What is up with Microsoft at the moment?
Recently a good colleague of mine — who used to work there — pointed out that Microsoft will simply drop a billion each time to try and get their mobile strategy correct.
If initial reports of the Windows Phone 7 system are to be believed, it looks like Microsoft will be down another billion by the end of the year.
Charles Arthur at the Guardian picked up InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman’s report about an in-depth demonstration of Microsoft’s new mobile phone operating system.
All I’ve seen of the Windows Phone 7 system is a few screenshots and some fairly promising animations at Mobile World Congress.
I have made no mistake of my absolute abhorrence of everything Windows Mobile 6+ (with 6.5 being slightly easier to live with than 6). Indeed I’ve made it a bit of a mission to ensure the companies I consult with don’t go near it. And I do a brilliant party trick destroying the lives of any Windows Mobile user, by simply asking them to run IM, check their email, load a web page and then calling them (and watching their hunk of joy barf under the load).
But I was hoping for a lot better from Windows Phone 7. I have been rather excited. I’ve even been telling the legions of developers I speak to that they should — tentatively — take a look at the platform.
I have had to use the word ‘tentatively’ and the phrase ‘take a look’ because I haven’t seen it in-depth and because I — like a lot of people — was concerned that Microsoft would arrive to market with a dud.
I’d put it down to a slight possibility.
But after Galen’s drubbing, I really do wonder. I hope he was just having a bad day. It really didn’t sound like it though.
We shall see…