I found this tweet come across my stream yesterday:
Windows Phone failing cos it's too good? http://t.co/nVO6KI3w I doubt that's it. Interesting read though.
— Brian P. Hogan (@bphogan) January 4, 2012
This happened because, presented with a market dominated by the open, if scattered approach Android and the tightly integrated way of Apple, Microsoft did what seems logical: they created a compromise between the two. Put the OS on a lot of phones, but make the thing consistently good. Makes sense, right?
Sadly, that kind of reasoning does make a lot of sense, but it is ultimately one thing: uninteresting. It is a compromise dressed and talked about as thought it is uncompromising. The idea that you can have everything without compromising is the driving force behind Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 right now (or at least, that is what it seems). In doing so, Microsoft has painted itself as alienating all sides of the equation.
The little I’ve used Windows Phone 7 I’ve liked. I hope that they can get a strong foothold in the mobile space because I like the idea of having three strong options instead of two (I’m not counting RIM anymore). However, Microsoft needs to decide what it wants to do and then stick with it. Trying to be all things to all people is impossible and pointless.
2 replies on “Windows Phone 7 too good?”
I’ve really liked WP 7 too. Its slick and refined looking. They did a good job paring things down to the essence, taking a page out of Apple’s book somewhat. Windows Phone is still the best ActiveSync experience. If only MS had a better software stack to integrate like Apple and Google have done they’d do well.
That’s another thing, but I think Microsoft has enough money to throw at the problem to make the software part “go away”. Sadly, I just think they didn’t pick what they wanted to do and then focus on actually doing it. They tried to toe so many lines and instead alienated a lot of people.
“Everything” is boring. Make choices so that users don’t have to.