Vista Phony 7 is Just a Very Costly Experiment

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-02-22 21:32:33 UTC
Modified: 2011-02-22 21:32:33 UTC

Summary: Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is failing pretty badly, costing Microsoft a lot of money, and even disapponting its few existing users whose devices are now getting bricked by an update

As something smelly & dirty hits the fan, Microsoft turns to patents and it's easy to see why. Microsoft has not got so much left except for a legacy line of products such as Office and Windows (although they too erode). There yet more Microsoft fawning from Rory Cellan-Jones ("Microsoft's future: Only Kinect") and not much is said about the company's overall situation, including debt.

According to this new article, the price of Vista Phony 7 is negative; "they say Microsoft is paying vendors to use WP7," summarises our regular gnufreex and to quote the original:

Yes, Microsoft is competing with free and open software on price, not the smartest thing to do if you are a for profit company. According to my source, it isn't a one time thing either, not just a temporary launch price to get their foot in the door. He indicated that if MS tries to back off on their pricing model, they will find out exactly how much phone makers think of Windows Phone 7. He strongly hinted that tepid sales more than adequately reflect the love felt by OEMs for the OS.

This 'pricing model', basically kickbacks in a legally palatable form, are nothing new in the industry. A good recent example of the breed came out in the Intel/AMD settlement a bit over a year ago.

To Microsoft's fortune (or misfortune), hardly anyone bought a Vista Phony 7 device and those who did keep complaining about problems like bandwidth drain and now the bricking of Vista Phony 7 devices. From ZDNet UK:

Windows Phone 7 update is 'bricking' some handsets

A minor software update for Windows Phone 7 is causing problems for owners of some handsets, according to posts made on Twitter.

The software — which does little but get the Windows Phone 7 updater ready for future upgrades — started rolling out to users on Monday but some handset owners quickly started reporting problems with it on Twitter.

This whole platform has been a disaster and the NoWin deal [1, 2, 3, 4] can't do much to change this. An analyst which ha[s|d] Microsoft as a client has published this analysis which confirms Nokia cannot do much:

Q: What does this mean for Android?

A: In the short term, very little. A partnership with Nokia would have made the platform an even more formidable competitor to iOS, but volume is at present not a major problem for the Android ecosystem. In the longer term, if this deal energizes a Windows Mobile ecosystem that has largely been treading water since its launch, it could mean increased competition for Android and iOS both.

Given that the market share of Vista Phony 7 is somewhere around 0.1% (Windows Mobile still has more), there is so much that's needed to be gained for it to qualify as "competition". At the moment, it's somewhat of a joke almost comparable with the KIN. But with so much money spent on advertising it may be hard to notice that advocacy of the platform is largely fake. Vista Phony 7 will never be a contender, not even with Elop's entryism (this video of "Nokia Plan 0" is apt). ⬆

Comments

twitter

2011-02-23 06:21:38

Microsoft borrowed another $2.25 billion this month, exceeding their own prior authorization. From this Microsoft spin friendly article in the Fox Street Journal we learn:

[a a $2.25 billion, three-part debt offering] The company's board authorized $6 billion of debt issuance last year. Its bond sales from September and today amount to $7 billion, but it paid down $1 billion in short-term commercial paper debt in November.

This report is at odds with prior reports of $16 billion of debt, but we should not be surprised by a typo from a slippery company like Microsoft with a history of funny money reports. Nor should we be surprised to see Murdock running damage control articles about foreign money and US corporate tax rates. As a sharp observer here noted last September, the foreign money tax excuse implies that Microsoft is not making money in the US or is fraudulently evading taxes.

Whatever the reason, the company can't seem to get enough debt.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-02-23 07:12:02

Is there a source that covers this better than Murdoch's?

twitter

2011-02-23 18:38:33

I did not see any objective news when I looked. It seems like the only people who care are Microsoft boosters and the usual fraud street boosters. All the articles are insanely complementary, more like advertising than journalism. All I could do was to extract the claimed fact and compare it to previous claims.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-02-23 19:11:24

Thanks. Well, I've used only Murdoch's rags then.

I recently read a fascinating article (reliable source) which explains not only that many big banks indeed use the same tricks as Madoff but also that many companies use the methods of Enron and since the whole economy is based on such illusions (the taxpayers pay for it at the end, e.g. bailout-type socialism), it's only a few scapegoats that are taken aside for a deserved beating. It's like PR, federal flexing of muscles to restore confidence. I'm truly concerned about bubble economies, which also rely heavily on massive debts.

Vista Phony 7 is Just a Very Costly Experiment

Windows Phone 7 update is 'bricking' some handsets

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts