Curious to know what everyone thinks about the upcoming Windows phone. Part of me (the Microsoft despising part) says that it will be the companies biggest flop. I'll post several reasons for that. The other part of me (there is no part of me that doesn't hate MS) thinks it is doomed to mediocrity.
First scenario: dismal failure. The reason the iPhone is so exceptional is that it basically rewrote how we perceive smart phones from it's easy to navigate OS, to Multitouch, to it's ever improving (and always free) OS. a user gets the feeling there is something very special when pinching to zoom in and out of a photo. I remember the first time I used it being amazed at how you unlock the screen, and that's just turning the thing on!
Then comes Android. Android has many incredibly great attributes that iPhone does not have, namely openness. The ability to develop almost any app as well as the plethora of skins etc that companies like Motorola and HTC can add to the experience making it very unique to each handset. Both OS's bring something unique and very useful to the market.
That brings us to the biggy, Blackberry/Rim devices. The unique thing to RIM appears to be the death grip it has on business and IT. This allows all but complete saturation to those who are using it for corporate purposes. Occasionally you see Android units or the iPhone in the hands of business execs, but rarely.
Now with all that said what can Microsoft possibly add to this maturing market? To reiterate iPhone-unique consumer savvy device with tons of cool factor, Android-Openness, also very consumer savvy device a great iPhone alternative if you will, and RIM-business baby. In my opinion, Microsft can't add anything new. They're too late. They might be able to make some inroads with the business sector, but they'll have an uphill battle against RIM and I have no doubt they will fail in dethroning them. On the consumer end, the only real hope Microsoft has is against Android, but every day that goes by means Adroid is becoming more and more entrenched as the alternative consumer device.
Now on to Microsofts own failures. We all know just how awful Windows phone 6 was/is albeit the WP7 is a ground up new OS, it still has a helluva family lineage to hold it back. And if that weren't bad enough they have the very recent, very embarrassing
Kin fiasco Costing the company well into the $750 million dollar range (when taking into consideration the $500 million dollar buy out of Danger inc and the $250 million loss on the launch of Kin) for an utter and complete flop.
Now like I said part of me thinks it will do
ok but not great. Microsoft is most definitely able to throw it's weight around and it appears at least for the moment they are 100%ish behind WP7 which means it is very possible they might break into 4th place as far as OS saturation.
What do you think (and yes I know that this is in the Apple forum, but AC doesn't have a good place for a post like this, and I hate to put it in the general forum)
