Microsoft should have been the leader in smartphones, but why didn't it?

Earlier, the well-known technology blog ArsTechnica published an article about Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting. From the content of the article, many investors attending the meeting made it clear to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that they believed Microsoft had actually handed over control of the smartphone market to Apple and Google ( Weibo ) and did not want to become a competitor to the latter.

One shareholder, Dana Vance, who still uses a Windows Phone, expressed clear frustration that Microsoft released several apps on iOS and Android before launching Windows 10 Mobile. He also noted that Microsoft had stopped working on the Microsoft Band.

Another shareholder was even more blunt, asking Nadella directly whether Microsoft would continue to develop Windows Mobile.

Slow but steady decline

So here comes the question. Once upon a time, Microsoft was one of the market leaders in terms of mobile productivity. Of course, this was before Apple launched the iPhone. At that time, the four major manufacturers competing in the smartphone market were: Palm, BlackBerry, Symbian and Microsoft. At that time, Microsoft's product, Windows Mobile 6, had a very impressive market share, maintaining at around 30%.

At the time, Windows Mobile was doing well and was popular among business and financial professionals because they could easily send and receive emails and view Office documents on Windows Mobile-based mobile devices, but Windows Mobile had limited appeal to mass consumers. Most Windows Mobile-based phones were designed to be clumsy, and mass consumers would not even consider buying them.

But in 2007, Microsoft's nightmare came true. Apple released the iPhone, which quickly triggered an unprecedented change in the smartphone industry.

The iPhone was the first truly coveted smartphone. Everyone, young or old, male or female, high or low, wanted one. Soon after, Google released Android, which enabled a host of other manufacturers, including Samsung and HTC, to develop and market smartphones similar to the iPhone, but at a fraction of the price.

Looking back now, the failure of Windows Phone 6 was doomed from then on. Windows Phone users began to dwindle in large numbers, and Microsoft tried to save the situation with Windows Mobile 6.5. Although the new system performed better on touch screen phones and upgraded the browser, it was of no help and ultimately failed to reverse the situation.

By the time Microsoft released its first truly modern smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7, its market share had dwindled to a trickle, a huge humiliation for a company that had dominated computing since the early 1990s.

Although it later launched several systems such as Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Mobile 10, it has never been able to regain its former glory in the mobile field.

It shouldn't be like this

Microsoft has been on a downward spiral in mobile, and the saddest thing is that it considers mobile a completely unnecessary business for it.

There's no reason for this to happen, given Microsoft's deep pockets and deep talent pool. Perhaps the biggest reason Windows Phone, and later Windows Mobile, failed was that it failed to excite consumers. No one really cared. What I regret most is that Microsoft could have turned this around.

The App Store is in decline

Let's look at the app store. Right now, the biggest reason consumers are reluctant to buy Windows Phones is that there are too few apps available. What's worse is that many of these few apps haven't been updated for a long time.

Microsoft should be able to learn some lessons from RIM's failure and provide some real financial incentives for application developers.

Of course, it has also done some work in this regard, such as launching an activity in 2013 to encourage developers to develop new applications. Developers can get a $100 bonus as long as they release a new application. Later, it provided some financial incentives privately to some larger companies such as Foursquare.

Obviously, this is not enough, and there is no guarantee that these apps can be comparable in functionality to their iOS and Android counterparts.

Control Hardware

Steven Ballmer, then Microsoft CEO, had some insightful thoughts on the issue, arguing that Microsoft should have entered the hardware space earlier so that it could release its own phone and control all aspects of the mobile device, just as Apple controls the iPhone.

This control is important. When competition in the mobile phone market was relatively mild, many mobile phones on the market did not use the Windows Phone system, but software from multiple manufacturers such as Nokia , Blu, HTC, Alcatel and ZTE.

On the surface, these mobile systems are extremely similar. In terms of industrial design and internal configuration, the products of various manufacturers are similar. It is also difficult for Microsoft to make its products stand out because it only allows third-party developers to customize a small number of software.

From a user's perspective, this is a shame. It's conceivable that many people will quickly abandon those inexplicable Windows Phone devices and spend money to buy Android phones or iPhones instead.

In retrospect, acquiring Nokia was a great idea. Nokia was once the leader in the mobile phone industry, their industrial design was first-rate, and it was probably the biggest and most loyal ally of Microsoft Windows Mobile.

The biggest mistake Microsoft made was being too lazy after acquiring Nokia, unwilling to give up the Nokia brand and control the entire Windows Phone ecosystem.

When it bought Nokia in 2014, it should have stopped licensing its software immediately and instead stuck to releasing three phones a year, targeting and occupying the low-end, mid-range, and high-end markets respectively.

This way Microsoft can have a comprehensive view of the entire smartphone market, know how people use its phones, and then keep improving and continuously perfecting and improving the user experience. The iPhone is successful because Apple does this.

Microsoft can make incredible hardware, as it has proven with the Xbox One, Surface, Surface Book, and Surface Studio, but imagine what it would be like if the Windows Phones on the market were a fleet of beautifully designed, attractive Surface Phones.

Microsoft should have its dream

Over the past five years, Microsoft has evolved from a company that focused mostly on incremental upgrades to its software to one that is innovative and pioneering. HoloLens is a prime example of this.

But in the mobile space, it has not made any substantial changes. I have always had this view: since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, Microsoft has been in a position of lagging behind and catching up. It has been very mediocre and afraid to take risks. It has not dared to apply some of its ideas such as augmented reality to mobile products.

From the beginning, Microsoft should have thought about how to make its products different from others. It should have been bolder. But it didn't, and the result is that Windows Phone is now almost forgotten by the world.

Last fight?

There are other things I want to say, like Microsoft's indecisiveness and confusion in branding, just think of how many times I mention Windows Phone and Windows Mobile in this article. I can't resist talking about how badly the mobile platform's marketing has been done, but I won't do that for space reasons.

Some readers will think I'm biased and say I'm an Apple fanboy. But they're wrong, and it doesn't matter because I just bought a Dell XPS 13 two days ago. And I've bought 4 different Windows phones so far. It's safe to say that I've given this platform more chances than it deserves.

But time is running out for Microsoft, which is said to be developing a Surface Phone. Nadella said the phone would be the "ultimate mobile device." Is this Microsoft's last ditch effort? If it fails again, will it change its mind and focus on developing apps and services for Apple and Google?

Maybe, but I hope that doesn't happen.

I am an optimist, so I haven't written an article about Windows 10 Mobile in a long time. I feel that if Microsoft can somehow convince developers to return to the Windows 10 Mobile platform, if it can develop a device that can compete with iPhones and Android phones, then it may still have a chance to turn around. Note that it is just a possibility, not a certainty.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.