Discussion on:

Microsoft's one big opportunity in mobile

Link to original piece:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/microsofts-one-big-opportunity-in-mobile/8893

Both what they need to do and why they won't do it. Someone else will beat them to the punch -- I just hope it's something closer to *nix than either Android or iOS is now.

And for those of us that want or need full keyboard and large screens? Are we to go with dumbed down interfaces that only work for touch screens?

I'm sorry, I feel I've been getting burned with some of the recent trends towards comsumer machines and away from development & analysis tools.

I don't think MS is silly enough, as has already been stated. More likely (if they can get Balmer off the helm) is to first get their mobile devices right, then really work on creating that needed synergy btwn those devices....

As much as I'm sick of all the hype and spin over this mobile touch-screened devices (and all this hypothesizing about how the age of the full computer and OS is coming to an end), they have a legitimate place in a society and social culture always on the move.... make it fit the user and not the other way around... and make it easy to sync to and from the main computer when you get back home.....

Get an Ad-Blocker program/add-in!!! It's so simple. Most browser have some sort of Ad-Blocker program, available. Sheesh....

it must have been good!

too many times they don't block the pop-ups or pop-unders and do block the desired pop-ups, I wish someone with programming abilities far above mine (wouldn't take much) would fix that kind of thing, where the desired content wouldn't be blocked by a simple blocker and all ads would be. Of course as soon as you do that, someone would program a way around it. Or how about a muter or automatic pause--get the content if you wish, but don't set to come on if you don't opt in--for automatic videos that no one, except the site programmer, asked for?

Now, that you mention it I see them, but I don't see any that are offensive.

Are you prone to hallucinations? (I tell you they were there! Olivia Munn and 3 unicorns were dancing the Samba on a Canon Copier!)

Unable to ignore an ad long enough to read a short article (or "sit" on the page)? Must be a highly effective ad! Or someone has attention problems.

Can't figure out ad blocker software?

This has to be one of the oddest (and saddest) posts I've ever read.

My eyes!!! It burrrrns!!!

I have seen MS in catch up mode and it is not pretty. I hope they can mount an attack to keep the maketplace honest and on its toes.

From my seat, running one step behind the release curve of market leaders appears to be hardwired into the corporate culture, design and intial release still suffer from old ways, and only market IT governance has saved them from the lag.

Microsoft has said in the past and still says, they are a software company, and that what they want to be. Now with that in mind,the possibility of this happening becomes very small, or non existent. Then the right approach for microsoft, I think is to do more of what it did with Nokia, and have the manufactures do what they know how to do, instead of Microsoft learning how to do hardware. I agree, that XBox 360 (Even the earlier version), Kinect, and Zune are awesome products, but they are not really Microsoft, someone else did and just bought it. Also they should work one there appearance, since a lot of people think that Microsoft is evil, and Apple, and Google are not, all though I completly disagree with that, but I am one.
People have this weird illusion that tablets/phones solve their lifes problem, well they don't. There are many thing that you are just not able to do in a small device, and there some things that is just cumbersome due to size. So once researchers figure out a way to put lots and lots of power into a little chip (PC comparable), and maintain batery for enough time (8 - 10hrs) with intesive use, and have all the wireless issues resolved, then maybe we will have the perfect scenario that you are referring to, and even then we might have to have a complete software redo, to make more use of "Cloud", and have things on the go, with parallel processing, and remote processing.
That basicaly is almost a complete reset on the market, and I really doubt that this will happen in the next 10 years.
Ok, that all on that subject, but on another note, Mr. Rodtrent, you being offended by a Ad, on right side of the page, that lasts about the first paragraph then you won't see it anymore, plus you don't have to pay from your pocket to support this article, and also you could print, copy and paste somewhere, make your window smaller, or many other options, is extremley offencive, to me, and to my inteligence. IM SORRY!!!

@oakcool@
Absolutely true. Microsoft people know they cannot be all things to all people, something IBM realised more than two decades ago but at a cost. MS cannot afford to rock the boat with hardware manufacturers at this point too. However, knowing MS history of innovation, they would definitely have plans behind closed doors. Remember, until now, nobody took voice recognition and text-to-speech seriously enough with portables and instead the focus went to touch and swipe.

@oakcool I use adblock. I have wireless internet and with ads the pages take forever to load. Also they chew bandwidth. Besides out of all the ads I've seen I only ever clicked on two. I'd rather pay a small amount each month than have to view unwanted ads.

We know they're working with Nokia to leap from the back of the pack to the front. Knowing both Microsoft and Nokia's business-customer focus, I believe they're going to eat up the market that Blackberry is rapidly losing. Just like Blackberry, it probably won't be sexy or cool, but it will be irresistable to corporate users, and a good deal of the consumer market will follow, for they same reasons they did with Blackberry.

And linking in to a lightweight PC, well have you seen Windows 8? There's no question that Windows Phone support will be fully integrated.

Really folks, read your history carefully. Microsoft has NEVER wanted to be 'hip' like Apple. They are market followers, and they get it right for the corporate market, where the real money is. They still own the office and the data centre, and there are no black clouds on that horizon.

