How did the Surface line succeed while Mobile failed?

[skald89]

What do you think MS got right with the surface that they couldn't pull off with windows mobile? I remember the firs line of surface tablets had plenty of issues.

 

[MrGoodSmith]

Unfortunately it's always the apps. The surface has more apps (ie the x86 ecosystem) which has been since the 80s so it was easy to adapt to new hardware. Windows Mobile although has much better OS interface and great hardware but the world wasn't ready for a third app store needed for the new architecture.

 

[skald89]

I wonder if MS would have used the 7 billion they wrote of for Nokia in a different way if they would have suceeded. Used part of it to develop and pay companies to develop their apps on WP. Then subsidise every flagship phone to flood the market.

 

[nt40lanman]

I don't know how popular Surfaces are but I only know 2 people with them, me and a friend. Is it possible they are not that popular but Microsoft is just keeping them going?

 

[Adventurer64]

I don't know how popular Surfaces are but I only know 2 people with them, me and a friend. Is it possible they are not that popular but Microsoft is just keeping them going?

I have a Surface Pro 5 and see them quit frequently when I travel. I personally know at least 25 people that use Surface devices as their laptop. Surface is now a multi-billion dollar business, so it's a profitable business for Microsoft. MS would be stupid to drop the Surface line.

 

[sd4f]

I think it's a matter of scale, the surface line is 'successful' with probably a fraction of the sales that phones would require to be successful. After all, surfaces run the same software that other PC's and laptops run, so it's just another device in one much larger platform.

Phones failed because inspite of selling millions, it needed sizable market share, where iirc it got to 10% in some markets, but it was never enough for developers to really worry about it.

 

[tgp]

After all, surfaces run the same software that other PC's and laptops run, so it's just another device in one much larger platform.

This, IMHO, is the major factor in why Surface succeeded while mobile failed. Surface devices run Windows, just like any other PC. Surface is another Windows tablet and laptop that does the same thing as the zillions of others on the market. The supporting ecosystem was already in place. It joined a market that already had over 90% market share in its field.

Windows phone/mobile, OTOH, was a common hardware device with a new OS. It needed an entire ecosystem created around it to succeed. It never happened.

To add to this theory, Windows RT failed. It had no ecosystem at its inception, and the ecosystem never came.

 

[ven07]

I don't know how popular Surfaces are but I only know 2 people with them, me and a friend. Is it possible they are not that popular but Microsoft is just keeping them going?

By that logic, WM10 should still be going today ??????

 

[ven07]

What do you think MS got right with the surface that they couldn't pull off with windows mobile? I remember the firs line of surface tablets had plenty of issues.

MS got into the 2-in-1 space early and established a foothold. They set the precedence of what it should be like. Not everyone likes the SP line, but more than enough do. This line also suffered through the W8/8.1/10 scenario, but most users were a lot less forgiving.

Anyways it's not the just the apps that caused WP/WM to fail. Small userbase so dev's def (lol) didn't want to put too much effort in. After MS took over completely, marketing basically died out. The remaining focus was too centered on the US instead of also looking at other markets. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people here or elsewhere complain about the fact that there was no regional support. For services like Cortana this meant less people were using it so less data was available. All in all IMO the whole thing just broke down as soon as MS decided that we were moving from an OS that only needed 1 or maybe 2 GB of RAM to an OS that requires a lot more.

One of my friends still has a 925 because she adores the camera. It's still running WP8 and boy is that thing fluid! Its speed and animation rival my OP 3T

 

[nt40lanman]

I am angry and I feel Microsoft gave up way too early on the Mobile market. And there were a lot of missteps. I think they should have released W10M much earlier and waited until it was out and in use for a while to allow developers to get Universal apps going. There wasn't as many major apps missing as other phone users would have you believe. They also should have skipped the super cheapo phones, making maybe the 640 the bottom of the line. And if they wanted money money money, build the surface phone. I like how my Windows phone and services work with my other existing Windows devices but by the time it really worked well, WP was already history.

Still on a 950 and still like it.

 

[ven07]

If I'm correct the 640 was an entry level phone and every platform needs those ??????

 

[vEEP pEEP]

I am angry and I feel Microsoft gave up way too early on the Mobile market. And there were a lot of missteps. I think they should have released W10M much earlier and waited until it was out and in use for a while to allow developers to get Universal apps going. There wasn't as many major apps missing as other phone users would have you believe. They also should have skipped the super cheapo phones, making maybe the 640 the bottom of the line. And if they wanted money money money, build the surface phone. I like how my Windows phone and services work with my other existing Windows devices but by the time it really worked well, WP was already history.

Still on a 950 and still like it.

One big change was Nadella - his vision was different than Ballmer. He did not see the same direction for MS. Nokia had a lot of good tech, but they only grabbed the phone division, laid of tons of people and just wound it down. Nokia was already floundering and it was a gamble. Their brand recognition was awesome! (Wonder if they considered Blackberry?)

I think they were really weak on the marketing of WP. I don't know if they tried partnerships with other vendors like Amazon, Facebook. HP looked like they wanted to support them...but that did not work out.

Ultimately if Nadella wanted the phone to survive - it would have.

I always wonder, let's MS had 10% of the world market share - would that have stayed in? 5%?

 

[anthonyng]

My i7 Surface Pro 3 when it was just launching was brilliant in what it could do with the size. I travel a lot for work and was able to do everything I needed in an incredible size. Yes it had growing pains (needed to do early updates in the fridge lol) but still have it today however no longer my main machine

 

[Timbre70]

Apps apps apps apps apps apps apps... It's all about APPS.