1. Skip to Menu
  2. Skip to Content
  3. Skip to Footer>
  • The Paradox of Consumer Choice
    A few years ago I read a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More by Barry Schwartz. His anecdotes were insightful and pointed to truths about the amount of choice the free market has laid on us as consumers. Of course free markets and consumer choice should be good things, but there are certainly experiences I have had where the overwhelming sense of having too many options made it difficult to actually make a decision. I related to much of what the book was saying, particularly with the experience of picking out a DVD to watch from my massive collection. I recall staring at a wall of DVDs and having the most difficult time deciding what to watch. The decision-making process when faced with so many good choices was simply immobilizing.  
  • The Future of PC and Mobile Processors

    I've spent a lot of time with a number of hardware manufacturers recently, trying to get a glimpse into the next generation of processors and the ways in which they'll impact future gadgets and PCs. In all my meetings, one term has arisen time and again: SOC, or system-on-a-chip.

    Traditionally, chips have been created independently and then coupled together to provide multiple computing features. For example, a manufacturer would create a core processor like an Intel Centrino with a built-in Wi-Fi radio, and then attach that to a systems board, perhaps linking it together with a separate graphics co-processor, in order to deliver enhanced PC graphics. Another might take an ARM core processor and then add on additional features like extended graphics to enhance device functionality.

  • Apple's iPad: Live up the Hype? It Will....
    It was interesting to hear all the chatter after last week's iPad launch. Most reactions I heard from other analysts and media were lukewarm at best...which was what I expected. If you think about it, how can anything live up to the kind of hype leading up to this launch? But there was a lot missed in the media about the event and the product that I hope to share in order to maintain our perspective on not only the iPad but on Apple and their products.  
  • Innovation Abounds - CES 2010 Post Show Analysis

    This year's CES was very interesting. I had felt for the past few years that CES was sorely lacking in the innovation department. But this year it looks like things have changed in the technology industry. Technology companies have realized that to reach the consumer the pace of innovation needs to accelerate, and this year's CES was a start in that direction.  Several things stuck out that I'd like to highlight:  

The Fate of Windows Phone 7

Written by Ben Bajarin Monday, 17 May 2010 15:14

With the Kin entering the market, HP's acquisition of Palm, and a number of other industry events, I have been asked quite a bit about Microsoft's chances of success with Windows Phone. Microsoft is losing traction in this market rapidly and is in desperate need of strategy that will keep their operating system competitive in a market dominated by RIM, Apple, and Google.
 
If you look at the numbers released by Gartner toward the end of last year projecting mobile OS market share, they projected in 2012 Microsoft to rank 4th on the list with just over 12% of the Smartphone OS market share. 12% of the market is not bad and would come out to roughly 70 million devices in that year. That being said, I can't imagine Microsoft being content with 4th place. So what do they need to do to be successful in a fragmented Smartphone OS landscape in which we expect some consolidation to happen in the next few years?
 
 
Pick Battles Wisely
I firmly believe that what we have seen with the Kin is a glimpse into things we will see from Microsoft in the future relative to the mobile market. The Kin represents a dedicated platform built specifically for a segment of the market, in this case the uber-socialite. The Kin was designed to specialize on a specific usage model. Tradeoffs in the hardware and software were made in order to focus exclusively on this usage model. I explain the variances in consumer markets as "use cases" and the Kin is designed to focus on a specific use case within mobile devices.

This is an example of Microsoft choosing to take their software platform and focus on a specific segment of the market, in essence choosing to compete for this particular market. I can see them beginning to carve out other segments of the market they are interested in and create a hardware/software experience unique to that market. Think an enterprise device with customized software and hardware designed to focus on the mobile worker, in essence to go right after RIM's core market.

Now this does not mean that they won't offer what I will call a "vanilla" Windows Phone 7 device that is more general in its uses. Microsoft will of course offer Windows Phone 7 as a platform for OEMs, but these devices will be more general then specific. 

Help Hardware Partners Differentiate
One of the primary complaints I have seen from device manufacturers, both in the PC space and in the mobile space, is that Windows as a platform did not help them differentiate themselves in the market. Manufacturers were challenged to only differentiate their products with hardware. With the rise of Apple over the last decade, the challenge on the Windows side became even more prevalent because of the clear differentiation in hardware and software Apple provides . . . . leaving those who license Windows to all offer basically the same thing to the market.

HTC took matters into their own hands and created their own software to layer on top of Windows Mobile in order to not only make the Windows Mobile experience more pleasant, but to also differentiate their devices from the rest of the pack. Not all manufacturers are as entrepreneurial as HTC, but all manufacturers have a need to differentiate their products in the market.

Microsoft must address this need in order to provide their partners with a software platform that allows them to compete in this highly fragmented market. This is one of reasons I believe HP acquired Palm. I can see HP taking the Web OS and extending it beyond mobile phones and into other categories like Netbook, Tablets, their Dream Screens, and maybe even to PCs. This is critical because HP understands the need to differentiate and they are positioning themselves to be in control of their own future.

Google is also enabling differentiation. Since their platform is open source, manufacturers have been taking the software and customizing it for their own needs. HTC does this, Moto with the Blur has done this, and I believe we will see a great deal more customized Android platforms. Symbian has also started open-sourcing their code and can now be customized.

The mobile platform is shaping up to be an extremely competitive environment. Microsoft will be faced with many challenges, but we must not forget their commitment to the mobile platform. I don't expect them to give up, but I do believe they face some of the biggest challenges in the history of the company. 
Comments (0)Add Comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

security code
Write the displayed characters


busy
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| More...

Copyright © Creative Strategies, Inc 2009-2010