This report is saying that MS has sold upwards of 3.38 Million phones since launch, of which 877K occurred in February. It then goes on to state that an update named "NoDo", scheduled for later this month will not add multi-tasking, something that the competitors have had for quite a while. The update that adds multi-tasking is scheduled for later this year.
Now, when you add the fact that many of the pushed MS updates have successfully bricked Samsung phones, that not only are they over a year late in delivery, but their delivery does not support features found in most modern phones, I find myself not feeling as optimistic as you do. Let's look at base competency, shall we? Late to market (that's SOP for MSFT), underfeatured, and here's the kicker. With LIMITED hardware support - they managed to brick a substancial number of their extremely limited hardware devices. Has MSFT ever heard of Software Quality Assurance? It would appear that MSFT thinks that paying consumers who depend upon their cell phones for day to day life; should also be their Beta testers.
Sheer size and funding of a company, cannot and has not successfully driven and sustained meaningful product sales. Let's look at the Zune and the MSFT Surface and Surface 2. If you bought a Zune, I'm sorry. MSFT has been fiddling around with Surface for nearly 10 years. And what do they have to show for it?
It's kind of pathetic, really. You call me a MSFT hater - and the fact is that I've been a MSFT user for decades. But, if namecalling is the best you can do; and that appears to be about all that you can do - so be it. I'm simply pointing out that MSFT has lost their edge.
Look at the stunning lack of maturity they presented to the public when they launched Win7 mobile a year late. They held a funeral parade through Redmond, dressed in black robes, with floats of the iPhone, Android and Blackberry. People everywhere cringed in embarassment. This was hardly the sort of display you would have seen under managment that propelled MSFT onto the world-stage. And it's indicative of where MSFT is going. Instead of delivering a solid, robust, feature rich, intuitive architecture that speaks for itself; it's become about throwing money and delivering a product that is obsolete before it hits the market.
RIM's fourth-quarter shipments of 14.9 million were slightly behind the 16.2 million iPhones sold by Apple in its fourth quarter ending December.
Why do you insist on continuing this silly argument?
I don’t have a horse in this smartphone race, and I really don’t care who wins or loses, as long as I can get done whatever I need to do with whatever is available. Get it?
My only argument is that, it’s way too early to call winners and losers in the race. Back in the late 1980s, Microsoft was way behind when it came to their OS for PCs, and yet, with perseverance, they outran everybody and ended up quite comfortably ahead of every other OS. It took them years to pull ahead and then a lot more years to increase that lead to the point where they’ver virtually unchallengeable on the PC OS arena.
They find themselves in the same position with WM7 against, basically, 2 other competitors. But, coming from behind is something that Microsoft has been able to do before to finally become the leader. Nobody expected Xbox to compete against the WII or against Playstation, but, with perseverance and with a good product and good support, they’ve finally pulled ahead of the others.
If history is any indication, Microsoft has the assets and the will and perseverance to make the gains necessary to become the “winner” again, in this new challenge. And, this is a challenge which they’re going to have to stay in, because, this is the new sector in the computing arena, and to pull out would be tantamount to declaring themselves dead and done.
So, no matter how much you wish otherwise, Microsoft’s WM7 is here to stay, and it doesn’t matter if their sales are moribund for a year or so. The competition is for the long run, and in a very finicky market, where people change providers and phones too often, and where there is really no brand loyalty, the market is far from settled, and the declaration of a winner is really years into the future.
The fact is that, when it comes to WM7, it’s already ahead of what iPhones and Androids offered at the same stage of its life. NoDo has been release and the updates are being carried out, and within a few short weeks, everybody will be caught up with the updates. Once the next update comes along, somewhere in the fall, feature-wise, there won’t be much of a difference amongst the smartphones. Everything from that point on will be dependent upon the support and infrastructure that comes with the OS providers and the cell phone service providers.
But, this is still a very silly argument, on either side, since, nobody can predict how the smartphone or tablet market will have changed in 1 or 2 or 3 years. This is a long-term battle, and I would put my money on Microsoft, not because I love them or anything, but, because, they are the ones with the muscle and the money and the infrastructure to pull ahead of everyone else.
Talk to me in a year or two, and we’ll see who was correct in the analysis and opinions and predictions. Like I said, I don’t really care who wins, but, I would be very foolish to bet against Microsoft.
Sales figures for a few months are meaningless when the battle will be around for many years to come. If sales figures were to be the determining factor for whether a company should stay or pull out, then the Xbox would never have become the winner it is today. Being simple-minded and short-sighted isn’t forward looking at all.