Microsoft Walks the Middle Ground

I think I can finally see what Ballmer and team are conjuring up for this holiday season.  They are copying parts of iphone but not the ones people think.  Just as they are copying parts of Android that others don’t realize.  Everyone praises Apple for end user experience.  However their app process and dev materials are lackluster and are only bolstered by a high install base. Android is hailed as the developers play land with complete and open dev but with multiple versions beginning to cause trouble much like traditional WinMo platforms.  WP7 takes these two ideas of End User Experience and Developer Tools and combining these two things to create the product with the most “mass” appeal.  This may not be for the tinkerer or poweruser like most of us however this strategy can certainly pull Microsoft from the dank repository of fragmented lambasting it currently finds itself in.

Microsoft does not always innovate but synthesize multiple ideas and leverage the wide use of Microsoft services currently deployed in the field.  It’s not the be all end all because what people lose site of is that there cannot be.  With the multitude of needs of the billions of people across the world, having one phone that works for everyone is like trying to build a house with just a hammer.  Hammers are useful and all but when I need a saw the hammer will not do.  WP7 may not be perfect but things rarely are.  Having played with a zune hd for a long time now I’m very excited to have similar responsiveness and interface on a phone.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m as pissed as everyone else about lack of true multi-tasking (although the limited tasking implemented as well as hub integration [as all hubs can run in the background] should be fine) and this copy&paste business needs to be sorted out before launch.  The true deal breaker for the three major phone OS’s (osx, winpho, android)is ads.  I hate ads… with a fiery passion that would give Satan third degree burns.  This whole ad business alone is going to give me high blood pressure.  If winpho is the only platform left without ads then it could be dos commands for all I care.  I’ll give up a gui for a lack of ads. I’ll run UNIX if that’s what it takes.  I just don’t care.  Any company that supports flaming me with ads because I want to try some software or just read my email should be burned to the freaking ground.  I don’t care about what you think is required for app economic sustainability.  Maybe if you hadn’t littered your app store with useless fart apps and relied on apps to be the core experience instead of your OS then you wouldn’t have this sh*t to deal with.  If you build a quality product then your viability will continue.  Apple’s need to rake in revenue from ads on phones and pads (ha ha… pads)  stems from a lack of quality products to purchase, so instead of actually producing something worth purchasing, they blast you with ads from third party companies because apple can’t seem to make more than one product every two years.

Android… what initially looked promising has fallen victim to the same problems as the original winmo.  The best examples I can cite would be a comparison of the total crap that is the LG Incite and the Moto Backflip.  Completely useless devices due to stupid designs that make zero sense.  The Incite is far too small for the 6.1 winmo interface and the backflip looks like a deformed child (not trying to offend anyone but I write and say things to make a point… deal with it.)  Android also has begun to churn out a multitude of mediocre devices at low cost which is what the masses are choosing.  By controlling Hardware/Software and producing a kick a$$ dev kit MS is probably going to do very well for itself.  It has all the benefits of multi-carrier distribution, multiple hardware manufacturers, and the unified experience praised by bloggers and stupid gadget users worldwide. The openness (what there is left) of the WinPho platform will allow it to gain market share more quickly than the original iphone and android.  Of course that last part is just a prediction but everything else is a comment on the current state of development for each one of the mobile platforms.  I’m  wondering what everyone else thinks about this viewpoint of Microsoft’s strategy…