I see three areas where MS could be very strong this year:
WP, I see a weakness with the Android offerings this cycle in the SGS5 and One M8 as they are both rather lackluster upgrades, giving MS a chance to catch up and strike hard with WP 8.1 if they manage to get competitive hardware to market with the marketing to back it up.
Windows, Finally putting the start button back in, that + death of XP support should = better sales.
Office, now that it is on iPad, it just cements it as the only real option for serious work on almost every platform.
Im iffy on Xbox One. Big negative in it's not outselling PS4, but I am not sure it has to. It's also still pretty early. It needs a killer app, Titanfall is kind of, but being on 360 and PC it's not really.
How so, they have fired about 30,000 people and nothing of the soul or the core is left. All their suppliers (semiconductors) was left out when shifting, forcing at least two to exit the market. Nokia sold 100 million smartphones in 2010 and was profitable till after the quarter of the burning memo platform, 8.1 is just now getting features that Nokia had on even Symbian multitouch capacitive smartphones in 2010 and the platform they changed to didn't exist so they had nothing to sell all these years. They get new teams in China that can develop cheap smartphones, the business in Europe is pretty much defunct in the mobile phone side. The sales in NA is pretty much not there and lower than European markets, which doesn't bode well now that management moves to Redmond. They didn't succeed in their home market. In Finland more than 5000 got money because of the layoffs a few thousands quit before they could claim any, a few thousands more was transfered to other business and was subsequently laid off and they also got funds from the EU to deal with it, pretty much everybody works with other stuff now. Windows Phone sales is lower than even Xiaomi's (new Chinese maker, been around just under 4 years) sales this quarter. They are not in the top ten smartphone makers.
Yeah their only real hope was MeeGo, but took too long bringing it to market (even before Elop, the N900 was popular but far from mainstream with Maemo).
Still WP7.X was worse and NA market share for WP is about five percent at most today. WP is a catastrophe in NA so that Symbian was marginal there doesn't really matter. Phones like Nokia N8 was quite popular here in Europe. They had a path forward for Maemo that did realize into MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan N9 device, the software platform at that time was complete and ready, it wasn't an enthusiast platform any more, but was already in the process of being dismantled by the Microsoft deal under the guise of getting that 1B USD year for keeping Windows Phone as the smartphone track. Did try to emphasize even when writing even Symbian.
Symbian shared development framework / tools with MeeGo – Qt was standard from 2010 – so it was part of a much more agile and modern strategy than to say that they sat the ships on fire while Microsoft had nothing to deliver. They announced that they would cease supporting their own products and go exclusive with Microsoft while Microsoft still had nothing to give them, not even Mango. It took four years after Mix 2010 for 8.1 (preview) to materialize, four years! If that is not slacking and ignoring the market (which you can't say about Nokia's previous plans pre-MS deal, with MeeGo, Qt, QtQuick, QtMobility and other efforts in full swing) I don't know what is, that is being totally lousy and lying to the market for too long if I have ever seen it.
Nokia would have folded if not for the WP cash injections. So they ruined Nokia by saving it. They eventually just had to buy it because WP was such a failure. So your claim the M$ killed Nokia has a faulty null hypothesis.
The suppliers are not needed. MSFT has their own hardware suppliers thanks to Xbox One and Surface Hardware. No need in having a completely different supply chain. This is just efficient business management.
They are trimming all the fat that made nokia unprofitable, and using key patents they acquired with the acquisition to strengthen their platform. Nokia Windows Phones will become much better because they can do like apple and integrate hardware, software and ecosystem.
Yes its sad so many lost their jobs, but that's how the business works.
They were needed for Nokia to stay in business, you know make money as you suppose to do as a good capitalist, for Texas Instruments to stay in the mobile field and so on. Now they had to choice to exit the market instead, while Microsoft gained about 10 000 assembly workers in Asia. While Qualcomm/Microsoft hindered them to continue to focus on camera tech.
Nokia was profitable, if you read the damn post I point out that the Devices & Services division didn't make a loss until the quarter after Elop pulled the rug under everybody's feat with his memo. Microsoft couldn't buy a 60 000 employee firm, and they don't care that the business they bought still makes huge losses, they just need somebody peddling Windows Phone devices to be able to make the claim that they aren't ignoring the growing markets of mobile devices. You can't claim that it helped them in any way. You don't put forward any arguments or facts to back that up.
Microsoft didn't acquire any of the patents. Neither will the phone business become part of the Windows Phone-group as they will keep the OS development separately, they will source and fab their phones at different facilities (their own in many cases) than those who make their Xbox's and computers. And so on.
It's not a matter of them ruining Lumina. It's a question of what percentage of those left who are buying Lumina devices are buying them from some sense of loyalty to the old Nokia. Let's face it, many if us pretend to ourselves that we are making an objective choice, when we're not. So if a fair percentage of that fairly small number of people still buying Nokia phones are mostly buying them BECAUSE they are Nokia phones, they may lose interest when they are labeled Microsoft phones.
Microsoft tablets haven't taken off, and the Microsoft name on them hasn't helped. Neither has Microsoft's marketing dollars. So it will be interesting to see what will happen here.
