Aside from naming, where is Windows phone's Achilles heel?

Absrtact: Since June, the news that Microsoft is about to reorganize, the industry's speculation on the reorganization plan is endless. One guess is that Microsoft's business will be divided into devices, services, software three lines, the other is that it will be planned to be redesigned into 4 business units: Enterprise

There has been a steady stream of speculation about the restructuring of the industry since the news of Microsoft's imminent reorganization in June. One guess is that Microsoft's business will be divided into devices, services, software three lines, the other is that it will be redesigned to 4 business units: Enterprise, hardware, applications and services, operating system. These two versions are not very different, and one thing is close to the board, which is the merging of Windows Phone and windows. In contrast to this big probability event, the Microsoft Development Conference on build 2013 once flowed out "the future will no longer have the ' Windows Phone ' This logo, all WP devices will use a unified ' windows for ARM ' as the system name" rumors. This rumor has not been confirmed by foreign media reports, the authenticity of doubt. However, it would not be surprising if Microsoft really abandoned the logo, as it was a 10-year-old hobby for Microsoft as it struggled to toss the name of the mobile device's operating system.

Naming History of Windows phone

Microsoft's efforts towards handheld/mobile devices began in November 1996 with Windows CE (WinCE) 1.0. By 2000, WinCE had evolved to 3.0. Based on WinCE 3.0, it extends the platform of Pocket PC, Handheld PC, Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone 2002. As the name shows, smartphone, of course, is used for smartphones, which is the first time wince has contacted the phone. Also linked was the Pocket PC, where Microsoft added phone functionality to some Pocket PC versions, mainly for large (touch)-screen handsets (such as 686, 696), forming the so-called Pocket PC phone Edition.

By the year 2003, Microsoft launched Windows Ce.net 4.2 Windows Mobile (WM) 2003, merging the names of these mess and making more sophisticated Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PCs Premium Edition, Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition, Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone and Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition.

In 2005, the WM was suddenly not named after the year, and the new version, called WM 5, was introduced. Since then, the WM 6, WM6.1 and WM6.5 have been introduced. 2010, the iphone has begun to sweep the smartphone market, facing the losing of the WM, Microsoft abandoned as a cover, decisively enable the new brand Windows Phone (WP), its first version is WP7. The name change to the mobile phone players a devastating disaster, all WM mobile phones can not be upgraded to wp7--even if it is just bought.

In 2012, this history repeats itself, Microsoft's new WP8 is incompatible with WP7, all WP7 phones cannot be upgraded to wp8--even just bought.

What can be seen from this dazzling naming history?

1. Until the 2010, Microsoft lived in an industrial society. Starting with the Pocket PC, a wide variety of product lines and unintelligible naming shows that Microsoft has never wanted to make mobile devices simpler. This reflects the typical industrial social thinking, with complex technical terms of the mysterious, parcel products, geeks may like these nouns, as for the general public can understand? Well, look at the instructions.

2. Microsoft has never taken mobile devices seriously. Starting with wince, Microsoft's idea was to plug the desktop version of Windows into gadgets instead of creating an entirely new operating system that really suited small devices. Technically speaking, this idea is not wrong, the problem is the perfunctory attitude of Microsoft. The mobile phone side of the application of the operating experience is completely different from the desktop side, Microsoft has not really studied the needs of mobile phone users, but superstitious in the windows "consistent experience." In the absence of competitors, the WM had a short break. With the rise of iOS and Android, the top of the Microsoft phone burst thousands of miles, never again.

3, Microsoft for mobile phone platform lack of long-term planning, resulting in desktop version of Windows plugged into the mobile phone route twists. More importantly, the frequent change of the kernel caused by the incompatibility of the mobile phone greatly hurt the user's feelings. Whether WP7 or WP8, the introduction of a new platform means a total abandonment of old users, new users can only be restarted, the user base is lack of continuity.

4, Microsoft's big enterprise disease is serious. After the failure of a product, Microsoft is not thinking of how to attract users through innovative improvement, but to expect the new name to sweep the bad luck. This is the safest way to do it in a large enterprise, ostensibly to give a new look of repentance, from scratch, is actually a game of mutual deception: the high-level display of the "innovation" of the weather, the lower level to get the promotion of the names and costs. As for products-there is Microsoft's own, can be built.

