Windows 8 & Nokia
I had to make the difficult decision of choosing a phone last month. I knew one thing - I did not want an iPhone. This left me with myriad number of choices in the Android world and the Nokia Lumia 900.
I like practical things and designs that increase practicality move to the top of my list. As such, I was a big fan of the Zune HD. The Nokia 900 was a logical extension of the Zune and I was thrilled that it was available. By enthusiasm was tempered because I could not find some of the apps that I regularly used but disregarded the limited app availability as its just a matter of time before devs started producing for the Win world. However, the biggest concern was that Windows 8 might not be compatible with Lumia 900's hardware.
This came as a shock to me and was the biggest factor that stopped me from purchasing it in spite of the great price point. This is an example of a still-born product. What were Microsoft and Nokia thinking? Apparently they were thinking of Windows 7.8 which is somewhere between Windows 7.5 (Mango) and the new Windows 8.
Since I am in a case-prep mode these days, I wanted to break down this decision which sounds like a compromise so as to not alienate the existing customer base and maintain a modicum of interest in Nokia Lumia 900 till the launch of Windows 8 so that sales do not plummet. Nokia Lumia 900 stands out in the world of short product life cycles as a product with even shorter life.
What could have caused this? I hypothesize that Microsoft is deliberately raising the stakes by introducing a release yearly cycle that will introduce more than incremental changes. By doing this Microsoft would match the rapid release cycle of Andriod, yet maintain some of control to prevent fragmenting. This is a risky strategy no doubt primarily because the OEMs must be able to sync with this cycle. This requires great deal of operational expertise. Apple has shown that it can do this but even Apple does not have a yearly cycle (most of its yearly updates are incremental) that will match with Microsoft. Microsoft has the resources and know-how to gain credibility with corporate users and developers, but can it persuade and get all OEMs to match up? Essentially, does Microsoft have a Tim Cook equivalent?
I like practical things and designs that increase practicality move to the top of my list. As such, I was a big fan of the Zune HD. The Nokia 900 was a logical extension of the Zune and I was thrilled that it was available. By enthusiasm was tempered because I could not find some of the apps that I regularly used but disregarded the limited app availability as its just a matter of time before devs started producing for the Win world. However, the biggest concern was that Windows 8 might not be compatible with Lumia 900's hardware.
This came as a shock to me and was the biggest factor that stopped me from purchasing it in spite of the great price point. This is an example of a still-born product. What were Microsoft and Nokia thinking? Apparently they were thinking of Windows 7.8 which is somewhere between Windows 7.5 (Mango) and the new Windows 8.
Since I am in a case-prep mode these days, I wanted to break down this decision which sounds like a compromise so as to not alienate the existing customer base and maintain a modicum of interest in Nokia Lumia 900 till the launch of Windows 8 so that sales do not plummet. Nokia Lumia 900 stands out in the world of short product life cycles as a product with even shorter life.
What could have caused this? I hypothesize that Microsoft is deliberately raising the stakes by introducing a release yearly cycle that will introduce more than incremental changes. By doing this Microsoft would match the rapid release cycle of Andriod, yet maintain some of control to prevent fragmenting. This is a risky strategy no doubt primarily because the OEMs must be able to sync with this cycle. This requires great deal of operational expertise. Apple has shown that it can do this but even Apple does not have a yearly cycle (most of its yearly updates are incremental) that will match with Microsoft. Microsoft has the resources and know-how to gain credibility with corporate users and developers, but can it persuade and get all OEMs to match up? Essentially, does Microsoft have a Tim Cook equivalent?
posted by Unknown at 1:16 PM
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