Remember the glorious days of the good old Windows Mobile?
The operating system was poised as the big thing that happened to smartphones
and held a major market share in the smartphone world. Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEM’s) flocked to the platform and businesses saw all their
requirements fulfilled by the familiar and robust operating system.
Along came the iPhone and changed the market forever.
Smartphones were no longer seen as the go to business devices and had a much
wider appeal attached to them now. The familiar iPod like interface and design,
massive entertainment features, a highly responsive touch screen and various
other factors slowly changed the perception that a smartphone was a
businessman’s phone and everyone wanted one now.
The downside? Price. Everyone may have wanted a smartphone
now but the steep price associated with an iPhone kept many at bay. Google saw
an opportunity and formed the Open Handset Alliance, roping in the largest
who’s who of the industry and creating a new ecosystem. This led to the
development of Android, which holds the largest market share in the smartphone
world today. Android had the backing of almost all the big players in the mobile
and telecommunications industries and was an open platform, providing cutting
edge features at a price that was surprisingly affordable.
What was Microsoft doing while all this was happening?
Microsoft was complacent and saw no need to change, dismissing the developments
as temporary. It was only after its market started to decline and Windows
Mobile lost its dominant position that Microsoft finally took notice and
overhauled its experience with Windows Phone. But it was too little, too late.
The world had already adopted iPhone and Android, and a hastily baked and unfinished
Windows Phone was scrapped by the masses, including many loyalists. A few did
remain, but the dwindling market share, which fell below a threshold soon,
provoked developers to also jump ship and build applications for platforms
where the revenue streams seemed better.
The final blow came when Microsoft abandoned what was left
of its loyalists by scrapping Windows Phone 7.8 and not allowing the phones to
upgrade to Windows 8, and subsequently 8.1, the new platform which had the
potential to finally hold its own against the might of iPhone and Android. This
was like starting from scratch again, and persuading everyone to buy a device,
no upgrades whatsoever. There was virtually no market share and no developers
were interested in developing applications for Windows. The lack of a flagship
since the past two years has only worsen the problems.
After major reshuffles inside the company, Microsoft is
finally close to releasing Windows 10, a universal platform that has cutting
edge features and cross platform compatibility. And learning from previous
mistakes, Microsoft is doing everything in its power to make people upgrade to
the new platform, and rope in developers, thereby breaking the deadlock that
was so far seemed as the biggest hurdle in Microsoft’s and Windows Mobile’s
path. This is the last shot Microsoft has, and it knows that. But will it be
enough? Only time will tell, and the judgement hour seems closer than ever for
Windows Mobile.
