So after reading a bunch of news, opinions on the internet and other related articles relating to Microsoft pretty much dumping the Nokia acquisition and laying a bunch of people off... Not to mention all the so-called experts claiming Windows Phones are dead, something popped into my little nugget I call a brain.
It was a possible answer to something that I have been asking for a while.
Why did MS flood the market with a bunch of low end phones which were pretty much the same thing as the next?
Some said it was an attempt to increase their market share and to grab ahold of the developing world markets.
But that never really made much sense to me. Increasing market share by making a bunch of cheap low end phones for third world countries that already don't have money to begin with, and cheap low end phones most in developed countries have no interest in is simply illogical.
MS bough a bunch of high paying employees from Nokia who mostly specialized in making mid/high end phones. Getting them to make a bunch of varying low end cheap phones wasn't going to pay their salaries, thus the end result was not all that surprising to me.
They needed to start working on some really good Mid / High Range Phones that the people with money.... The Developed Nations, wanted.
The core problem was that Nokia was making some excellent phones with good hardware. In some cases, better than the competition. The issue was not the hardware but the infancy of Windows Phone 7/8 OS which didn't quite do what the regular customer was wanting.
Then WP8.1 came out and was pretty much on par with the competition but by this time, Nokia was bought out and MS have the team working on Low End Cheap phones with little to no Flagships to flaunt to the masses... The flipside occurred where you now have a great OS but the hardware / devices were not doing what the regular customer wanted, which impacted the OS.
This gave Windows Phone the overall impression of a third rate Mobile OS that despite you, me and a collection of other die hard fans who could see beyond the surface, couldn't get beyond.... Many Android amd iPhone users had no interest in switching over, which lead to few App Devs wanting to bother making apps for WP.
And thus the vicious cycle continued, but for reasons most online critics weren't getting. That vicious cycle was due to Microsoft's missteps between the software development and the hardware development.
Nokia bet big on Windows Phone but the OS wasn't doing it.... Then by the time the OS started getting good, Nokia was suffering and then MS bought them out to jump in another direction.
It didn't help that many of these decisions were done in between two different CEO's making different decisions within MS during this time.
So what's my point?
Well, when I see the news regarding Satya Nadella slashing a pile of jobs and heavily trimming down the focus of Lumia's and Windows 10 Phones overall but still sticking with W10M amd Lumia's for the next year or two, I see a pattern.
Satya took over after Steve bought Nokia and brought over a bunch of high paid employees specializing in high quality mobile hardware but weren't getting the sales to cover their expenses. The attempt to "Increase Market Share" by making a pile of low end phones was an attempt to quickly make money to help pay these guy's salaries. It was Plan B to keep these guys in a job and more or less an attempt to look after these Nokia Employees until things started to balance out and their futures were secured.
That didn't work and I suspect this huge cutting of jobs and refocusing on a small selection of Lumia's is now Plan C to at least keep the few they didn't let go employed.... Not to mention an attempt to keep the W10M team afloat a little longer until they gain traction in the market.
I suspect that MS held on for as long as they could before dropping all these employees.
Now of course that's obvious, but the reasons "why" are not so clear cut.
I believe Satya already knew that the acquisition was a failure to begin with but he at least tried to do something positive before flat-out dropping the whole group of Nokia employees, which in a financial point of view, should have been done right off the bat..... But his attempt was also doomed to fail right from the beginning. There was a small chance it would work, sure, but statistically it was not going to work.
If he got the Nokia team to focus mostly on the 800, 900 & 1000 series phones and pumped up the marketing with 8.1 GDR2 in Tow, we could have had a different outcome.
Now it seems as though Satya is making the right steps he needed to do all along and that's with Windows 10 and the Flagships to come on W10's release. Will it work?
There's a chance of course. They could bring it back from the brink like they did with the Surface Tablets.... But the problem is fighting the stigma attached to all of the above that has dwindled the Windows Mobile image through missteps, good intentions towards the Nokia team and confusion regarding what really went wrong.
So why did MS unleash a bunch of low end cheap phones?
Attempting to increase market share was a fraction of the story. It was mostly to try and get some quick money in through the door to cover the expenses of the Nokia team with little to no expense used towards marketing and almost complete avoidance towards the more expensive mid/high end phones where they saw lack of interest but for the wrong reasons.
TL;DR
I like soup.
Ok seriously:
? Nokia made good hardware at the time Windows Phone wasn't very good compared to competition.
? Windows Phone got good at the time Hardware and High End wasn't anywhere to be found.
? Low End Cheap Phones were made for a quick buck as a last ditch effort to keep the Nokia team on board which didn't work.
? MS cut piles of jobs and slimmed down future plans in order to now save the Windows 10 Mobile team and what's left of the Nokia team that wasn't let go.
Does this truly paint a picture of Windows Mobile dying?
Hardly, despite what all the other online experts would want everyone to believe with their click bait.
All this means is that the Nokia purchase was a huge mistake and everything thus far has been an attempt to try and make something good from that mistake to no avail. The real future is yet to come and it will be a positive one when the new flagships arrive with Windows 10 right beside.
? Excellent Hardware
? Excellent & Unique Features
? Excellent OS that improves upon 8.1 GDR2
? A Marketing Blitz with a Simplified Selection of Phones to Choose From
Equals a very good chance to turn it all around.