Aside from naming, where is Windows phone's Achilles heel?

1. "Windows" leads to an inevitable disillusion

Taking WP8 as an example, the shared kernel with WIN8 is a publicity stunt when Microsoft launches WP8, and it discards WP7 users for this gimmick. However, this gimmick is only meaningful to developers, and for ordinary users, you simply do not have the means to copy WIN8 applications directly to the phone to run normally. In other words, the name "Windows" can easily provoke a user's fantasies about running a regular Windows program, which is doomed to collapse. Uninformed users have a sense of confusion or deception is inevitable, in this sense, "Windows" is no longer the Microsoft mobile phone platform assets, but debt.

2. Microsoft has lost its appeal to hardware manufacturers

At the point of time, the current PC market is already in a recession, Microsoft's appeal to hardware manufacturers has long been less than before. and experienced from WM6 to WP8 all the way, mobile phone hardware manufacturers are tortured by Microsoft miserable. So don't laugh at "pig-mates", and teammates may complain more about Microsoft's "pig leader". There is no excellent hardware manufacturer's support, and then a good mobile phone system can not play out the power, not to mention the WP itself and not too much of the place, most of the time is Microsoft in their own words.

3. Microsoft focuses more on developers than users

Affected by the success of desktop windows, Microsoft believes that as long as the good developers, let developers more for WP development applications, users can buy. But Microsoft's position on the handset side is very different from the desktop side. The user first chooses the system, followed by the application. Choose WP less users, the application is not good enough to make money, the enthusiasm of the developer nature can not be guaranteed, Microsoft in this regard the energy and financial resources are all dozen water drift.

4. Microsoft has serious errors in product positioning

As a weak mobile-phone platform, Microsoft (and its teammate Nokia) is not thinking about capturing the market at a relatively low price, but trying to shape WP8 into a high-end platform that competes directly with the iphone and Galaxy handsets. Lumia 920 The domestic market high prices scare away most of the soft powder, Jianshibumiao Nokia 3 months after the sharp price reduction, but too late. Microsoft's tie-up with Nokia has led two of old companies to develop their own product strategies in an old-fashioned way, unwilling to compete with the lower-tier brands of the Android camp. From the pricing of Lumia 928, they seem to have failed to learn from them.

Is it helpful for the WP department to merge with the Windows department?

To put it simply, it doesn't help much. As mentioned earlier, the WP problem is very complex, the combination of WP version of the iteration may be accelerated, but it is difficult to solve the fundamental problem:

1. WP's kernel is shared with Windows, which is irrelevant to the user. The consolidation of the platform is so, and so is the consolidation of departments. As long as WP can't run the Windows program directly (obviously this will be true for a long time), the combination of the two doesn't make much sense.

2. If Microsoft really takes the mobile platform as the focus of the future, it should separate the WP (at least the mobile product) into one department. Now instead of the department merged with the Windows Department, Microsoft said that they value WP, do you believe it? hardware manufacturer letter?

3. WP closed eco-circle is difficult to attract the best hardware manufacturers to join, even with Windows bundled together can not. With free Android, Microsoft will be scraping a patent fee, if the mobile platform is monopolized by Microsoft, then? So it is impossible for hardware manufacturers to wheedle Microsoft again.

Worse, the combination of the two departments could even damage WP:

1. After the merger of the Department, in the case of a unified allocation of resources, WP's living space may be squeezed by Windows again. For example, if Microsoft is having financial difficulties, is it cutting back the windows or reducing the budget in the department? The answer is self-evident.

2. After the merger, WP loses some of its flexibility and new business ideas are harder to carry out-whatever it does, it always takes into account the policies and conditions of windows in the same sector.

3. The combination of WP in the Windows Department under the AOI may be more difficult to twist the traditional way of thinking: Focus on the developer, do not pay attention to the user, pay attention to the consistency of the bottom of the product (cost savings), but do not pay attention to the difference between the experience of equipment.

Therefore, no matter what the above plan to become true, WP will not be good. The real idea of WP's advantage may be to incorporate it into the hardware department, with the Xbox, Kinect, surface together to toss a little bit of soft and hard one of the new things, after all, here is the side of Xintiandi, from the mobile internet is also more recent.