

So, just what IS the problem with Windows Phone? - Yhippa
http://www.liveside.net/2011/12/26/so-just-what-is-the-problem-with-windows-phone/

======
melling
Microsoft has been building a phone OS for a decade. I had one before the
original iPhone. At this point no one cares. Android is the other option. If
they'd had built a better phone a decade ago, they would own the market by
now.

~~~
InclinedPlane
It's actually closer to a decade and a half. The first release of Windows
Mobile was in 2000, if you figure they started work a year or 2 prior that
works out to nearly 14 years MS has been developing such things.

------
michaelpinto
I don't know that Microsoft needs to be a consumer company — if they went with
a business focus then that's their strong point (something that would be a bad
move for Apple for example), and with Blackberry on the way down there's a
niche waiting to be filled.

------
jemeshsu
Windows Phone is a classic example that you might not win the race even with a
better product.

~~~
vetinari
There are many criteria that allow you to judge an product better or worse.
The selection of these criteria and their weight in your decision process are
subjective. So please do not post absolutism like you did, when according to
many people (and their subjective assessment) the competing products are
better and would argue with you, that WP is worse.

------
InclinedPlane
In a word: Trust.

Microsoft wasn't late to the smartphone party, they were at the forefront. In
2005 if you wanted a smartphone the best option was probably one that ran
Windows Mobile. But MS didn't take the market as seriously as they should have
and didn't innovate aggressively. So they got caught with their pants down
when Apple released a v1 product that was better than their nth generation
offering.

MS's mobile division has since recovered in some ways with windows phone 7 but
it's also had some missteps in the same time frame (zune, kin). Few people
trust MS to consistently deliver a better experience and a better platform
than the competition. And now they no longer have the network effect in their
favor.

More savvy folks are likely to remember the debacle leading up to windows
phone 7 and the severe trouble that entire team has seemed to have executing
in the past. It will probably take years to erase that reputation but by then
it may be too late given the pace the market moves at.

Windows Phone 7 seems to be quite solid in and of itself, but it needed to be
not just incrementally better than the competition but unarguably better. As
it stands the few areas where it did have an advantage are rapidly dwindling
as the competition catches up.

