Why are so many Microsoft services limited feature-wise, outside the USA?

[PushMe96]

And why does it appear like Microsoft is unconcerned about it? I recently changed my Surface's region to the US, and the experience is so, so much better.

 

[Rahul cholate]

And why does it appear like Microsoft is unconcerned about it? I recently changed my Surface's region to the US, and the experience is so, so much better.

even I experienced the same. I felt bad for not getting the same user experience for the products I love to use. even Cortana and being has the same issues. they work very smoother and reliable when the location is changed. wish we get the same user experience across the world for all type of form factors and countries.

 

[ZvjerOPC]

In Croatia nobody cares about Bing or Cortana so Microsoft doesn't need to bother with that. 99% of users use Windows OS in Croatia (not official number, just my gut feeling) and the OS itself supports Croatia very well. It's translated to Croatian and Windows Store accepts payments in local currency.

But Xbox does not exist in Croatia, neither does XBL support Croatia and that's a shame. PlayStation is superbly supported in Croatia and it shows greatly. I would love to see XBL support for Croatia, at least.

 

[neo158]

And why does it appear like Microsoft is unconcerned about it? I recently changed my Surface's region to the US, and the experience is so, so much better.

Maybe this is why the April 2018 update installs US English whether you want it or not :wink:

 

[jmdesaojose]

I'm a Portuguese consumer and fan of windows.
All we get in Portugal, it's the worst and minimal of windows. Why? Just because we are a small country far away in Europe? Shame you, Microsoft.

 

[PushMe96]

Maybe this is why the April 2018 update installs US English whether you want it or not :wink:

Hmm. That makes sense, because the change occured when I upgraded to the April update. I didn't do anything consciously to trigger it, so I just assumed I must have unwittingly selected US as region.

It was a really jarring change though. It felt like I had been using incomplete software all along and finally got exposed to the real thing. Bing is actually useful, Cortana is brilliant, Edge is awesome. For once I didn't find myself running back to Chrome within minutes.

And those are just the obvious areas. Bing particularly was a really big difference. Before I changed, Bing felt like it was 5 years behind Google. Now, it actually feels like a viable replacement.

 

[vbraca]

moreover, google with ten years old android(in all languages) much better than microsoft's thirty eight years old windows on voice search and assistant services. Why ? Do anyone use voice search on windows or do you know windows has voice search(if you are using outside of English)? No one use it because it's entegreted on screen keyboard. Why do not stupid windows designers think about adding a voice search assistant to the taskbar? or on microsoft edge search box ? m(to support this idea on feedback hub https://insider.windows.com/en-us/f...edback-hub&utm_campaign=feedback-hub-redirect) Microsoft dosen't use potential of windows ecosystem. Why? due to same ***** persons

 

[Cesar Enrique Adrianzen]

It's the same here in Peru, windows and office are the most popular PC applications but there is no other Microsoft services, there is no Xbox or surface products, cortana and Bing are available but only in Mexico's Spanish, we can use but the results are not accurate... At same time, here it's very easy find a lot of products of apple ( ipads, iPhones, macs, etc) officially, the same with Sony with their Play Station, even buying a Nintendo switch is easy with a very good retail distribution... And Google is the most used search engine even when Bing is by default... It's really a shame...

 

[Hirox K]

Living in Japan. Xbox reward (available in Japan) turned MS Reward and MS Reward is available in Japan (and Taiwan too) now.

* China is a whole different story, but currently, I think they are doing co-op dev with Chinese tech firms I think. No one can operate in China from outside China. (I'm in the game industry)

> Do anyone use voice search on windows or do you know windows has voice search
tbh... I never feel like I want to talk to my phone or PC, esp in the office. But there's a circle button on Win10's TaskBar and you can talk to Cortana through it I think (I never did / tried).

* But I do believe AI (not Cortana, Cortana is just one of the skins) is very important in SW development.

Living on the internet for years... I don't think MS's keen about selling HW (Sony does cause it's their bread and butter). Surface for example... it's more like a beacon, a direction, a premium product that can be displayed in the retails, to show people Windows can be cool and sleek. Like Nexus vs OEMs.

But I agree, HW aside, MS should talk to more gov, iron out whatever regulations and try to bring their SW services to more countries. I live in Japan but I use English as my default for everything and everything just works. And unlink Google, thank god MS store doesn't have a region lock (yet).

 

[anon(10458357)]

I live in the U.S. Honestly probably wouldn't want to live anywhere else. It's home. But c'mon Microsoft... population U.S. 327 million... population of the world 7.6 billion. No wonder Google and Amazon are chasing this market enthusiastically. From a purely financial perspective.

But also... you hear Nadella speak so passionately about technology making a difference in the lives of people... how important it is to collaborate... he speaks of cultural diversity and inclusion being critical to the company's mission. So if he really believes what he is saying, and not just saying it to drive the price of his stock higher, then why is he leaving it up to Sundar Pichai of Google to actually put the rubber to the road?

 

[tgp]

I live in the U.S. Honestly probably wouldn't want to live anywhere else. It's home. But c'mon Microsoft... population U.S. 327 million... population of the world 7.6 billion. No wonder Google and Amazon are chasing this market enthusiastically. From a purely financial perspective.

