What if Microsoft was a forced buyer? (Column)

All I can say is WP8 on my Lumia 520 is rock solid and NEVER lags a bit, always smooth. Yes it does struggle with push notifications with some I'm apps and when the < button is pushed it does close the app, but I'm sure thimgs like this will be ironed out in the future. Fyi typing on my tab, so excuse the odd spelling mistake here and there. :p
 
The biggest issue for MS and Nokia is their market share is too small for most devs to consider it a serious platform. What they need to do is undercut Android in terms of pricing to gain market share and once people are in the ecosystem devs will start developing for it. I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft helping out a couple of the struggling manufacturers in order to boost the number of WP8 phones out there. Blackberry would make a good fit with all their enterprise expertise. HTC has previously worked with WP8 but I think that they are more likely to focus on Android, it fits their MO better.
 
FWIW, I don't think Samsung produced "half baked" windows phone device(s). Two months ago I "converted" to a Samsung Ativ S (Windows Phone 8 OS), having had a HTC Desire HD for 3 years. So believe me, I was an Android fanboy, lover and vowed never to use anything else. All I can say is that the Windows platform is very refreshing. I miss certain aspects of my Android, but that's fine because Windows isn't trying to emulate Android or iOS. The Ativ is smooth and has a brilliant battery life (2 days).

I like the fact that this article reminds us of the timespan that we're looking at to get Nokia integrated, especially considering the time it took Motorola and Skype to get integrated. Its not going to be overnight that Nokia become a dominant player again.

But I don't think its doom and gloom for MS or Nokia. If you think about it, Apple has 1 manufacturer / device. Whats wrong with MS having 1 manufacturer? In fact, that's one advantage Apple have over Android, is that they don't have a fragmented platform across many manufacturers to worry about.

On the question of why Samsung should adopt Window Phone platform more (BTW, they've just released the Ativ Neo), I'm surprised they're paying any attention to the Windows Phone platform, givien their dominance on the Android platform.

MS are producing a very solid platform, in their own time. If you think about it, in 2 years they've managed to eclipse the Blackberry marketshare (according global stats).
 
rogerwe said:
MS are producing a very solid platform, in their own time. If you think about it, in 2 years they've managed to eclipse the Blackberry marketshare (according global stats).
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The RIM market did it to itself. Microsoft was late to the party, RIM hadn't even found a parking spot yet.
 
I really think the comparison with Skype (US$8billion) vs Nokia devices (US$7.2billion) is misleading, misguided and is used only to serve a purpose - that being there is some element of desperation in the deal (presumably from Nokia).

The facts however are that neither Nokia nor Microsoft made this deal as an act of desperation. This deal was made because of the very optimistic prospects for Windows Phone given Nokia Lumia's recent progress. Microsoft bought Nokia devices because they need to avoid the fledgling Windows Phone maker from going Android so as to capture market with the mildly burgeoning growth.

As for the Skype comparison, it is unfair because the Skype deal was an entire business that was bought and yes, it needed just 1,000 employees because it is basically software and not hardware. By comparison, US$7.2billon is way more than BlackBerry's (the entire business's) market capitalization, which stands at about US$5.7billion.
 
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IMO most people buy Android for the reason they can load pirated apps and change the launcher to the way they like it. I will always have some sort of Android device with me despite me using a WP8 device also. But besides the ability to change the launcher and load pirated apps out of the box (And also that most apps and games are free on the play store) I cant think of a different reason for wanting a Android device. Lets face it, not everybody can afford a Galaxy S4 at R499 a month so some people tend to go for the R79 - R190 a month Android phones on contract and with them you normally have to change the launcher or load a custom rom to make it less luggish. Now with this bottem of the barrel Nokia Lumia 520 out of the box the phone is always smooth. I know this because I have flashed phones since WM4, Android 1.6 etc....
 
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saa044 said:
IMO most people buy Android for the reason they can load pirated apps and change the launcher to the way they like it. I will always have some sort of Android device with me despite me using a WP8 device also. But besides the ability to change the launcher and load pirated apps out of the box (And also that most apps and games are free on the play store) I cant think of a different reason for wanting a Android device. Lets face it, not everybody can afford a Galaxy S4 at R499 a month so some people tend to go for the R79 - R190 a month Android phones on contract and with them you normally have to change the launcher or load a custom rom to make it less luggish. Now with this bottem of the barrel Nokia Lumia 520 out of the box the phone is always smooth. I know this because I have flashed phones since WM4, Android 1.6 etc....
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that is the reason, cause if it was, most people would go to iPhone as you can now pirate games without even Jailbreaking.

Reason Android sells is simple, price and marketing. For the average consumers price speaks volumes and up until the recent 520 range Lumia's where not exactly cheap.

Reason why Windows Phone is not selling for most people is because of the 1.)lack of Applications, 2.)Cost of the device, and for developers its the lack of consumers. My co has exactly 5 Windows Phone applications and we wrote em off as "training fees" as the number of people interested in Windows Phone applications do not even register. (We not abandoning the platform but its not exactly worth it to go full on in this segment)

Now if Microsoft truely want their platform to excell they will have to:
a: Fix the mess called a app market. Splinting reviews between countries sucks for start-up's. Example:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-za/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (No reviews, no installs)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (Some reviews + installs)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-nz/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (1 review....
If you look at the app from SA you would think no one installed it....
b: Incentivising development, be this done with more competitions or even going to main players offering them money to port existing hits might be a good idea.
c: Sell phones at or below cost on certain models, just to get the market up and running. Spending that 8 billion as a loss on device sales would have grown the market a hell of a lot more than a Nokia buy out. If they for example let the Lumia 520's sell for R800 without a contract I can bet you they would have had a lot more devices out there, and once people get a taste they are more likely to stick to the ecosystem in future upgrades.
 
