Microsoft Mobile - "Unsustainable"

[Aranya Tantu]

Do you really think Microsoft is really going to kill their phone business??? I don't think so because if they want to do so they have no need to build UWP idea and need not to deliver windows 10 as an upgrade for wp8.1 phones,just like wp7 phones . I think they just trying to do something for their phones that they didn't do before .

 

[cracgor]

Yes, market share matters. I think he was just trying to tout there other offerings and areas of success (Windows, xbox). As far as Hololens goes, it really is something that the average consumer does not think about when making a decision in which phone or computer to buy. My guess is that by the end of 2016 MS will discontinue their phone platform/hardware. It certainly seems to be what he is saying. Question is what happens to the dual desktop/mobile modes that they have now injected into Windows 10? If the mobile share fails then they have an OS full of unnecessary features. Two email apps, two system preferences, two calendar apps....an entire mobile store with sub-par apps... they will have to revamp windows again. Every time they do this they lose customers. There is something to be said about consistency that garners loyalty. I don't particularly like Apple, but they are consistent and don't make giant changes to their core products every other year.

We shall see...

I agree. I think that was the point of setting a end of service date for windows mobile. I don't even think it was two years from now. A lot of people say this is normal, but I've never read an end of service date for windows 10 and my understanding was windows 10 was touted as the last windows with continued updates forever.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[elindalyne]

Stop spreading FUD.... there's and end of service date for all W10 platforms. There's been end of service dates for WP7,8, and 8.1. Literally the only thing this means is you need to keep updated in order to get new features and get customer support.

 

[cracgor]

Why is the WM10 date 2 years from now and the W10 date is 10 years from now in 2025? The difference is when W7 went to W8 then W10, your computer could update. When WP7 went to WP8, you could not update. While WP8 can update to W10, there is nothing to let you think in Jan 2016 your phone will be able to update or have access to an app store even.

 

[colinkiama]

Why is the WM10 date 2 years from now and the W10 date is 10 years from now in 2025? The difference is when W7 went to W8 then W10, your computer could update. When WP7 went to WP8, you could not update. While WP8 can update to W10, there is nothing to let you think in Jan 2016 your phone will be able to update or have access to an app store even.

This sounds crazy but what if in 2018 this happens: Windows 10 Mobile -> windows 10 but we'd all have to buy new devices

 

[cracgor]

Not all of us

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

I think there is a lot getting lost in translation. Satya is simply trying to change the paradigm that has been the model for MSFT the past 20+ years. Keep throwing something at people and sooner or later they will begin to embrace it. With the Surface brand they had to go back to the drawing board and it showed with the Surface Pro 3. The difference with the mobile market is MSFT is really in territory that it has little to now bearing in. Not too many know about windows mobile, so winning the hearts and minds of consumers outright isn't a viable plan. You sell wiindows mobile as an extension of windows 10. This is where the push is with enterprise. I do see windows mobile as the new blackberry. If MSFT can correlate the surface 3/4/book experience being enhanced with a surface phone, that would spark the interest of a lot of people.
The other factor that has nothing to do with MSFT but everything to do with investing in your next phone is the diminished role of the super carriers. AT&T and Verizon have dictated price points and software updates for years. That is rapidly changing as 2 yr contracts are going away, and updates are occurring at the request of the OEM's. I think the market share in the US will start to shift towards what you see in Europe.

 

[runamuck83]

Once again a simple statement is being blown way out of proportion. If you read his full statement he's clearly stating that they're not focusing on the market share of any single device. It's the fact that Win10 runs on all these different devices. A "Windows Phone" doesn't need to exist to get "Windows 10" apps. Get it? Therefore, a Surface Mini one day could be a computer that just happens to be able to make phone calls. It's a tablet, not a phone? Or is it?

 

[joeonsunset]

In the actual BuzzFeed article, correct me if I'm wrong, the word unsustainable isn't even in a Nadella quote. It's the writer's word, who says, "Nadella admits that?s unsustainable, but argues that the company is already trying to get to a world where the device matters less..." And yet the only thing anyone is focusing on is the word unsustainable.

The interviewer might have asked him, "Can you sustain such a low market share for the next ten years?" And Nadella might have answered, "Well, no, but here's what we are doing..." But we don't know, because, that part of the interview is summarized, not quoted. (Which is interesting because elsewhere the author quotes Nadella for two long paragraphs, just to show how long-winded he is.)

Read it yourself: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathonan/360-degrees-of-satya-nadella

 

[M7H]

I strongly suggest people read this Gartner report themselves, and point me WHERE it is stated that the GLOBAL market SHARE has dropped to 1.7%

Gartner Says Emerging Markets Drove Worldwide Smartphone Sales to 15.5 Percent Growth in Third Quarter of 2015

The document clearly states that the global sales where 1.7% in Q3 of 2015.
This is something totally different then the total market share, yet a lot of "professional" news sites took over these figures, and are all contributing to al this FUD.... what a shame.
a lot of those news sites where pointed to this in the comments, yet non of them rectified there statements....
I really get the idea the are all on Apple / Google there paylist.....

 

[Pete]

I strongly suggest people read this Gartner report themselves, and point me WHERE it is stated that the GLOBAL market SHARE has dropped to 1.7%

Gartner Says Emerging Markets Drove Worldwide Smartphone Sales to 15.5 Percent Growth in Third Quarter of 2015

Err.