If you look at just the population, yes, you are correct. But while the United States has 4.3% of the world's population, it has 24.2% of the world's GDP. This makes it look not quite so irrational to focus on the US.

 

[dannybhoi]

I often tweet about it, have had a few MS official responses. maybe more people should join...

 

[techiez]

If you look at just the population, yes, you are correct. But while the United States has 4.3% of the world's population, it has 24.2% of the world's GDP. This makes it look not quite so irrational to focus on the US.

Well definitely they should focus on US, doesn't mean cant focus elsewhere, they are not a startup with limited resources. Besides their competitors are already chasing the next fast emerging big markets.
Today Ms is struggling to counter chrome-books in US schools, imagine Google is successful in replicating their education success in rest of the world. When Cortana was launched limited to US they gave some lame excuses, and every writer on WC defended the same, saying they are working to expand Cortana but they will take it slow as they want Cortana to be extremely personal as per regions, but here we are years later, no advancements, diminishing marketshare and again some lame excuse that Cortana will no longer be a assistant but assistive and WC writers are again making a mistake of falling for MS marketing speak or excuses.

 

[ghostshade]

In Sweden Bing searches is so off that its not usable and Cortana is better turned off since it has no functionality(not that i find a use for voice controls on a PC even if it worked).

This and other factors is why people prefer to use google or duckduckgo as search engines and iphone and android for their mobile needs.

 

[Stephen Townsley]

Microsoft is a "US only" company and the global market is a long way down the line. Many features are designed and only work in the USA. For the consumer market, that they have mostly abandoned, it is particularly noticeable.

Microsoft abandoned mobile in markets where Windowsphone was 10%+ and was a valid third platform even before Cortana and maps worked. Huge markets like Germany got Cortana on Windowsphone months before it was abandoned. What was the point?

Payments. Microsoft announced mobile payments in 2012. Implemented it on a small number of US banks only on the Lumia 950 only in the US in 2016. Europe had chip and pin cards for more than a decade. The international market is a galaxy far, far, away for Microsoft.

This is not new. Zune was US only.

 

[Unkitjc]

Short answer, yes, very frustrating

 

[Moaske]

Especially the incredibly lacking Cortana frustrates me. Setting a reminder is about all that works nicely, unless you wanna set a location based reminder, cause since the names of locations aren't English even that becomes useless...

No calling someone from my address book, no navigating to any place whatsoever, no package tracking, not finding any restaurants, no flight tracking, NO.THING USE.FULL AT ALL...

Yes, it is indeed very frustrating that Microsoft is totally ignoring the other 95% of the worlds population :angry::crying:

 

[Moaske]

If you look at just the population, yes, you are correct. But while the United States has 4.3% of the world's population, it has 24.2% of the world's GDP. This makes it look not quite so irrational to focus on the US.

According to this reasoning Microsoft should most likely focus 100% on Chinese... :winktongue:

 

[tgp]

Well definitely they should focus on US, doesn't mean cant focus elsewhere, they are not a startup with limited resources. Besides their competitors are already chasing the next fast emerging big markets.

Hey don't get me wrong; I'm not defending Microsoft's decisions here! I'm just saying that their apparent decision to focus on the US isn't as absurd as chasing 1/20 of the world's population, when you consider that it is 1/4 of the world's wealth.

According to this reasoning Microsoft should most likely focus 100% on Chinese... :winktongue:

Well, I don't think that China is the easiest market around. There is the GFW to consider...

 

[anon(10458357)]

If you look at just the population, yes, you are correct. But while the United States has 4.3% of the world's population, it has 24.2% of the world's GDP. This makes it look not quite so irrational to focus on the US.

As hard as this is to accept this will not always be the case. And that’s why MS’ competitors are chasing these markets. Plus we’re also talking about Europe. Europe is another large slice of that worldwide GDP at 26%. Also China, India, Japan all major players in Worldwide GDP. So how come MS services are so lacking in these places?

In any case, Nadella specifically speaks... and quite passionately... about empowering every individual and every company “on the planet” to do great things. Why would you NOT to want to tap into that mindshare?

To me it’s an example of why MS is always playing catch-up. They can’t seem to see the forest for the trees. Google and Amazon apparently can.

And when some emergency happens like Chromebooks start to take over classrooms in non US countries, then they’ll once again be scrambling trying to figure out how to catch up.

 

[tgp]

As hard as this is to accept this will not always be the case. And that’s why MS’ competitors are chasing these markets. Plus we’re also talking about Europe. Europe is another large slice of that worldwide GDP at 26%. Also China, India, Japan all major players in Worldwide GDP. So how come MS services are so lacking in these places?

Why are the largest companies in the world tech companies, and why are they based in the United States? I don't think the US's prominence is going away anytime soon.

For example, look at how the EU is cracking down on "privacy". While this is seemingly great for consumers, it isn't great for the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. There is evidently something about the US business culture that makes it the most business friendly, at least for tech companies.

Maybe Microsoft is facing legal issues. Remember their legal problems in the EU a number of years ago? Wouldn't that cause them to shy away from Europe?

But yes, you are absolutely correct that this could change down the road. I don't know; being an armchair quarterback is easy. Being the real quarterback is much more difficult. We armchair guys have no clue what is actually going on behind the scenes. We just yell at our screens. But there is a reason that Satya Nadella is at the helm of a $0.75 trillion company and I am not!