It may be that Bill Gates envisioned the convergence, hence the introduction of Windows Mobile. But somehow they forgot their old leader and came up with Windows PHONE. Who uses the device mainly as a phone??? Clearly a giant leap back for the innovation department.

Excellent observation but for the reasons mentioned: it wwon't happen

I think ASUS has jumped in this opening already with their Padfone http://event.asus.com/mobile/padfone/

smart phones are OK, but. Its a small screen, its not as powerful, it can't handle all the tasks a power user will need. The list does go on. A more powerful smart phone might be OK for a short trip away from your main computer, but it won't replace it. MS are doing something right in teaming up with a major player like Nokia, but they're about 5 years behind the curve.

To be precise, the role of M$ in the technology segment is fading as they no longer able to bully the hardware vendors into their heels. It is good for the computer industry and the mobile revolution.

This all comes back down to MS's 3 screens and a cloud strategy in essence. the OS is going to be the unifying factor, the metro interface the glue that joins the desktops experience to mobile and TV based platforms. Windows Phone 7's interface rocks and is snappy and intuitive, Windows 7 has polished the desktop experience; Windows on ARM processors are on their way - convergence is go! go! go!

(btw Jason - nice to see you discussing MS for a change and not just the shiny new toys - thumbs up! MS still powers the real world even though they aren't "cool")

Jason, you hit the nail on the head. This is definitely the right strategy for MS, you should go and bang on their door and sell it to them right now!
Otherwise, they will continue to play catchup.
They may already be thinking along these lines given the Nokia deal, and now with the Nokia share price languishing with poorer sales it would be a prime time for either an outright purchase or certainly a controlling stake in Nokia. They might also think about doing similar with HTC who are similarly innovative. Owning the hardware is the way to go,but then making it a "must have" with the right branding and promotion. I think they will even need to set this is up as an entirely separate business with a cool name and **** hot management well away from ballmer's beady eye, and away from the failing Nokia.

@TGGill: Microsoft has always operated in catch up mode. Whether in languages, operating systems, office apps, web browsers or any other area, they have always come in late and then persisted until they won out.

As a hardware partner, they have a hungry Nokia to kick start things so it is all to play for BUT where Microsoft was a shark under Bill Gates, I have the feeling that they have turned into a whale since he left.

Microsoft absolutely needs to move forward with mobile devices. The trouble is they are just too slow. These days release cycles seem to be in months not the multiple years that microsoft takes. Perhaps what really needs to happen is a breakup of redmond into a bunch of smaller more nimble and visionary companies. No other tech company has the bredth of products they do. Now they just have to make each of those products the best, not just be another player in the market.

I was saying this 10 years ago and so was Qualcomm (who I worked for then). Matter of fact, it was their mission statement to replace the PC altogether with a portable computer (Phone), that just drops into a docking station with all the PC peripherals and you just work.

They have Nokia in their corner, but they need a more hardware-oriented manufacturer too.
Creating a "whole new kind of platform" takes a lot of nerve.

Nokia may die before M$ get a fully competitive windows phone O/S up and running (ie I had a look at the HTC phones running both Win Phone 7 and Android, and I couldn't see why anyone would currently buy the Win Phone 7 device.) If Nokia go, then M$ share of the phone OS market may be the same in 2 or 3 years time as it is now. Not much to try out their convergence on there ..

It would be better for stock holders if M$ was split up. One company to keep the cash cows (Windows and Office), one for corporate stuff (Servers) and one for mobile stuff. That way the mobile etc people wouldn't always be under pressure (as they are now) to not do anything that might adversely impact on Windows / Office. A DoJ win years ago would have been good for everyone.

Hello MS,
Have you not seen the Nirvana phone project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVcAajvMMYk

For the longest time, I've been a Microsoft fan... so naturally, when Windows Phone (7) was introduced, I was the first to buy it. Sadly, the spell was broken the day after when I learned that the Microsoft Windows Phone was not fully compatible with Microsoft Exchange Mail Server.
The old Windows 6.0 phone is compatible, BlackBerry, Android and iPhone are too... only Microsoft is NOT compatible with Microsoft. For that reason, this phone cannot be used for corporate users (the users that can pay the biggest bills).
Asking Microsoft to innovate would be too much to ask for. Bill Gates will be surely missed. Ballmer is not the right man to fill the big shoes of his predecessor.

This has always been an issue with Microsoft Office products between the Windows and Mac platforms. It isn't that Macs are incompatible with Office apps, Office apps are incompatible with Office Apps. That kind of programming works when there are no other options, but it fails very quickly when you aren't the top dog. It is always amazing to me that companies that have such deep pockets and do so much research of the markets miss the simple stuff.

True. It's also true between some versions of Microsoft Windows platforms and other versions of Microsoft Windows platforms. It seems sometimes that even Microsoft can't talk to Microsoft.

Search for "office 2010 befehle finden" in Google, firts hit an MS site with the handbook, search in Bing - you don't find what you ned.
A while ago: Try to open a docx document in Microsoft Office 2003 - no chance (except with some add-in, that was difficult to even find and even more to install) - open it in Open Office - no problem.
But at least in some areas it's getting better: use office 365 in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, even Internet Explorer... looks nice;-)

I completely agree with you regarding vision - Microsoft hasn't had any since Bill left.

