Is Microsoft going to survive the macro hard times?
An article by our CRM Consultant Sai Ratnakar Bezawada on Microsoft’s Mobile / Smart Phone Operating System Strategy:
Shopping for a mobile was never an easy decision since its inception, now with rapid technological advancements in the smart phone market there are a number of mobile applications being developed everyday and published to make life simpler and easier. Some of the apps can do almost any miniscule task that one could actually do by maintaining a pocket diary (of course a decade ago). However mobile makers haven’t realized that the decision making to purchase is getting even tougher.
With most of mobile companies are at loggerheads with each other, does a late entrant giant like Microsoft stand a chance to survive the litmus test?
I was fortunate to attend the closed door Microsoft windows mobile leadership event last weekend at Microsoft, Bangalore. The main idea behind the meet was to suggest an idea to what Microsoft could best do and how best they can penetrate their newly developed mobile OS product into the market. Surprisingly almost all of the attendees were developers, app designers and some of them design mobile applications as a hobby.
The meeting began with the sales director of Microsoft (India) explaining the OS and usability features of the phone and its features. The promotions that they were using in India was very interesting. the idea was to develop mobile apps on the windows mobile and get a free windows phone from Microsoft!
If you are an app developer in a competing technology (like Apple iPhone or Android), it is relatively easier to grab a free Windows phone. All you have to do is, port any 2 of your existing mobile phone apps from the competing technology to Windows Phone app. It is obvious that Microsoft is trying to attract Android and iPhone app developers into the Windows Phone app development and if you are a woman, it is the best part of the free phone deal. Woman app developers can walk away with a free Windows phone from Microsoft by developing just one qualifying Windows Phone app. I believe this is a limited offer available only to the first 100 women developers unfortunately. However in simple terms, all this would constitute legal app poaching.
The discussion was more technology driven and ended with the meeting not justifying the intent. However, while the Windows OS, being the latest software which is still in the process of creating a space for itself in the market, it is really going to be an uphill task for Microsoft to survive the competition, especially after tying up with a hardware manufacturer Nokia which has a dwindled market share to below 30% in the mobile market.
In conclusion, it is really hard to predict Microsoft as this could be also be the revival of the phoenix as Microsoft has stood through the test of time.