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AlphaJohn said:
I highly doubt that is the reason, cause if it was, most people would go to iPhone as you can now pirate games without even Jailbreaking.

Reason Android sells is simple, price and marketing. For the average consumers price speaks volumes and up until the recent 520 range Lumia's where not exactly cheap.

Reason why Windows Phone is not selling for most people is because of the 1.)lack of Applications, 2.)Cost of the device, and for developers its the lack of consumers. My co has exactly 5 Windows Phone applications and we wrote em off as "training fees" as the number of people interested in Windows Phone applications do not even register. (We not abandoning the platform but its not exactly worth it to go full on in this segment)

Now if Microsoft truely want their platform to excell they will have to:
a: Fix the mess called a app market. Splinting reviews between countries sucks for start-up's. Example:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-za/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (No reviews, no installs)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (Some reviews + installs)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-nz/store/app/battlestats/8faa9f0b-04f6-4d0a-807e-9756679e3a44 (1 review....
If you look at the app from SA you would think no one installed it....
b: Incentivising development, be this done with more competitions or even going to main players offering them money to port existing hits might be a good idea.
c: Sell phones at or below cost on certain models, just to get the market up and running. Spending that 8 billion as a loss on device sales would have grown the market a hell of a lot more than a Nokia buy out. If they for example let the Lumia 520's sell for R800 without a contract I can bet you they would have had a lot more devices out there, and once people get a taste they are more likely to stick to the ecosystem in future upgrades.
Click to expand...

We had that R800 deal with 8TA last year for a Samsung Omnia 7 I think, I searched for 2 weeks to find one. But yeah in my previous post I aimed more at the average joe getting a phone for IM, Facebook, Browsing and game purposes rather than people using it in their business. Not sure it that makes a difference, but yeah. :)

Was not aware that you can load pirated games on the Iphone without it being jailbroken, you sure of that? Well tha last time I had a Iphone it was the 3GS and without it being jailbroken you had to get everything from their app store.
 
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saa044 said:
We had that R800 deal with 8TA last year for a Samsung Omnia 7 I think, I searched for 2 weeks to find one. But yeah in my previous post I aimed more at the average joe getting a phone for IM, Facebook, Browsing and game purposes rather than people using it in their business. Not sure it that makes a difference, but yeah. :)
Click to expand...

Like I said R800 without contract would be sweet deal and I can see loads of people going for it. Should be official price and not a "special".

saa044 said:
Was not aware that you can load pirated games on the Iphone without it being jailbroken, you sure of that? Well tha last time I had a Iphone it was the 3GS and without it being jailbroken you had to get everything from their app store.
Click to expand...

Yes I am sure of that, Pre iOS 5 days you had to jailbreak, not anymore. Thats mostly why Installious died as well.
Quick Google gave me: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/01/01/low-down-dirty-iphone-app-pirates/ and you can find more if you look.
 
It's quite conceivable that Microsoft was the target for Nokia, rather than MSFT hunting it, as I suggested last week. Some years back, even before Nokia's board recruited Elop, they must have considered the nearly $100b in cash that Microsoft had then (it's down to a mere $78b-ish now), and this helped focus the strategic imperatives. Still, the deal makes sense for both parties for various reasons.

It should also be borne in mind that Nokia has reinvented itself several times. It started well over a century ago, in rubber. Once famous for its gumboots, the company eventually expanded into forestry and paper, and then into electrical cabling, tyres, and even gas masks.

One mistake I think many tech commentators make is that people buy Android smartphones. They suggest that if Nokia had gone with Android it would not be in the pickle it is.

I don't think this is quite accurate. 99% of people do not buy Android phones.

People buy popular phones that just happen to run Android. Specifically Samsung.

Samsung has done a magnificent job of pushing their smartphones through various channels - networks, SPs, operators, retail, etc, etc. Their success is a combination of unusually good margins for networks and operators, and leather-on-the-street repping by channel sales groups in the major markets to whip up the tornado.

But Samsung are by no means the only handset vendor doing Android. There are plenty others who hardly feature despite doing Android ... where's LG, Sony, HTC, Motorola, etc, etc?

They are nowhere despite going with Android.

Now Samsung can out-manufacture almost anyone, and they have for years cultivated relationships with networks and operators, to the point where they can and do offer them deals with margins no-one else can match. That is why Samsung succeeds where other Android handset makers fail. Nokia never had and cannot have that luxury because their margins are much smaller, and the margins for operators are concomitantly smaller.

Another strategic reason why Nokia as a value-add phone maker could not go Android is that long-term success in smartphones doing so would cede the entire platform to Google, which cares nothing for Android revenues. Nokia knows its ecosystems that lock in and provide value, and on Android the ecosystem is owned by Google, who control the whole experience. Samsung cares not a fig, because it shifts handsets, period. But it would have been, is and will be a monumental strategic blunder for Nokia to go Android.

In the wake of the MS-Nokia deal, there's so much bilge being written about Elop being a MS trojan. People forget that he was a newcomer to Microsoft and was there for less than two years, having served at Lotus, Macromedia (acquired by Adobe), and Juniper. He was recruited by the Nokia board to implement their strategic decision to drop Symbian, MeeGo. They paid him $6m just to sign on, apart from his annual salary. His departure from MSFT was very low-key as he hadn't been a star or Microsoft corporate dude/lacky. This canard of 'Trojan Elop' needs to be laid to rest once and for all.
 
just to add, I see WP7 and WP8 does not share the same market place as with Android. Seems like WP7 and WP8 apps are seperate, so a new novice user might get a WP8 device and see much less apps and games than Android. There however is a WP7 market app you can download to access everything on your WP8 device.
 
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