Microsoft Investing Billions in Windows Phone 7

[wotan31]

When it comes to phones, Microsoft = Fail. They've never had a successful phone product. Ever. They all sucked because they tried to put a Windows peecee UI on a handset, which just doesn't work. Plus they've always been well behind the competition in terms of technology. Fact it, nobody wants Windows, and all it's associated problems, on their phone.

 

[Shin-san]

[citation][nom]Azimuth01[/nom]Imagine what kind of phone someone would have if that billion went into making the OS that much better....instead it's going to be spent on advertising and bribes to hardware manufacturers so they use MS. The OS might be good, but (like many game companies) it's easier to spend money on name recognition then it is to make something really special.[/citation]
In the case of Microsoft, it wouldn't make much difference. If they wanted to dump $500 million into the OS, there's not much stopping them. Developer butt kissing is also what helped them beat down Apple in the 90s, and stand against the Playstation brand to where Playstation had to adopt the same tactic.
[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]XBOX 360 is a kind of partial success but it cannot be compared to Nintendo Wii and PS3 seems to gain ground lately pretty fast.[/citation]
The Xbox 360 is definitely a success. It has maintained a 5 million console lead over the PS3, and dominates the PS3 in America. To be fair, the Wii beat both of them. The console is also making them money.

 

[xerroz]

I like the phone, its very neat and the animations look really great. Cant wait to get one of these

 

[hiruu]

M$ has been spending alot of money over the last year in EDD for R&D, and while they DID launch a redesigned console and they will be releasing Kiect, I'm sure alot of that money when into WP7. Now, was it billions...I hardly doubt it, but it was a sizable chunk of change. As for moving forward, since we haven't seen any devices and developer software, we really can't say, but based on the line-up of gaming titles announced, WP7 is going to hit hte ground running. M$ ofcourse has a huge advantage in that the learning curve to develop for WP7 was probably not very steep.

 

[ridewya]

that's what happen when u made such a shitty product before (windows mobile) and now everyone running to apple or android and Microsoft end up with bad name, consumer wont forget how bad those windows mobile was, constant crashes and veryyyy slow, keeps on running out of memory, same thing what happen to palm, I hope these company really learn their lesson to do and give the best to their clients/customers, after all their success is because of us consumers.

 

[jaethos]

MS isn't trying to win over all of the iOS and Android users. The smartphone market is expanding rapidly right now. They want to get all the new users coming in to smartphones. The smartphone market is just beginning. Also, don't think the vast majority of consumers are anything like those of us who frequent tech sites like Tom's.

 

[cookoy]

hope with one more big player in the market, competition will heat up and we consumers will eventually be the winners

 

[jeraldjunkmail]

A billion dollars is simply not enough. Think of all the man-hours that have gone into Android (for free I might add). Open source software is going to win, and it becomes more and more apparent all the time.

 

[w0lfattack]

I wish they spent some money keeping their Zune series alive. It seems like they've forgot their Zune customers. I'd love to see some of these Windows 7 phone features migrated to the Zune. Some better games or apps? Give the iTouch SOME competition at least!

 

[Ch33ky]

I can't wait for win mo 7! Being a developer who has done tons of silverlight and xna already, I can't wait to try it out!

 

[dragon5677]

[citation][nom]Azimuth01[/nom]Imagine what kind of phone someone would have if that billion went into making the OS that much better....instead it's going to be spent on advertising and bribes to hardware manufacturers so they use MS. The OS might be good, but (like many game companies) it's easier to spend money on name recognition then it is to make something really special.[/citation]

exactly, it would be a phone that everyone desires.

 

[fayzaan]

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]I also think that "Windows", "MS Windows" on a phone is a bad marketing strategy.Who wants Windows on their phone??? The horrible buggy OS that makes your PC crawl. ??? I bet almost none tech savvy people would like a phone with an Windows logo on it.[/citation]

Better than an apple on your phone. And tech savvy people would actually enjoy Windows on their phone. I am tech savvy and am looking forward to this. Hopefully they'll become far more popular than the iphone and get better development. Plus they can integrate with your PC a lot better too, it'll be awesome.

 

[nuvon]

Marketing is important, but most imporantly let the product do the talking! If it is a good product, people will recoginze. No need to bribe.

 

[nightcrawl3r]

I hope they make things right with this Windows Version.

 

[Guest]

The phone in the picture looks cheap and ugly.

 

[pocketdrummer]

What they really need to do is just contract someone to make hardware for them and design the damn phone themselves.

Hire artists, hire design guru... hire people that want to push technology and design forward. The only reason the iPhone is so popular is because Apple puts a lot of money into the DESIGN. The first iPhone didn't even support MMS, but people still bought it instead of more capable phones on the market with less style.

If they really want to compete with Apple, they need to appeal to masses from a stylistic aspect and wow them with superior hardware on top of it.