| disolitude said: I don't disagree with your entire post but have counter arguments to some of your points. - Most of increases come from the fact that Microsoft finally has a variety of devices at different price levels and distribution to sell them to consumers, largely but not solely thanks to Nokia. I wouldn't discredit Windows ecosystem and give all the credit to Nokia here. There are design and ecosystem similarities between Windows desktop, tablet and phone (Xbox too) which may contribute to marketshare increases. - Nokia marketshare in the past is completely irrelevant as the company couldn't sustain itself in the changing smartphone market. They spent 10 billion dollars in R&D in 2010 to sell 20 million smartphones per quarter. They will be selling 10 million smartphones and even more per quarter very soon and have spend 2.5 billion in R&D in 2013. Their feature phone sales took a massive hit which is why the company was having issues for the last few quarters. - MS will gladly sell their OS to anyone that still wants to license it but they are fully aware they cannot compete with this business model in the mobile sector. Instead at this point it looks like they believe that by having full control of an OEM, they are able to quadruple the profit and revenue while not give up complete control of their mobile ecosystem and user experience. Only time will tell if they are right, but looking at the WP market uptrend, it looks like they are on the right track. |
Actually I tend to agree with lots of what you say here, but we differ in details...I'll make a few points...
- It's correct that Nokia is not the only reason to pick Windows Phones, which is obvious from other non-Nokia Windows Phones but presumably around 75% of Nokia (Winphone) sales are because of Nokia brand. Additionally,
- there are others who just prefer Windows Phone OS
- there are others who consider Windows Phone to be "better value" (Iphone is too expensive etc)
- there are others who are annoyed by IOS or Android and wanna try something else...
etc...
2) In my opinion :
- Windows Phone OS is technically MORE EFFICIENT than Android, while it is close to IOS. The UI is definietely much snappier, and closer to the metal (after all, what isn't more efficient than Java!)
- The UI is not overly complicated and may appeal to certain people with large boxes. However, the lack of customizability, the lack of some functionality, the lack of differentiability by developers, the lack of flexibility with respect to technical aspects (such as screen sizes etc) and hardware diversification etc are all issues with Windows Phone OS.
- The execution of Windows Phone has been very problematic, most recently the notorious transformation from Windows Phone 7 to 8. Those need to be streamlined. I still think Windows Phone OS is much better than Windows RT though. So Windows Phone OS 8 must be renamed, streamlined, resized to fit to tablets and be more flexible and customizable.
- Microsoft needs to urgently start developing the Mobile & Touch optimized versions of their consumer programs (Office etc). No wonder they couldn't sell RT, because they did not even have a touch optimized Office on a touch-based device, even after touting the office (!) and its productivity benefits.
Microsoft has some great talent but it has also the WORST POSSIBLE BUREACRACY and EXECUTION in consumer space. They still cannot figure out what to do with all that money, leverage from the desktop, and zillions of examples from Apple and Android and counter-examples from Blackberry and Nokia! That's a very rare "unskill"... I just need to congratulate Microsoft for its fascinating ability to screw things up!
- Microsoft should drop charging for the Windows Phone OS to the OEMS ENTIRELY. It should make it a cheaper and more viable alternative. Instead it should earn its money from the streamlined annual OS updates, as well as the app store sales.
Playstation 5 vs XBox Series Market Share Estimates
Regional Analysis (only MS and Sony Consoles)
Europe => XB1 : 23-24 % vs PS4 : 76-77%
N. America => XB1 : 49-52% vs PS4 : 48-51%
Global => XB1 : 32-34% vs PS4 : 66-68%
