Nokia gobble: Microsoft can't get free of red-tape bondage 'til April Here's an eyebrow-raiser: Microsoft's general counsel and executive veep for legal and corporate affairs Brad Smith has roused himself late on Sunday evening to blog about the company's acquisition of Nokia. In a statement posted at 11:10 PM on Sunday night, Smith said "we expect to close next month, in April 2014." Why did …
A part of the issue was that Korean regulators delayed everything by at least six weeks and Indian regulators are demanding that Nokia pay a metric fuckload of tax they've been disputing for a long time before the sale can go ahead.
The deal basically gave several vested interests a stick to beat MS and/or Nokia with until they get what they want.
Political blackmail. It's quite common.
But don't let me distract you from your conspiracy theory; do enlighten us as to what you think is being embraced, extended or extinguished? MS' own mobile platform? Sneaky.
Well, obviously, a financial social worker has to evaluate your suitability, a lot of questionnaires have to be filled in, then perhaps you get to have the market stay with you at weekends, and if it goes back to its foster parents not too traumatised you get to adopt it, with regular follow up.
Currently the government agencies are deciding whether the relationship between Mr. Microsoft and Ms. Nokia is a suitable one, and the Indians (as is usual in their country) want to see them shell out lots of cash to pay for the wedding. They just want the knot tied quietly by lawyers in Washington State.
At least, that's how I understand it.
They'd better hurry up while there's still something left to buy!
Had a chat on Friday with the only person* I know who actively went out and bought a Nokia (the one with the good camera) who was pretty disappointed by the lack of apps. She's happy with with the phone, particularly with the camera, of course. But there was still that sense of possibly rueing the purchase.
Maybe MS should drop the OS side of things and pursue the MS services on Android approach. There's a nice irony to this as it would mirror the countless number of companies who tried to compete with Microsoft on Windows with their apps. Still, if MS can demonstrate it has better services than Google, this might work.
* So this is purely anecdotal.
It's her second actually. First was an 800 which was okay but it packed in unexpectedly. The second is a 520 which was selling cheap and not a bad spec for what it is.
I like Windows Phone's basic experience. It is very easy to use and the GUI offers just enough customizability to make it personalizable. Where it begins to suck is in the choice (or lackthereof) of apps and a general feeling that the experience despite its ease is still inferior to other platforms.
Probably the best thing about the platform is not the platform but a free app Nokia bundles in the phone the - "Here" is an offline satnav app. This is handy for holidays or just when you have no internet coverage. I wonder when the X series arrives if we'll see a version for Android, or people providing instructions for sideloading it onto other handsets.
They aren't dying, they are just a bit niche.
BlackBerry is already testing 10.3 - they've made huge progress in little over a year which suggests that they got the underlying platform right and it is reasonably future proof. So far all the BB10 phones have been upgradeable all the way - though with only 4 of them to worry about that's not perhaps so amazing. The dealbreaker for the Playbook seems to be the 1G of RAM.
Microsoft lost my interest when they started to have version incompatibility, the mistake they did not make with Windows.
"Preloaded, apparently."
I expect so, but it's possible to backup most apps. It's not hard to imagine someone doing that for this particular app if it lets someone get free satnav on other devices. Depends what else it does on the backend - calling services only available for the X platform.
Blackberry OS 10 has done this (I assume successfully). It is the thing that is making me think of getting a blackberry with a proper keyboard and optical trackpad for my next phone.
Is there any reason windows phone can't do this to run Android apps?
I think one of the reasons that iPhones are easy to use than android phones is that Apple control both the hardware and OS. So I'm surprised Sony, Samsung, LG etc aren't moving in a similar direction. Or does having someone else's runtimes mess this up a bit?
Perhaps because QNX as used by BlackBerry isn't Windows Phone: it is an extremely robust microkernel OS that can be used to host all kinds of stuff in sandboxes, so the evil that lurks in Android runtimes can be kept from messing up your phone.
QNX can even run Apple's new in-car system on top; it really is extremely capable.
"Perhaps because QNX as used by BlackBerry isn't Windows Phone: it is an extremely robust microkernel OS that can be used to host all kinds of stuff in sandboxes, so the evil that lurks in Android runtimes can be kept from messing up your phone."
QNX provides a POSIX api which certainly makes it a lot easier to port a Android layer but there is absolutely no reason that another kernel couldn't do it just as well.
In fact it's already happened, e.g. FreeBroid is an Android layer running on BSD and Windroy is an Android layer running on a Windows kernel. These are obviously enthusiast efforts. I assume that Microsoft with infinite money and resources could port Android and make it almost seamless if they so desired.
But it's less about the technical challenge and more about politics and marketing. If Windows Phone supported Android seamlessly, then what incentive is there for anybody to write native Windows Phone apps? There isn't any. The only reason Blackberry went down this route is pure desperation.
Windows Phone could probably do it - there are already Android emulators on Windows - but it would mean beefing up the hardware requirements (RAM mainly) which would mitigate any putative advantage Windows Phone is supposed to have over Android.
Of course, it would be possible to do a BlackBerry and have a different kernel underneath Android. Microsoft does apparently have suitable OSes lying around but QNX has the not inconsiderable advantage of being tried and tested. And even then look at how long it's taken BlackBerry to get BBOS and Android running on QNX.
Actually, they've dropped to 22% for all end-devices that they target.
MS are only relevant to a few fanbois, FUD believers, and lock-in victims. The fortunate majority who have escaped/dodged them are now actually enjoying the IT industry.
And the funny thing is, they're actively getting rid of their user-base by killing XP!
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Do you have the relevant links to the reports that confirm this?
Certainly, sir: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2014/03/21/microsoft_sorgen_intelligent_devices/
I would be a little surprised to hear that a Windows runs on only 22% of all desktops
I said "end-devices"
> Nokia have already imploded due to arrogance, Microsoft have set the course to follow.
Open sourcing the .NET framework was arrogance?
Oh wait, did you mean "inventing a touch-first launcher that I, personally, me, I, the most important person ever in the history of ever, think is ugly"? That kind of arrogance?
I can see you're exactly the person to go to for lessons in humility.
No, I mean presuming that the same interface that was designed to appeal to tablet and phone users would appeal to desktop users, after desktop users have been using a different interface for 20-odd years.
You see that Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.2? That stuff should have come out in Beta testing.
Oh yeah, and then there's IE6/7/8/9 - ten years of pain for anyone who has to build a website because they can't follow standards.
IE6 was 14 years ago
It was first released 14 years ago. The last release was in 2008, and is still currently being patched (until next month).
Side note: There is speculation that they stagnated IE6-9 in order to make the web a less attractive platform. Due to the incompatibilities between each version and lack of a decent update, there are still plenty of people using them, still making it a burden for web devs.
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