Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

I did. After my HTC Touch Diamond Debacle, i waited 4-5 years and had the opportunity to play with WP7
Yep. MS in the handset arena still sux ballz.
Ever heard the syaing "you can't make strawberry jam out of cowsh*t"?

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

The problem is... EVERYBODY ELSE also have more cards to play, a BETTER long-range strategy and there are now competitors with MORE money to spend on their concentrated efforts than Microsoft does. They are also determined, well financed bulldogs. Windows 8 hasn't even been released yet--so it doesn't even make sense to bring that into this conversation without ALSO pointing out that Apple, Google, Samsung, HTC and everybody else have upcoming major releases that will already be far ahead of Windows 8 when it finally manages to hobble its way out into what already appears to be a hopeful but skeptical reception.

Sure, we'll check back in 4-5 years, but we're already looking back on the past 10 years. It hasn't been a successful decade for Microsoft's mobile division. It hasn't even been particularly successful for their DESKTOP operating systems--people aren't even interested in replacing Windows XP anymore and the new Windows OS's aren't moving hardware the way they used to.

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

The game will change radically after Win8 is released and MS uses literally billions of desktops as leverage into the mobile arena.

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

But wasn't Windows Phone 7 supposed to be a radical "game changer" too?

To quote someone else on Google+ on this subject:
"Yes, WP7 is a failure. When a company the size of MS launches a device and it struggles to break a single percent of the market despite having the weight of industry leading companies like Samsung and HTC for over a year, it's a failure..."

The problem for Microsoft is PRECISELY that the game has changed... several times.. and EACH TIME they never seem to be successfully able to entice customers to their platform in the face of better supported, better managed, more productive and far more attractive competition. MS couldn't beat Palm, Symbian, iPhone or even Android in its infancy when MS was STILL faring poorer--it has even less hope today. Windows 8 is likely to be no more a game changer than Windows 7 was--especially when there are so many other far more successful game changers already out there coming down the pipe to compete with it.

Edit: You know, I forgot to address your point about how it's still too early in the mobile game to declare them a lost cause: How long has Microsoft been trying to put out a tablet? So this begs the question: How much of a head-start did they need to continue to lose the mobile computing competition to these upstarts that suddenly came along and sold HUGE numbers in short time?

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

MS has a long history of "wait until the update/next version" as a means of blowing off genuine concerns about failing to provide even basic functionality that is expected by consumers and already provided by the competition.

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

They were also used to being able to use NDA's, legal loopholes and creative monopolistic practices to make SURE they were the only realistic option for most people. In this whole new form factor... the true "game changer" here is that Microsoft doesn't automatically come installed on everything and people have a choices across similar hardware with differing operating systems. If the PC business had been this mixed and varied, I sincerely doubt that Microsoft would have been as dominant as they ended up for so long.

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

You're ignoring key differences in how MS desktop and mobile products have been marketed (both in the past and present) and how they will be marketed in the future.

Til now, they have been stand-alone products. WinCE/WP7 had little in common with Win desktop - not the OS, nor could software crossover.

With Win8 that changes. There will be an app store common to mobile and desktop systems. One-stop shopping for all MS users on all MS systems. As billions of MS desktops update to Win8 and newer, this will create a huge advantage Linux, Android and even Apple will not be able to match. Even if most ordinary users could be convinced to switch OS, business lock-in to MS systems guarantee MS a huge market share (and income) for many years to come.
Not to mention the effect that unification of mobile and desktop systems will have on developers...

M$ is far from done. I just hope I'm 100% wrong.

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

Here's the thing... http://www.macworld.com/article/1602...ails_ipad.html

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

@ Crashdamage
I think you may have been drawn in to the MS marketing hype (a bit like some people here have with Nokia's "next billion").
Web, mail, SNS, content sharing, location based services and games, pretty much sums up the mobile handset market and others are doing it better now. Moreover, these are all OS independant and don't need to integrate with a MS "mothership" sitting at home on my desktop/coffeetable.
I guess i'm not worried because I'm "locked" in to the GPL and the last time i checked, that hadn;t cost me anything....

Re: Meltemi - Lightweight Linux based os from Nokia
 

@danramos: There's some merit to the the points made in that article. That's why it remains to be seen how this will shake out. But it's written by an Apple fanboi and might have his head in the sand.

@onethreealpha: You're still assuming mobile systems will remain separate from desktops. I believe mobile and static (desktop) systems will merge until there is little difference.