

Should Microsoft give up? - briandear
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/windows-phones-many-problems-should-microsoft-give-up/73126

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outside1234
I hope they don't. I have been critical of Microsoft in the past but Windows
Phone is a credible phone OS.

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briandear
I agree -- credible competition is vital to push industry forward.

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melling
There's already credible competition with Android. They have more market share
than Apple. You aren't worried about Microsoft having credible competition on
the desktop? They have 90% market share, which is still pretty much a
monopoly.

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bunderbunder
Two goliaths splitting the market is not credible competition; it's a duopoly.

A third serious contender would increase the level of competition
considerably.

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AznHisoka
Microsoft should give up smartphone battles so we app developers can develop
for just 2 platforms.

Microsoft should give up the browser wars so we web developers can develop for
1-2 browsers.

Microsoft should NOT give up the search engine wars because I am so screwed if
Google bans my Adwords account or penalizes me =(

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kevin_jacobs
Microsoft should give up so consumers have fewer choices and software
developers have less work?

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polyfractal
I hope not, if nothing else because I really, really enjoy my WP7.

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powertower
I could go point by point countering every false notion and innuendo in that
article, by why waste time and effort arguing with bait?

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mikeryan
They'd never do it but I wonder what would happen if they forked Android and
put the Metro skin on it.

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rbanffy
That's more or less what Nokia was doing. MeeGo was a Linux kernel with a
mostly Nokia userland on top (albeit more desktop Linux-like than Android.

I doubt they would succeed. I'm not sure whether the carefully cultivated to
be anti-Unix Microsoft development mindset would survive the allergic reaction
this would cause.

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aChrisSmith
If you judge your success by fidelity with your competitor's product you will
NEVER win. The only way they can possibly gain double-digit market share is if
they actually do something different/disruptive.

IMHO "metro style" isn't a differentiator.

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chimeracoder
What's the point? Microsoft makes money off of Android phones anyway - not
just that, but I believe they make _more_ off of Android phones than off of
Windows phones?

Even if that >50% isn't true (though I believe it is), it helps to put things
in perspective - what's Microsoft's larger goal, other than just get a bit of
market share in another corner of the larger tech market?

Google and Apple both have visions behind Android and iOS, respectively, even
if they're _very_ different visions/goals. I still don't know what Microsoft's
driving vision behind WP7 is - that is, if they have one.

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rbanffy
> what's Microsoft's larger goal, other than just get a bit of market share in
> another corner of the larger tech market?

Survive. Microsoft (at least parts of it) realize the PC desktop is not going
to last forever and that's the _only_ market they really dominate. Everything
else depends on this domination and the moment it ceases to exist, all the
other BUs will fail. Except, maybe, Xbox and miscellaneous hardware.

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bpodgursky
> that's the only market they really dominate

Office

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rbanffy
What is Office without Windows?