Table 2.

Windows 3Q15 share is 1.7%, down from 3Q14 share of 3%

 

[M7H]

Err.

Table 2.

Windows 3Q15 share is 1.7%, down from 3Q14 share of 3%

Table 2

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q15 (Thousands of Units)

Thats not the total market share!
They are talking about sales figures for the 3rd quarter......

 

[jlzimmerman]

To me, "unsustainable" means "yeah, we cannot keep our current market share at this rate. It must increase."

MS can't afford to fail in the mobile market because that is the future. Mobile devices have already taken over the #1 means of accessing the internet. The U.S. market may be a loss, but the rest of the world continues to embrace Windows mobile. In addition, the U.S. market will fall to 3rd in the overall mobile market within the next 15 years, behind India and African nations. MS knows this and as long as they continue to grow there as well as keep or improve their standings in Europe they'll be fine.

 

[loribinca]

The only chance they've really got is with the enterprise. They lost the consumer market to Apple a long time ago. They tried a couple of times to go after it with Windows Phone 7 and 8 but just could not do it.

Look at the feature's they're putting in. all tied into windows security and policies, and continuum for people to use desk sharing and their phone instead of a laptop.

I would consider continuum a work/productivity feature and not a consumer feature anyway.

I think this is the last hurrah for it though. If it does not work, then they'll just scrap the phone part of it and focus on cloud/productivity

 

[theefman]

At this point, the idea that Microsoft needs a hardware mobile solution is misguided. ALL their relevant software, consumer and more importantly enterprise runs on ios and android (where its released first and more fully featured) whose combined user base dwarfs even the desktop, so everything they need to be "in mobile" is already in place. Why do they also need a mobile platform that they only ignore and allocate insufficient resources to which produces the subpar experiences we are seeing with W10M?

Regarding its importance to UWP, that is being overstated because desktop users have no real need for mobile apps so the loss of their mobile platform wont have an impact on the desktop where Windows users already have access to any application they need via a choice of web browsers.

So yes, Microsoft is already in mobile and ultimately it seems their own mobile platform is destined to be retired at some point. That's the reality of the path they are currently on with W10M.

 

[colinkiama]

At this point, the idea that Microsoft needs a hardware mobile solution is misguided. ALL their relevant software, consumer and more importantly enterprise runs on ios and android (where its released first and more fully featured) whose combined user base dwarfs even the desktop, so everything they need to be "in mobile" is already in place. Why do they also need a mobile platform that they only ignore and allocate insufficient resources to which produces the subpar experiences we are seeing with W10M?

Regarding its importance to UWP, that is being overstated because desktop users have no real need for mobile apps so the loss of their mobile platform wont have an impact on the desktop where Windows users already have access to any application they need via a choice of web browsers.

So yes, Microsoft is already in mobile and ultimately it seems their own mobile platform is destined to be retired at some point. That's the reality of the path they are currently on with W10M.

To be fair, the windows store isn't just for mobile apps on computers. It's about apps integrating with the OS. You aren't going to be notified for anything, be able to quickly respond to notifications, reply to them, have reminders etc if that website or service isn't a windows 10 app so think about it. If we can all use the Facebook website instead of the app, why is Facebook the no.1 installed app in the windows store for PCs and why is Netflix one of the top apps too or even twitter. Can every website be used easily when you start split-screening?

 

[tgp]

You aren't going to be notified for anything, be able to quickly respond to notifications, reply to them, have reminders etc if that website or service isn't a windows 10 app so think about it.

I'm not giving an opinion one way or the other on the topic being discussed, but this point is no longer accurate. At least with the Chrome browser you can get notifications for some services, such as Gmail and Facebook. If notifications are the driving factor for apps on the desktop, this could mitigate the demand.

 

[cracgor]

I'm not giving an opinion one way or the other on the topic being discussed, but this point is no longer accurate. At least with the Chrome browser you can get notifications for some services, such as Gmail and Facebook. If notifications are the driving factor for apps on the desktop, this could mitigate the demand.

I didn't know this was a thing either until last month when I switched to chrome. I know it is a personal preference, but I find all these notifications distracting. But hey I don't like flipping live tiles either.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[colinkiama]

I'm not giving an opinion one way or the other on the topic being discussed, but this point is no longer accurate. At least with the Chrome browser you can get notifications for some services, such as Gmail and Facebook. If notifications are the driving factor for apps on the desktop, this could mitigate the demand.

Then in that case the guy who I was responding to is completely right. It's weird enough already that the platform stops getting updates in 2 years and support in 3 years. Maybe they are planning to retire it soon. RIP Windows Phone/Mobile.

 

[anon(6078578)]

Then in that case the guy who I was responding to is completely right. It's weird enough already that the platform stops getting updates in 2 years and support in 3 years. Maybe they are planning to retire it soon. RIP Windows Phone/Mobile.

I think Microsoft are kind of in a rock and hard place. On the one hand everyone is already more or less saying that Windows Mobile is dead, so you would think it would've been easy for them to just discontinue it. On the other hand if they do, it may have a halo effect on their other products since customers could start thinking that they're going to give up on windows 10 generally which obviously Microsoft doesn't want.