’s impossible to publish free applications as well. Why they would insist on such a limitation is truly baffling.
“So Microsoft Slovenia is kind enough to publish all the apps from Slovenian developers under their account. While that was better than nothing, it also meant that we didn’t have the access to publishing our own app or statistics about how the app was doing. Everything could only be done through email with the Microsoft Slovenia employees. What that also meant is that any phone which we wanted to use for development purposes had to be physically taken to Ljubljana, to the local Microsoft HQ to be unlocked. Doable, but highly annoying and time-consuming.
“Imagine badgering employees at another company to hurry up with the upload by email each time you need to publish a bug fix, let alone optimise the description of the app.”
“Microsoft lost a lot of money in this area.”Microsoft can never catch up with Android, not even with Nokia having been abducted. There is no inertia for Windows on mobile and with growing losses it is harder for Microsoft to justify further investments.
While predators who devour FOSS are growing (Black Duck, for example, was founded by a Microsoft guy) Microsoft itself is poised to announce losses, as we showed before.
Nokia too is rapidly shrinking with this latest shutdown of offices in China. To quote: “Nokia is shuffling its operations in China as it hopes to better address the largest smartphone market in the world.
“Nokia CEO Stephen Elop talked about the opportunities in China back in April, when the company had signed a new deal with China Telecom. At the time, he had vowed to expand to more carriers and it looked to expand its footprint in the region.”
So much for “Plan A”. █
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