[People_Eater]

Quote

“Imagine you’re Steve Ballmer, and in two years time WinMo was still 4th in smartphone market share. How much longer would you keep throwing money at it?”

If I were Steve Ballmer? I'd probably keep throwing money at it forever. And also throw a few chairs.

But that's Steve Ballmer - he's utterly incompetent. Intelligent people might choose a reasonable action.

[cv]

Norton, on 08 November 2009 - 06:14 PM, said:

MIcrosoft should keep throwing money at WiMo and Zune. Otherwise what are they going to do with the Billions of dollars from Windows 7 sales? Give them back to their shareholders?

Microsoft actually pays a dividend.

[KPOM]

dreyfus, on 08 November 2009 - 06:56 PM, said:

KPOM, on 09 November 2009 - 12:51 AM, said:

I think Microsoft needs a big acquisition to stay relevant in the future. I expect there to be one more significant version of Office and Windows after Office 2010 and Windows 7. After that, the PC market looks cloudier. They need to acquire an innovative company, give them some funding, but otherwise let them do their thing.

Interesting thought. What would be a beneficial target and one that anti-trust regulators world-wide would allow them to buy? I honestly can't imagine them approving any significant deals for years to come.

It's hard to say. Apple bought a small manufacturer of capacitive touch screens and got a 2-year head start on everyone else with the iPhone. It might be something as simple as that.

It's been 10 years since the anti-trust case, and the regulators are still fighting last decade's battle, seemingly unaware that Microsoft doesn't have anywhere near the influence it did when the case was filed. In the mobile space, it looks like the competition is between Apple, Google, and RIM. In the consumer space, Apple and Sony are the main PC companies who have a significant presence. The tablet market barely exists right now. There is no logical reason to me why Microsoft shouldn't be permitted to make an acquisition in any of these categories.

[BigGovGuy]

I've had Palm, Samsung, BlackBerry, and iPhone smart phones, usually 2-3 simultaneously, with the various operating systems on them. My personal/business uses of these phones makes me conclude that, functionality and emotional passions aside, the Windows Mobile platform is the most keystroke-intensive and therefore for me least friendly. In almost every task I want to perform with the phone, email, web, or even the smartphone's operational settings, it took more keystrokes to accomplish the same net result on the WiMo smart phones than the others. This, for me, was what led me elsewhere.

[Heart_Man_2000]

I can't remember whether it was Gates or Ballmer, but one of them stated (when it was clear Apple was going to release a mobile phone) that Apple did not stand a chance in the mobile market because the company had no knowledge of the market it was trying to get into. I find that quite amusing.

[Hamranhansenhansen]

I like how this article tries to be optimistic about Windows Mobile by saying that it might be saved by bringing in elements of Zune and Danger, 2 names which Microsoft has made synonymous with epic failure in mobiles. Putting 3 failures together does not equal success. They would be better off to get rid of all 3 and work on porting Windows 7 to mobiles, or porting MS Office to other smartphone systems.

[emiliosic]

I'm not sure I never take pictures out of the phone.
In fact, it's exremely easy (ie automatic) to sync my iPhone's picture with iPhoto and from it directly to MobileMe here my relatives can check out the latest baby pictures as well as sync to AppleTV.
Furthermore; my wife is happy with her SonyEricsson Walkman phone, which syncs her contacts via bluetooth and; just as easily as with an iPhone, when the phone is connected via USB, it syncs all its pictures to iPhoto.