Windows Phone 7 Series
Yesterday Microsoft announced the long awaited Windows Phone 7 Series which by my account is still in the "long awaited" category. Look here for more information.
At first glance it looks like I thought it would look. The Zune HD was a clue as to where Microsoft would be going with their mobile experience and the Windows Phone 7 interface is absolutely an evolution of the Zune. I consider this to be a good thing especially if the new Windows Phones come with hardware that is comparable to the Zune HD. My household contains iPods and a Zune HD and there is no doubt that the Zune is the superior media player with its OLED screen, processor, graphics card that supports 720P and overall user experience. It makes my iPods seem downright clunky and passé.
Looks aside I cannot believe that in such a competitive business environment that Microsoft would choose to release the phone during Holiday 2010. This is February dammit! We Windows Mobile developers are dying with a phone people are ceasing to purchase while other platforms are moving forward at breakneck speed. They need to get in the game sooner than their announced dates. I want to believe that when they said "Holidays 2010" they meant Cinco de Mayo or perhaps July 4th Independence Day. Every month they waste is another month of lost customers and another month of developers leaving to other platforms.
Developers, Developers, Developers!
I think most software developers have seen the Steve Balmer clip where he freaks out to get the crowd fired up.
If you have not look here if you are brave enough. When I got past the how sweaty, funny, geeky the whole episode was I realized that Balmer was getting "it". He knew the lifeblood of his company was all the non-Microsoft developers that were choosing to write software on Microsoft platforms. I have developed a lot of software for the Windows Mobile platform and made a lot of money in the process but what started out as something with a lot of promise has now made me feel like a refuge wandering the desert. While other companies have advertised and developed a complete mobile strategy, Microsoft has floundered over the past few years. Windows Mobile 6.5 still does not have a fully released SDK and all those cool HTC Windows Mobile phones are cool due to the interface work HTC and others have done, not Microsoft. To me this has been a large strategic failure on their part.
How they got into this position I have no clue. Successful technology companies are built on vision, passion, and balls not risk management. Perhaps the mobile failures are the same structural failures that causes the Vista debacle. Windows 7 gives me hope that the Windows Phone will do well upon release. It will have to succeed, failure is not an option.
One thing that I think needs to be very clear to those in charge at Microsoft is that while the developers that leave are "mobile developers", they also write a lot of non-mobile software. Now they are exposed to other platforms and are making money on them. Getting them back is going to take a special effort, without slipups.
A sign of the times or bad marketing?
I took a trip to AT&T in December to pick up my HTC Tilt 2. It was a microcosm of all the problems I have just discussed.
Excuse me sir. Where are the iPho... Oh never mind. I see the huge display now.
Now the 2nd photo of me attempting to find the new HTCs running the cool Windows Mobile 6.5 UI, I mean the HTC touchFlo interface.
What is really needed?
First is flawless execution, which should include doing the following...
Copyright 2010 Darren Flatt, All rights reserved
At first glance it looks like I thought it would look. The Zune HD was a clue as to where Microsoft would be going with their mobile experience and the Windows Phone 7 interface is absolutely an evolution of the Zune. I consider this to be a good thing especially if the new Windows Phones come with hardware that is comparable to the Zune HD. My household contains iPods and a Zune HD and there is no doubt that the Zune is the superior media player with its OLED screen, processor, graphics card that supports 720P and overall user experience. It makes my iPods seem downright clunky and passé.
Looks aside I cannot believe that in such a competitive business environment that Microsoft would choose to release the phone during Holiday 2010. This is February dammit! We Windows Mobile developers are dying with a phone people are ceasing to purchase while other platforms are moving forward at breakneck speed. They need to get in the game sooner than their announced dates. I want to believe that when they said "Holidays 2010" they meant Cinco de Mayo or perhaps July 4th Independence Day. Every month they waste is another month of lost customers and another month of developers leaving to other platforms.
Developers, Developers, Developers!
I think most software developers have seen the Steve Balmer clip where he freaks out to get the crowd fired up.
If you have not look here if you are brave enough. When I got past the how sweaty, funny, geeky the whole episode was I realized that Balmer was getting "it". He knew the lifeblood of his company was all the non-Microsoft developers that were choosing to write software on Microsoft platforms. I have developed a lot of software for the Windows Mobile platform and made a lot of money in the process but what started out as something with a lot of promise has now made me feel like a refuge wandering the desert. While other companies have advertised and developed a complete mobile strategy, Microsoft has floundered over the past few years. Windows Mobile 6.5 still does not have a fully released SDK and all those cool HTC Windows Mobile phones are cool due to the interface work HTC and others have done, not Microsoft. To me this has been a large strategic failure on their part.
How they got into this position I have no clue. Successful technology companies are built on vision, passion, and balls not risk management. Perhaps the mobile failures are the same structural failures that causes the Vista debacle. Windows 7 gives me hope that the Windows Phone will do well upon release. It will have to succeed, failure is not an option.
One thing that I think needs to be very clear to those in charge at Microsoft is that while the developers that leave are "mobile developers", they also write a lot of non-mobile software. Now they are exposed to other platforms and are making money on them. Getting them back is going to take a special effort, without slipups.
A sign of the times or bad marketing?
I took a trip to AT&T in December to pick up my HTC Tilt 2. It was a microcosm of all the problems I have just discussed.
Excuse me sir. Where are the iPho... Oh never mind. I see the huge display now.
Now the 2nd photo of me attempting to find the new HTCs running the cool Windows Mobile 6.5 UI, I mean the HTC touchFlo interface.
What is really needed?
First is flawless execution, which should include doing the following...
- Advertise and do alot of it! Microsoft should not be afraid to go for the jugular of its competitors. The Justice Department will tell them if they need to slow down or stop.
- The development environments and emulators need to be released NOW. Microsoft cannot afford to release their phone OS and then have the SDK released months later. That would be a disaster.
- Reduce the pricing of Azure cloud services for developers writing Windows Phone apps. As a matter of fact, make it free for any developer that has apps in the Windows Phone app store.
- Make Visual Studio free for mobile development. It didn't cost me anything to download the Android or Blackberry environments.
- Windows phone should run on hardware superior to any other phone in the market. Out Apple, Apple.
- Leverage Bing until it hurts. Make all the services available to developers to embed in their applications.
- Bring back the MEDC conference thus recognizing that mobile needs focus, not just a learning track at Tech Ed.
The second thing that is needed is marketshare and lots of it. This is where it gets expensive for Microsoft. In my opinion they do not have time to grow Windows Phone, they need to buy other companies. I have read about rumors of a RIM buyout and I think that would be a good fit for Microsoft. I also still believe that HTC should be acquired and they should stop letting others make their hardware for Windows Phone. Marketshare is what will ultimately bring developers back into the fold, it is the one thing that trumps all others.
If all things I mentioned sound overly negative, it is, and should be considering where Microsoft has slipped to on the mobile pecking order. That being said I think they have some very good people working on Windows Phone and the issues are beginning to get attention from the top which is translating into action. They just need to realize that time is not on their side and successful execution is required for success. The developers are watching.
Copyright 2010 Darren Flatt, All rights reserved
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