Who, besides Microsoft, is interested on another mobile OS?
Autor: rodrigottr | Publicado: 2012-01-09T21:22:00-08:00


This night, at CES event, Nokia and Microsoft has showed its new bet for the american market. The new Lumia 900. A gorgeous 4.3' screened Windows Phone with all the hardware expertise is expected from Nokia and the new Mango Windows Phone in partnership with AT&amp;T.




While being a refreshing proposal about UX (but not a paradigma shift, indeed) this new OS that intends to chalange Apple and Google platforms doesn't ends the most painful problem of those who are trying to serve and feed those ecosystems with the most important thing for the end user: content.


 

That painful problem is that most of those who want to get into the new era of smartphones and provide services and products to end users have to go through this dilema: which platform should we invest on?




For answearing this question there are another pack of complex questions to answear like:




Which platform is the most solid for the future?

Which is the cheapest to develop for?

Which is the easiest to develop for?

Which is the fastest to develop for?

Which answears better our customer needs?

Which is more used by our custormers?

Which is more protected against frauds?

Which is more fragmented?

Which have users more likely to spend money?

Which has more market penetration and on wich markets?





Not to mention that not every content provider has money to invest in both iOS and Android. And that excludes a highly valuable long tail of small content providers that answer the needs of small niches of users.



A - That said, why should those extremely important players pay attention to the Windows Phone?



R: Because is the only who integrates smartphones with gaming consoles with PC plus a potential Windows 8 tablet? The power of that integration is still unknown.



B - Because OEMs and carriers are tired of being pieces on Apple's and Google's chess?&nbsp;



R: Carriers deffinetly aren't interested on Microsoft's proposal and that is publicaly known since a Microsoft executive stated that. Microsoft didn't handled none of its relationships with carriers well and even WP wasn't conceived thinking on carriers needs.



R: Some OEM's could be looking for ways to distribute the eggs on different baskets but that doesn't applies to all of them like Motorola (who is 100% comited with Android as it is Google owned) and Samsung who is developing its own OS with Intel, the Tizen. The only relevant player which that comes to be true is HTC who, besides Nokia, is betting more seriously on Windows Phone but also not as comited as it is with Android.



That said, the gorgeous Lumia 900 is the wrong answer to the real problem that is: Microsoft is designing its ecosystem for itself, not for those who should use it and make it full of value.&nbsp;





The proof for my words came on today's CES: the presentation of OpenMobile's solution Application Compatibility Layer (ACL) technology that allows Android apps to run on any platform.&nbsp;





The spontaneous initiative from OpenMobile simply shows how painful is that problem and also Microsoft's WP not only ignores that problem but also makes it even worser. Now you would have to decide into three platforms! 



Another proof of my words is that the new Lumia 900 still has no NFC tecnology (near field connectivity). A feature available on all recent Nokia phones running systems that not WP, like the N9 and the 701. Why? Because Microsoft is not as interested on conecting its users with each other as it is interested on keeping your locked into them.





Because of that lack of answering to player's needs I predict to Windows Phone the same relavance Google has with the Google +, which is: almost irrelevant.&nbsp;



Windows Phone has not much time to prove its value. Soon, perhaps in the beggining of 2013, Sumsung, the biggest smartphone maker, and also one of the biggest TV, tablet and computers maker will be showing us its HTML5 focused and Linux based Tizen. A differential that promisses to ease the pain of developing apps to every OS. Besides that the known openess of Samsungs hardware and Linux software is expected to be delivered for the also friendly Samsung pricing.&nbsp;


(Update 01/19/2012)
 
 
Mr. Stephen Elop Nokia's CEO, as a representant of Windows Phone, is showing us Microsoft wants a war of ecosystems. He is giving us a war of ecosystems. But is his war of ecosystems what other players want? Is it good for consumers? Is it good for content providers? Is it good for carriers and OEMs?His war of ecosystems force users to a painful choice of buying one ecosystem that is always incomplete, whatever it is. His war of ecosystems forces content providers to be redundantly on all ecosystems.His war of ecosystems force OEMs to have redundant assembly chains and more assets do manufacture and market different phones with absolutely no benefit for them except of being less dependable on Google. Being anyway impossible to differentiate themselves from other OEMs inside Windows Phone ecosystem. Meaning Android still their 1st choice.His war of ecosystems forces carriers to spend marketing money in favor of ecosystems that bring them no value and don't help them selling more services. Considering Windows Phone is not customizable and Skype integration is a treat to voice revenues.Mr. Elop, people want the PEACE OF ECOSYSTEMS! They want ecosystems that communicate with each other and make it indifferent between platforms to provide content, services, devices and apps the same way they don't have to worry if web pages will be visited by Mac, Linux or Windows. Mr. Elop, ecosystems that live in war aren't good for the biosphere. What you are proposing doesn't make sense. Five years ago, when Apple came with its carrier unfriendly iPhone it had to turn carriers against each other so that carriers wouldn't unite against the iPhone. So Apple came exclusively to AT&amp;T. That united other carriers against AT&amp;T and Apple. So the other carriers united with Android started fighting AT&amp;T + Apple.But on that moment the touch screen experience was exclusive for iPhone. Now the also carrier unfriendly Nokia + WP coalition, for being accepted in the game had to be exclusively with AT&amp;T. And touch screen isn't any more exclusive. Now the only differential is the Metro UI and the Xbox integration. How can Microsoft and Nokia expect to grow fast enough before the door of opportunity closes?