Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was interviewed by Business Insider, and when asked about his greatest strategic mistake, the answer was obvious.
The decision I think a lot of people talk about – and one of the most difficult decisions I made when I became CEO —was our exit of what I’ll call the mobile phone as defined then. In retrospect, I think there could have been ways we could have made it work by perhaps reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones.
Microsoft’s failures to anticipate the mobile market is legendary at this point, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Microsoft CEO state they should’ve tried harder and stuck with it. I was a huge fan of Windows Phone 7 and 8, and even imported the first devices running those platforms from the US, because the platforms were not available in The Netherlands at the time. However, Windows Phone was a dead end. Even regular Windows has a big application problem, and it was a millions of times worse on Windows Phone.
I doubt any amount of money or development resources would’ve changed the fate of Windows Phone. It would’ve been good for the industry as a whole had Microsoft not failed, but the reality of it is that Android and iOS were already so far ahead it was impossible for anyone, even someone as large and wealthy as Microsoft, to catch up. Add to that the countless terrible business and technological decisions the company made with Windows Phone, and it just wasn’t meant to be.
I understand that Nadella pines for the slice of the money pie they’ve could’ve had, but I doubt he sincerely thinks things could’ve turned out any differently.
Windows Phone always gave off loser vibes. It was really slow to adopt stuff like higher-res screens, dual-core CPUs (for 1080p recording), and MicroSD cards, without any clear reason given to the fans for that. The OS was ugly (emphasizing chromatic and geometric uniformity over style and function). And most importantly, even very basic apps like Instagram or Strava were missing. And that was from a company that could have easily afforded to evolve the OS faster and pay for app support. It’s as if Microsoft assumed they were owed market share because they were Microsoft.
Compare and contrast with the Xbox (the last major product introduction before Windows Phone), which shipped with more features than the competition (PS2) and with a full roster of games. Bill Gates vs Steve Ballmer, visionary CEO vs accountant CEO.
Anyway, goodbye and good riddance Windows Phone. You combined the worst trait of iOS (locked sideloading) with the worst trait of Android (uncertain upgrades to new major versions), it’s fortunate for consumer rights that Microsoft failed you.
I think your comment was spot on.
Most WP7 and WP8 devices had 720p or similar resolutions at a time when some higher end Android devices had the same. The huge screen/high res push started around the time WP was dying off. The best Lumia devices came out around the same time as the iPhone 4S, which had a tiny screen, and most Android devices around that time were hardly better. I’m not sure what you’re going on about with “dual-core CPUs”, even the lowest end Lumia 530 had a quad core CPU, though it wasn’t a speed demon. The midrange Lumias all had 1080p video recording. I’m with you on the MicroSD front though, that would have been nice.
That’s completely subjective; I found it to be simple, minimalist, and perfectly functional. It was certainly more intuitive than Android and iOS’ “hunt through several pages of icons for a specific app”.
There were some really great third party apps for services like Instagram (which during this time was pre-Facebook takeover and actually a decent social media service). I had to look up Strava; it doesn’t seem like a “basic” or “essential” app for the population at large, more of a specific app for a specific activity (biking/hiking). There were quite a few of those types of apps on WP though I have no idea if they were better or worse than Strava.
Sideloading was not truly locked, you could sign up for a free developer account with Microsoft and sideload all you wanted. In fact they promoted this to early adopters like me.
My kingdom for an edit button! Ugh, one mangled quote tag…
That last bit should have been:
Absolutely. Microsoft’s hubris killed what could have become the best mobile OS of all time.
Sideloading was not truly locked, you could sign up for a free developer account with Microsoft and sideload all you wanted. In fact they promoted this to early adopters like me.
This seems like a good place for me to ask…
How the heck do I do quote tags in a comment on OSAlert?? I’ve scoured the internet, tried different options, looked for a formatting help page, and just can’t seem to figure it out! XD
[blockquote] … [/blockquote]
But with “” instead of “[” and “]”.
ohh… crap… The things that look like 2/3 of a triangle. They are probably called angle brackets.
Thank you!
As a tip, try to look what CMS is the site using. Since OSAlert runs on WordPress here’s a guide.
Parodper,
Thom, put this in the FAQ, please. People have been asking this long enough that it should be there.
The Lumia 900 was released in June 2012 with a 480×800 screen when most of the big boys (Apple, Samsung, and LG) had moved to higher resolutions for their high-end smartphones (in order to give users that sweet “can’t see the pixel grid” hi-DPI feel). Even the iPhone 4S you mention had a resolution higher than 480×800 back in late 2011 (and was in fact the phone that kickstarted the move to higher resolutions thanks to Apple’s ingenious “retina display” marketing). Android was quick to follow, Windows Phone not so much.
