How far will Microsoft go with Android? There is only one destination for companies that fail with their own mobile operating system, and it's called Android. Last month, BlackBerry acknowledged defeat by announcing PRIV, an Android device with a focus on security. What then is Microsoft’s Plan B when it comes to mobile? In the Nadella era we have already seen the …
And there is where they went catastrophically wrong.
No apps and no other USP was never going to fly.
They should have gone the other way and developed tech to enhance the privacy and security on mobile, given propensity for users to download and run random code from the internet. It should have been stronger than Windows on the desktop.
Then at least if it failed, they could backport the security to the desktop and those who won't swap their passwords for a bar of chocolate could have a small but safe ecosystem. The "not secure but easy" end of the market is already taken.
Sadly they thought making the desktop more like mobile was a good idea and now I wouldn't trust their apps on mobile and no longer trust them on the desktop either, which I probably would have done before the telemetry and GWX fiasco.
I think that's even more confirmation that Windows Phone / Mobile or whatever its been re-branded as this week is on a road to no-where. It has no interest from developers, no interest from phone manufacturers, and no interest from the public aside from a tiny group of hardcore vocal supporters. Even the purchase of Nokia did nothing to improve its marketshare of almost nothing. At some point Microsoft will have to just abandon it like all their previous failed mobile efforts.
That's the problem, right enough. Windows CE all over again...a sort-of-familiar environment with a very limited set of toys that won't work on/with anything else and that will be abandoned as soon as Microsoft get bored.
Anyone who's invested in Windows CE devices would need a very pressing reason indeed to revisit this new version.
"Windows Phone / Mobile or whatever its been re-branded as this week is on a road to no-where"
Which makes me wonder, why cripple Windows 10 with so much compromises designed to make it look good on mobile if then you're not going to support it properly? And why on earth would MS put in a lot of effort to developing their own flavour of Android if all they need to do is to have 1 version of Windows 10 with 2 possible interfaces for desktop / mobile?
It makes no sense to me that MS would build their own Android devices, if Win 10 on phones fail, why be in the Mobile OS space at all? In that case they can just concentrate on having their apps on iOS+Android, and stop making phones altogether
But their services customers (Office 365, Skype for Business etc.) are often on Android for mobile devices and have a Windows desktop / notebook / 2-in-1 etc. So if their customers are using Android handsets, they need to have their apps on Android as well.
I hope they stick with Windows handsets, I'm on the waiting list for the 950. I have been through iOS and Android and I much prefer Windows Phone 8 / Windows 10 Mobile (I have the preview on my 1020). My family independently came to Windows Phone, my wife had my old iPhone and when she dropped it, she said she didn't want another one, so bought a 620 and now a 630. The kids were on Android and both saw the 630 and went straight out and bought themselves one.
One daughter is a Mac user, but she is sticking with WP8, she likes the iPhone but isn't willing to spend over 800€ for a phone and finds the Lumia is fine for what she needs.
To be honest, they don't care about which OS is better or which has the most apps, they are using the one they feel most comfortable with. They probably couldn't even tell you what OS or what version they are running, just that they like it.
I can't argue there. With phones it seems to be all about getting their apps wherever they can go. All with the intent of hooking people into their services.
My comment is really about the corresponding reduction in their attention to people who have traditionally seen Microsoft as a purveyor of the 'finest' operating systems for general use.
I still don't have a clear idea of how they view business systems in the future, but they certainly seem to have lost interest in providing OSs to the masses. I realised looking at it from the perspective of my Outlook account, that my PCs running the Win10 preview were just 'devices' to Microsoft. It isn't a great leap to consider that such devices could be running Linux or Android , for all Microsoft cares.
Which makes Windows 7 (or 8.1 if you like that) the last Windows OS.
"GWX" = "Get Windows X", where "X" denotes the end/no more - and not "10".
One of the main sticking points against any Other phone system is the lack of access to Google or Apple's hoard. Seems that someone could figure a way to set up an independent toy store, then license access without onerous and intrusive demands.
I own a Toyota, but I don't have to use Toyota's dealerships to buy things for my truck. There's no good reason our phones or computers should be so limited.
They didn't cover themselves with glory with mess they made of the Outlook Android app. After Google dropped support of their Outlook sync tool, presumably to try and force users to stop using Outlook on a PC and switch to Google Calendar, I installed Outlook onto my phone and then used a third-party app to display it.
Microsoft then "updated" the app one day, and neglected to say that the upgrade was actually to remove all functionality from the app and leave just a static screen telling you it was no longer supported and to load another Outlook app. Problem being that the new Outlook app is a steaming pile.
So, now both Outlook apps are consigned to the bin, Google calendar is disabled and Android Exchange services is happily pulling my calendar into my choice of calendar app. After using a decent calendar app, trying to use either Outlook or Google calendar apps is painful.
If Android devs won't write for Windows phones, and Windows devs won't write for Android, the ideal solution for Microsoft and Google may be to embrace running each other's apps.
It is starting to move that way anyway, albeit with a hodge-podge of shims, wrappers and hacks and it would be far better if they could just sort it out between them and deliver a more elegant solution both sides - and their respective customers - can buy into.
It won't be easy and it may be difficult for both to see that's where the future is. I am sure they can figure out some way to carve up the market between them.
I was there for the OS2/Windows wars of 1987-1992. Microsoft wasn't laughing (although a lot of Windows users were), as much as sweating, since IBM was still the 900 pound gorilla in the OS market. For the most part, they just followed Napoleon's recommendation to not interfere with an enemy that is busy committing suicide.
The nearest analog to OS2/Windows these days would be Blackberry OS10/Android; both Blackberry and IBM (a) were being outsold by orders of magnitude, (b) casually brushed that fact aside as they talked confidently of recapturing the market, as if it was a fait accompli, (c) had their OS run binaries written for competitors' OS, thereby negating the need to write anything for their platform in the first place, and (d) had management that was considered delusional by everyone outside the company.
I'm not putting much hope in WP gaining a huge market share anytime soon, but unlike Blackberry (and OS/2 in days past), they aren't just going point to point against Android. They're differentiating the WP platform from Android with the Windows Everywhere idea, pushing the concept that the phone, tablet, and PC should run the same code, with the same services, just with different interfaces and form factors. I don't necessarily buy into that model, but there's no denying that they've got a different vision than Google does for how a phone should plug into a computing ecosystem.
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