The other big problems with the phone in general (not specifically the Windows phone):
hardware, power. Sorry, but you're just not going to run a spreadsheet on a phone. No screen real estate and no data entry devices. The other problem is power: running any kind of app sucks juice. Apple has done wonders to prolong battery life, but I have yet to see a Windows device follow suit. Not sure if it's all those extra services Microsoft insists have to run in the background or what, but battery life is critical on mobile platforms.

Great vision Jason! This would put the WOW back into Microsoft's products. My son has a Windows 7 phone and there are some really great things about it. (Typing on the keyboard is sooo much easier!) but there is nothing that makes you jump up and say: "Yes! I have to have this!"

You know how the car manufacturers roll out crazy prototypes to show off once a year?
We need that for computers and mobiles.
A forum where manufacturers can compete on putting existing technology to the maximum use, just for the hell of it.
I mean, you could easily have a set of independent devices link up wirelessly:
a PC-in-a-box type of device (no peripherals at all)
+a Tablet-come-display-for-the-PCIAB
+a wireless input set (mouse and keyboard)
=A "phone"-that-is-a-PC

The difference between tablet and phone is not big anymore.
One is smaller than the other, and can be held up to the ear without looking entirely dumb.
The tradeoff is less power, and smaller screens.
With bluetooth headsets, that difference is easily solved to the advantage of the tablet.
Adding the power of a PC, or adding the seamless linkup to the powerpack (PCIAB) or Cloud equivalent - that's the only thing (sort of) missing.

I don't think people are ready to abandon their home power device for the cloud just yet, and some professions can't yet. But having a tablet work as the display for a "home cloud" is a tantalizing prospect, IMHO.

I love my t mobile dash 3g with windows 6.1 and 6.53. I cannot stand the Iphone nor any touch screen device due to large fingers. . .

I got the predecessor to the Dash 3g and it had windows 6.1 because it was an "Inexpensive blackberry". come to find out that it (the Tmobile dash) was far more advanced in features than the blackberry could ever be with the internet sharing program. up until Tmobile would not stop pestering me to upgrade my plan, i was the happiest person on the planet paying $85.00 a month for the service. the phone lagged on the internet and would freeze due to webpage content and phove memory, but in the usb tethering, i had no reason to subscribe to an internet service provider and contrary to documentation, i could charge my phone and surf the web. the task manager allowed a simple battery saving feature by ending unused tasks. windows on the phone and windows on the desktop, where is the conflict. now lets find out if other OS could be offered in the same fashion. . .but with windows at work and windows on the phone = valuable employee. . .

Bill Gates doesn't need to give away his money. Without him at the helm Microsoft will lose it for him

Although I'm a believer in converged computing devices, I think a critical aspect of these devices is the ability to be "context aware" and to switching the computing environment to reflect the different contexts in which we use computers. For example, the OS has to be smart enough to know that since it's not docked it must be either in tablet or phone mode. Then it has to know the difference between being in phone mode and in tablet mode. For example, when it's not docked with a PC or tablet screen, the OS has to know to run Metro for example, with minimal options and the necessary battery life requirements. This is where Microsoft comes in.

With converged computing devices the need will arise to have one app that scales to every environment. We can't rely on app developers to do that so MS will be needed to develop the tools and APIs that allow these apps to scale without needing a PC app, a phone app and a tablet app. I think we're very close to seeing a phone that docks with a tablet screen and a laptop and I don't think anyone would want the hardware makers to come up with their own clunky UIs like Webtop. Windows 8 needs to be context aware and scale to each environment seamlessly.

Yes, remember IBM, first created the PC, but kept it from growing with its small 8088 chip and 8 bit bus? IBM did all it could to keep PC sales from eroding it sales of mainframes. Your point #2 sounds just like this. MS needs to keep up with technologies as much as possible, even if they must bet the company on the new technologies. Look at Apple, their IPODs and IPADs may have cut into sales of MACs, but, they have also cut into sales of PCs. Unless MS can come up with something better, then, MS needs to wake up and move, or else fall to the bottom of the pack, like IBM. Also, the longer MS waits, the more customers it will lose. And, its a lot tougher to get a customer back than to get a current customer to upgrade.

IMHO, Microsoft will have a role to play in providing some software for some mobile devices. But I think the future will be based on innovative hardware for mobile devices, like the development of NFC, and trekie things like medical scans, Tricorder stuff. Most of the people that I know who left Microsoft did so because of their interest in hardware development.

Right title, wrong vision. The other "vision" is the challenge of making something useful on a 3"x3" screen for people with mediocre eyesight. If you use up the real estate with borders, tabs, ribbons and so on, the useful information will be unreadable. Windows seems to prefer flashiness to functionality.

They're two completely different markets. Pad or Tablet is a third different market. So the basic thrust of this article is totally flawed. Microsoft aren't that stupid, and will (eventually) offer something reasonable in each area. What they won't try to do is combine them or pretend they're all the same requirement.