Android had dual core CPU and 1080p video recording ever since the LG Optimus 2X back in February 2011 (single core smartphones were limited to 720p). Other Androids and Apple quickly followed suit mid-to-late 2011 with the iPhone 4S. The Lumia 900 shipped proudly wearing a single core CPU and offering 720p recording only in June 2012. In fact, Windows Phone wouldn’t see dual-core (and 1080p recording) until late October 2012 with Windows Phone 8, about more than 1.5 years later than the first Android and one year after Apple (despite Apple phones not being known for their SoC prowess back then).
Generally, Lumia 900 users were raw-dogged pretty badly: They bought a “high-end” phone with a worse screen, no 1080p recording, and a barren app ecosystem, all because of the promise of future upgrades (a major point of contention in Android phones, back then OS upgrades in smartphones mattered). Then Ballmer comes on stage to unveil Windows Phone 8 and tells them they wouldn’t receive anything else than Windows Phone 7. Meanwhile, all high-end Androids of the era from big manufacturers received at least one major version upgrade.
I was active at phone forums back in the day, and you could see the interest in Windows Phone dying right there and then. Even people who enthusiastically bought into Windows Phone (most of them Lumia 900 owners) were left dissapointed and started packing bags for Android or iOS. It’s why most Windows Phone phones were WP7 up until the end btw (and so were the apps: most of them WP7), because sales pretty much dried up completely after they burned WP7 users.
Third-party apps have the disadvantage of always paying catch up. And anyway, couldn’t Microsoft throw some money over to Instagram so they’d have the first-party app and avoid the embarrasment? Also, Strava is a relatively big app, and there were lots of app “gaps” here and there. It’s the same problem Desktop Linux has (and Wine alleviates): sure, it has “90% of the apps people want”, but that other 10% is different for every user and they need to have it.
Other Androids and Apple quickly followed suit mid-to-late 2011 with the iPhone 4S. = Other Androids quickly followed suit mid-to-late 2011 and so did Apple with the iPhone 4S.
The Lumia 900 (along with the HTC Arrive which was my first WP device) were literally the first WP devices on the smartphone market, a market that was already established by Blackberry, Apple, pre-Lumia Nokia, and eventually Android device makers. Every Lumia and most other WP phones since that introduction have been at least dual core, with even their lowest end devices getting quad core CPUs when the big players did. I should know, I’ve owned nearly every Lumia made along with several other WP devices, as well as every version of the iPhone from the first to the 13 except the 3G, and Android phones from garbage to top end, nearly every Blackberry from the old school monochrome days up to the Passport, several older Nokias that ran S60 and even the N900 running Maemo. I’m not bragging, it’s an addiction, but I’m just saying I’ve been hands on with a huge number of smart devices across the spectrum in the past 20 years and I know what I’ve owned.
Regardless, you hate it and that’s fine, and I’m not trying to convince you not to, I just don’t like it when people spout misinformation to reinforce their opinions.
Completely agreed on Microsoft not putting more effort and money towards the app situation; they could have done a partnership with Instagram but instead they wanted to push their own (admittedly very nice) photo editing/social media app, Fhotoroom.
Nope, definitely not, The Lumia 900 is a mid-2012 device while the Lumia 800 is a late mid-2011 device:
https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_900-4578.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_900
https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_800-4240.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_800
Can you please try doing 10 seconds of Googling before you accuse others of spreading misinformation?
Anyway, the Lumia 900 was a bad show for Microsoft. All the big boys were out there with their hi-DPI screens, 1080 video recording, and rich app ecosystems and Microsoft comes along with a phone with last year’s specs and a barren app ecosystem. And the few people who bought in (mostly because of the promise of future updates) were raw-dogged pretty badly because they didn’t get a single new major version upgrade. Interest in WP died right there and then. Not even Pureview cameras could resurrect it.
My US-centric bias strikes again. I’m sorry, I should have specified that the 900 was the first *for the US market*; the 800 was only released in Canada in North America, we never got it here in the States. With that clarification, I stand by everything I said.
Most of your post was whining about me allegedly spreading misinformation, so I don’t know what’s left after removing the invalid bits of that post, but whatever.
“Even regular Windows has a big application problem”, really, for the most popular OS ever? Literally millions of Windows programs have been written.
The reply will be that there’s no Windows version of some obscure linux util, like the current version of Falkon or something.
I don’t mean the reply will make sense.
Thom probably means that some obscure linux util is missing (because no opportunity to remind us we should all be using Desktop Linux is to be missed, no matter how thin), but Windows’ problem is that it doesn’t have the right apps, aka apps that people typically use on mobile: Instagram, Strava, Citymapper, various dating apps etc. You have to use websites for that which may not exist or have cut-down functionality (Instagram’s website doesn’t have the “stories” feature for example).
