<Quote>
According to Ballmer, [Nokia, RIM, Apple] all need to make way for
Windows Mobile so that Microsoft can monopolize smartphones the same
way that it monopolized PCs in the 90s. Rather than elucidating a
genius strategy for making progress among mobile devices, Ballmer was
simply decreeing that Microsoft would win because it wants to win.
[The history...]
* [Microsoft] failed to take on the iPod with both the
PlaysForSure software platform and its own integrated Zune hardware.
* Windows Mobile has actually lost market share dramatically in
the smartphone market, from 23% in 2004 to 12% today. It has no
official plans for its own integrated phone.
* Even PC sales are falling from Microsoft’s grasp, with Apple
grabbing an increasingly large chunk of high growth laptop sales: 20%
of retail US unit sales and a whopping 35% dollar share of that market
now belong to Apple. Microsoft has no plans outlined for an integrated
PC.
* In video games, Microsoft has rapidly fallen from its early head
start with the integrated Xbox 360. Conversely it has no plans to
license the Xbox to commodity hardware partners.
...The problem is that Windows Mobile just isn’t very good. The
desktop PC Windows wasn’t very good in 1990 either, but nobody offered
a strong competitor that was ready to compete with it and broadly
available.
Microsoft delivered an equally bad product for
smartphones...Smartphones with a bad user interface, lethargic
performance, security holes, crashing instability, and long boot times
can’t be rationalized around with a Ctl Alt Del or fed RAM until they
work acceptably.
If Apple and Microsoft were the only two major platforms competing in
the smartphone arena, we may have had the opportunity to observe
another PlaysForSure vs iPod unfold. However, this time around
Microsoft is also competing against two major alternatives: the soon
to be open sourced Symbian and Google’s Android, both of which are
gunning to be the next “DOS” for smartphones.
Apple will be unique in offering the differentiation of tight
integration versus Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, while Windows
Mobile will be unique in offering the only platform partners have to
pay direct licensing fees to use. It will also be unique in offering a
proprietary web browser. The other three will be pushing a WebKit
based browser, meaning that the mobile world’s contributions will go
into maintaining WebKit’s lead as the superior mobile browser engine.
No wonder Microsoft hates open source....
The impact [of iPhone] on Mac sales is already clearly visible. As
Apple ramps up iPhone sales internationally and builds out retail
stores in the wake of its sales, Mac hardware will also force its way
into the cracks of the Windows PC monopoly and expand to break open
the computing landscape. Thanks to the web and a new push to create
platform-agnostic web apps led in part by Google, the barriers imposed
by Microsoft to stifle competition and technological progress are
rapidly becoming irrelevant in desktop computing.
...all of the top PC manufacturers are pushing back on Vista and
investigating alternatives, with Acer pioneering Linux sales, Dell
experimenting with Linux-based netbooks, and HP reportedly working to
deliver its own OS, like a Linux variant. PC makers owe no loyalty to
the company that has been taxing their performance with licensing
fees. The only way they can compete for hardware sales is to
differentiate themselves, something Windows 7 won’t help them do.
</Quote>
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/10/05/myth-8-iphone-will-lose-out-to-steve-ballmers-windows-mobile-7-in-2010/#more-2698
Mark your calendars. Five years. Windows 7 will save us. No more
Nokia, RIM, iPhone. Nossiree! We'll all be paying Windows Mobile
customers, happily surfing the web with Internet Explorer!! No more
Google either!! We'll get all we need from Microsoft Search!!
Ballmer is going to pay whatever it takes to make sure that will
happen! Don't you worry!!
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