...... Of course this is all just my opinion, what do I know? Carry on.
It was a possible answer to something that I have been asking for a while.
Why did MS flood the market with a bunch of low end phones which were pretty much the same thing as the next?
Some said it was an attempt to increase their market share and to grab ahold of the developing world markets.
But that never really made much sense to me. Increasing market share by making a bunch of cheap low end phones for third world countries that already don't have money to begin with, and cheap low end phones most in developed countries have no interest in is simply illogical.
MS bough a bunch of high paying employees from Nokia who mostly specialized in making mid/high end phones. Getting them to make a bunch of varying low end cheap phones wasn't going to pay their salaries, thus the end result was not all that surprising to me.
They needed to start working on some really good Mid / High Range Phones that the people with money.... The Developed Nations, wanted.
The core problem was that Nokia was making some excellent phones with good hardware. In some cases, better than the competition. The issue was not the hardware but the infancy of Windows Phone 7/8 OS which didn't quite do what the regular customer was wanting.
Then WP8.1 came out and was pretty much on par with the competition but by this time, Nokia was bought out and MS have the team working on Low End Cheap phones with little to no Flagships to flaunt to the masses... The flipside occurred where you now have a great OS but the hardware / devices were not doing what the regular customer wanted, which impacted the OS.
This gave Windows Phone the overall impression of a third rate Mobile OS that despite you, me and a collection of other die hard fans who could see beyond the surface, couldn't get beyond.... Many Android amd iPhone users had no interest in switching over, which lead to few App Devs wanting to bother making apps for WP.
And thus the vicious cycle continued, but for reasons most online critics weren't getting. That vicious cycle was due to Microsoft's missteps between the software development and the hardware development.
Nokia bet big on Windows Phone but the OS wasn't doing it.... Then by the time the OS started getting good, Nokia was suffering and then MS bought them out to jump in another direction.
It didn't help that many of these decisions were done in between two different CEO's making different decisions within MS during this time.
So what's my point?
Well, when I see the news regarding Satya Nadella slashing a pile of jobs and heavily trimming down the focus of Lumia's and Windows 10 Phones overall but still sticking with W10M amd Lumia's for the next year or two, I see a pattern.
Satya took over after Steve bought Nokia and brought over a bunch of high paid employees specializing in high quality mobile hardware but weren't getting the sales to cover their expenses. The attempt to "Increase Market Share" by making a pile of low end phones was an attempt to quickly make money to help pay these guy's salaries. It was Plan B to keep these guys in a job and more or less an attempt to look after these Nokia Employees until things started to balance out and their futures were secured.
That didn't work and I suspect this huge cutting of jobs and refocusing on a small selection of Lumia's is now Plan C to at least keep the few they didn't let go employed.... Not to mention an attempt to keep the W10M team afloat a little longer until they gain traction in the market.
I suspect that MS held on for as long as they could before dropping all these employees.
Now of course that's obvious, but the reasons "why" are not so clear cut.
I believe Satya already knew that the acquisition was a failure to begin with but he at least tried to do something positive before flat-out dropping the whole group of Nokia employees, which in a financial point of view, should have been done right off the bat..... But his attempt was also doomed to fail right from the beginning. There was a small chance it would work, sure, but statistically it was not going to work.
If he got the Nokia team to focus mostly on the 800, 900 & 1000 series phones and pumped up the marketing with 8.1 GDR2 in Tow, we could have had a different outcome.
Now it seems as though Satya is making the right steps he needed to do all along and that's with Windows 10 and the Flagships to come on W10's release. Will it work?
There's a chance of course. They could bring it back from the brink like they did with the Surface Tablets.... But the problem is fighting the stigma attached to all of the above that has dwindled the Windows Mobile image through missteps, good intentions towards the Nokia team and confusion regarding what really went wrong.
So why did MS unleash a bunch of low end cheap phones?
Attempting to increase market share was a fraction of the story. It was mostly to try and get some quick money in through the door to cover the expenses of the Nokia team with little to no expense used towards marketing and almost complete avoidance towards the more expensive mid/high end phones where they saw lack of interest but for the wrong reasons.
TL;DR
I like soup.
Ok seriously:
? Nokia made good hardware at the time Windows Phone wasn't very good compared to competition.
? Windows Phone got good at the time Hardware and High End wasn't anywhere to be found.
? Low End Cheap Phones were made for a quick buck as a last ditch effort to keep the Nokia team on board which didn't work.
? MS cut piles of jobs and slimmed down future plans in order to now save the Windows 10 Mobile team and what's left of the Nokia team that wasn't let go.
Does this truly paint a picture of Windows Mobile dying?
Hardly, despite what all the other online experts would want everyone to believe with their click bait.
All this means is that the Nokia purchase was a huge mistake and everything thus far has been an attempt to try and make something good from that mistake to no avail. The real future is yet to come and it will be a positive one when the new flagships arrive with Windows 10 right beside.
? Excellent Hardware
? Excellent & Unique Features
? Excellent OS that improves upon 8.1 GDR2
? A Marketing Blitz with a Simplified Selection of Phones to Choose From
Equals a very good chance to turn it all around.
...... Of course this is all just my opinion, what do I know? Carry on.
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