And the native apps of Windows are optimised for larger screens and mouse use.
Even on tablets Windows Desktop is a stretch because of the above reasons. But this didn’t prevent Microsoft from alienating the desktop and laptop users by forcing Metro/UWP on everyone.
I think the reference is more for Windows Arm and it’s associated Windows Store. Both were rather threadbare at the time. Remember the idea was that the apps were shared across systems. Something Apple have Almost achieved a decade later.
They should have teamed up with Blackberry. BB10 had arguably the best UI of all mobile OS at the time, it ran smoothly on low specs, and the half of their smartphones still came with the physical keyboard. On top of that, high security and lots of business features. With Windows being the “business” OS (probably used on 95%+ of office computers), this could have been a great match. What BB10 was missing was the app ecosystem (although they had the basics like Whatsapp at least) and the I think teaming up with Microsoft could have helped. Instead, we ended up with two niche OS that both had some apps but not enough, and had an okayish market share but not enough. Had they teamed up, we could’ve had a proper third contender.
That being said, they were both locked down and proprietary, so what I actually would have liked to see was a GNU/Linux system succeed, like the one Nokia had before they switched to Windows.
I do miss windows phone. I really liked it. I’ve never really got on with Android (simple things like copy paste… come on!) and Apple are… Well Apple.
I think what Satya Nadella is alluding to in his regret is being a 3rd player would have given them opportunity and options. Now the only choice for users is to go to one of their big competitors in Ads and AI markets. How can MS put their products in front of consumers other than via windows? As Bing and XBox has shown, not being the top doesn’t mean unprofitable. With governments now looking again at uncompetitive behaviour, they could have been there waiting to reap the benefits, which you can count in the billions.
Adurbe,
I hate copy/paste on android too. Selecting text is way too fugly; it feels like android devs developed the copy/paste specs on paper without testing suitability on actual touchscreen hardware.
Not only is it extremely error prone after multiple trial and error attempts, but I find that it often activates unintentionally while I’m trying to do something else like scrolling. This is so frustrating and I even have muscle memory trying to click away to make the wrongfully activated copy arrows disappear. Incidentally I tend to hold my finger in place while scrolling due to another problem: it’s very easy to accidentally click images/hyperlinks when you just want to scroll a document. In fact I really hate how problematic touch interfaces are in general in terms of accidental activation. In terms of browsing I wish scrolling would work anywhere on a page without having to worry about clicking anything. And copying/clicking should use much more deliberate actions. I’d rather a quick double tab to follow links and a new copy mode, ideally being zoomed in and with discrete arrow keys to help with trivial cursor positioning.
Oh well, I know osnews covered this topic very recently, it’s just disappointing that the experience remains this bad on android after so many decades.
I’d also lament the interface of windows phone, it wasn’t really so different but I liked the tiles & clean text, and it sat somewhere between the total lockdown of iOS and the basically, daytime tv ad market of android psuedo malware.
I feel however that, as a tech CEO driven mainly by investor buzzwords, in this time the regret is more specifically that they aren’t now in a position to intercept at the OS layer for data scraping and platform tie in for subscription cloudy ai live services on all our phones.
(anyone else remember ‘scroogled’)
I think a lot of the truth of the market failure is they didn’t keep up to enable enough individually compelling products, it’s like they thought they were in vacuum, and there seemed no sense of urgency – on the android side the hardware obviously existed, some of it even had editions with both. they didn’t enable almost any luscious marketing USP’s, or software well, and then they kept pressing reset (WP7/8) like they could just dictate it. it’s off-platform, but in greatest clarity – Windows RT – seemed almost designed to fail. elements of that philosophy were in WP.
There were glimmers of what could really have worked – leveraging the windows platform, decent sync with desktop windows (I edited ‘real’ excel sheets from WP, /that/ was a USP, in 2013; ). I just don’t think MS thought they had to make a good user product to be a success, and as soon as Nadella came on board after Ballmer (who bought nokia in), no drive either.
They missed their chance with continuum, the “PC in my pocket” idea. They also ditched compatibility with win32 applications. While they weren’t optimized for mobile use (some people wouldn’t care) that would have given them tens of thousands of apps. Let’s not forget that Windows CE was popular. Microsoft abandoned backwards compatibility and paid dearly for it.
Continuum was super cool but the platform was already dead at that point.
As a big fan of Windows Phone I think a big part of it’s failure was lack of apps, which was caused by Microsoft switching the app framework at least 3 times. After that 3rd time, developers started to lose confidence and stay away in droves. despite how easy it would have been to port a basic Windows app to Windows Phone. If there had been apps, there would have been buyers, and that would have meant fancy hardware.