Microsoft and Nokia....as much as we all care about them and want to support them, have failed at this event today the moment Belfiore said they weren't going to do a full reveal today. You look around and what are people's main gripes with the Windows Phone platform? The software, not the hardware (and even if you want to make the case that it is the hardware, then that's only because the hardware is an extension of the software limitations).
The anticipation for this event wasn't so much to see what exactly the next hardware from Nokia would be, but to see what the software would look like running on the next hardware from Nokia. Two very different things. People love the Lumia 900 and it's design and so many people have no problem with it. The main thing against the Lumia 900 is that it will not be running WP8, which is why people want to see the next hardware. Therefore the emphasis, and I can't believe that they've overlooked this, is not placed on the hardware, but on the software which forms your experience.
Pureview and all of that is great, but the fundamental aspect of nailing this event wasn't to show what next step for Nokia is, so much as it was for the next step for Microsoft and WP and if they would've had to make this a MS event, then so be it. Those who believe in the platform, want to see the platform itself, not just what will be running it. That's why Android tablets have struggled to be compelling, in a large sense. It's not about what's running the software so much as the software itself and how it gels into the casing around it. It's the reverse Palm effect (they had great software, but lacked the hardware innovation to support it).
We are the enthusiasts for this specific platform and we're debating how successful the event was. The enthusiasts who don't have a specific affinity for this platform will probably be leaning more to the direction that this event didn't blow them away. And for a platform to become majorly successful in this industry, you have to hit home with the enthusiasts first, before you think about reaching out to the broad audience. That's why Android in general is successful, let alone some specific devices like the GS3. The iPhone is a pop culture icon at this point. All eyes will be on them, and the fact that they announce their devices literally within one to two weeks of releasing them (generally speaking) doesn't help. Microsoft has to work out of this 3-4 percent marketshare that they're in at some point and to get the ball rolling in the quickest fashion, you'll have to start with the enthusiasts - the people who love this industry who are going to tout and promote these devices to those who are less knowledgeable. That's what this event should've been for Microsoft because they had the hype surrounding it that it was going to be just that.
This isn't about Nokia struggling on a thriving platform. It's about Windows Phone struggling, so what do you do to combat that? Show Windows Phone. When the platform has the mindshare in hand (which they can do by showing the hardware supporting it, but they still need to keep the software as the focal point), then the hardware, if compelling enough (which I think everyone agrees that Nokia's is), will follow suit.
We know what we have with WP7 and for WP8 to be as big of a change as we're told (so much so that they had to build it off of a whole new core technology and throw out all the existing progress they've made in terms of the consumer base they've currently generated), we haven't quite seen it yet. Or at least I haven't. Everything that we have seen from WP8 thus far looks like it could and should be in WP 7.8 and unfortunately, this was a step backward for MS, most importantly, and Nokia, by extension.
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