After cutting 7,800 staff and taking a $7.6bn loss on its Windows Phone division, Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella intends to ramp up the company’s invasion of iPhone and Android with its apps and services. While the write-down has been seen as effectively neutering the remainder of the smartphone business Microsoft bought from Nokia in 2012, Nadella insists that his company is not exiting the smartphone market.
It makes totally sense: the chance for Microsoft to get a significant slice of the phone OS market is very slim, while the change to be a big player on the core apps market is way higher.
Expect more and more Android phone makers to ship with Microsoft apps preinstalled, we’ll see the bargain power of software patents at work.
Microsoft have been stifling their own business for years by limiting their apps to their own platform. They had hoped that Office would drive Windows phone sales, it hasn’t. They have now taken the sensible decision (in my view) of selling their apps to anyone who wants them. Microsoft’s focus has shifted towards providing SAAS, this move will bring them more users and in turn, more money.
I always disliked that strategy and it made me really hate MS over the years. I never think it’s a good idea to be so hostile to users of your competitors products (HELLO SAMSUNG!).
Everyone used to use Office for work, but MS made it so windows-centric that anyone not on windows searched and searched for alternatives. MS purposely made it painful to use a different OS, never giving any other platform equal standing for apps.
Their lame copies of the iPod, iPhone, and entire Apple store, complete with funerals and other proclamations of the death of competition, was a bit much to take. The marketing of the Surface making iPad users out to be idiots is still too far and takes away from a decent looking product.
I know in some ways Apple ‘started it’ with the switcher ads, but those seem so benign compared to the way MS used to insult mac users and the way samsung currently insults iPhone users.
Switcher ads were like two co-workers teasing each other. Most people ended up liking the pc guy more anyway.
Samsung continually insinuates iPhone users are all kinds of losers, either too young, too old, too trendy, too old-fashioned, just otherwise complete dolts for using iPhone.
Apple’s marketing is almost always better because it sells the product based on what it can do or what you might be able to achieve with it. It’s uplifting, universal, and avoids the muddy details. Why advertise for your competitor in your own ad?
Edited 2015-07-17 15:04 UTC
ezraz,
Hmm…I’m really not sure where you get that impression from. Here are 40 minutes of mac ads that say apple do the same thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZSBWbnmGrE
From 2006? My point exactly. Apple started it, well at least elevated it in the modern era, and all that’s left are knockoffs.
It’s 9 years ago and it wasn’t an iconic apple campaign. Their good ones don’t go after the competition.
ezraz,
That campaign continued until more like 5 years ago and IMHO it was more memorable than anything else they’ve put out. In any case my point was that if you criticize others for it, then it doesn’t make sense not to criticize apple too. Saying “their good ones don’t go after the competition” is cherry picking since not all competitor ads go after the competition either.
Edit: I don’t really care what any of these companies put in ads. It was just an observation that apple did in fact do similar things when they were trying to pull consumers away from windows.
Edited 2015-07-19 12:54 UTC