Windows phone will beat up Android because you think hardware sells a device? No...software does. If the phone can't do half of what people do every day with the apps available on Android and iOS, it just won't sell. It's that simple.
As for the XB1 and what you say "killer app". Those don't exist anymore. Look at how many PS4s and XB1s sold in 4 months time with the release lineup they had. Seems people are finding different reasons to buy them today, not for the single ultra hyped game that nobody else has. Those help move some units, but they don't define a console anymore.
There are still plenty of SGS3, Nexus 4 and iphone 4s floating around in the market place and they are still very usable thanks to firmware/software updates, where as windows and blackberry have become obsolete junk thanks to lack of updates.
If microsoft wants more windows phone customers, it needs to up the software support for (soon to be) older hardware, or end up like BB and their, basically, garbage hardware that no commoner wants.
The ORIGINAL WP7 phones got their last update March 2013 (and they were released in October 2010). That's pretty substantial. Barring carriers "testing updates" (basically jamming their fingers up their asses), every WP8 released since October 2012 is running the latest stable version. Plus, they've opened up the "Developer Preview" (WP8.1 Beta) to ANYONE for free. Even if your carrier hasn't decided to do anything with it.
Barring carrier interference, every WP8 device should get 8.1. They've already gotten multiple GDR updates... they're supporting WP8 quite well, actually. But it's pretty obvious to anyone here that you don't have much experience with the platform, given that you're attempting to compare it to Blackberry.
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Sttm - Thursday, April 24, 2014 - link
I see three areas where MS could be very strong this year:WP, I see a weakness with the Android offerings this cycle in the SGS5 and One M8 as they are both rather lackluster upgrades, giving MS a chance to catch up and strike hard with WP 8.1 if they manage to get competitive hardware to market with the marketing to back it up.
Windows, Finally putting the start button back in, that + death of XP support should = better sales.
Office, now that it is on iPad, it just cements it as the only real option for serious work on almost every platform.
Im iffy on Xbox One. Big negative in it's not outselling PS4, but I am not sure it has to. It's also still pretty early. It needs a killer app, Titanfall is kind of, but being on 360 and PC it's not really.
darkich - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
WP can only go down after Nokia acquisition.If you think people all over the world will embrace "Microsoft Mobile Lumia" then you are deluded.
They will face a hard wall of reality with this move..deservingly so for ruining one of the greatest European companies.
damianrobertjones - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
How have they ruined Nokia? At times I really do think that people imagine these things and, if anything, the Lumia line with WP has SAVED Nokia.Penti - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
How so, they have fired about 30,000 people and nothing of the soul or the core is left. All their suppliers (semiconductors) was left out when shifting, forcing at least two to exit the market. Nokia sold 100 million smartphones in 2010 and was profitable till after the quarter of the burning memo platform, 8.1 is just now getting features that Nokia had on even Symbian multitouch capacitive smartphones in 2010 and the platform they changed to didn't exist so they had nothing to sell all these years. They get new teams in China that can develop cheap smartphones, the business in Europe is pretty much defunct in the mobile phone side. The sales in NA is pretty much not there and lower than European markets, which doesn't bode well now that management moves to Redmond. They didn't succeed in their home market. In Finland more than 5000 got money because of the layoffs a few thousands quit before they could claim any, a few thousands more was transfered to other business and was subsequently laid off and they also got funds from the EU to deal with it, pretty much everybody works with other stuff now. Windows Phone sales is lower than even Xiaomi's (new Chinese maker, been around just under 4 years) sales this quarter. They are not in the top ten smartphone makers.darkich - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Thank you for taking the time and patience to sum that up perfectlyeanazag - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
I was tracking you till you said Symbian. Symbian was suck @ss for too long.lmcd - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Yeah their only real hope was MeeGo, but took too long bringing it to market (even before Elop, the N900 was popular but far from mainstream with Maemo).Penti - Saturday, April 26, 2014 - link
Still WP7.X was worse and NA market share for WP is about five percent at most today. WP is a catastrophe in NA so that Symbian was marginal there doesn't really matter. Phones like Nokia N8 was quite popular here in Europe. They had a path forward for Maemo that did realize into MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan N9 device, the software platform at that time was complete and ready, it wasn't an enthusiast platform any more, but was already in the process of being dismantled by the Microsoft deal under the guise of getting that 1B USD year for keeping Windows Phone as the smartphone track. Did try to emphasize even when writing even Symbian.Symbian shared development framework / tools with MeeGo – Qt was standard from 2010 – so it was part of a much more agile and modern strategy than to say that they sat the ships on fire while Microsoft had nothing to deliver. They announced that they would cease supporting their own products and go exclusive with Microsoft while Microsoft still had nothing to give them, not even Mango. It took four years after Mix 2010 for 8.1 (preview) to materialize, four years! If that is not slacking and ignoring the market (which you can't say about Nokia's previous plans pre-MS deal, with MeeGo, Qt, QtQuick, QtMobility and other efforts in full swing) I don't know what is, that is being totally lousy and lying to the market for too long if I have ever seen it.
errorr - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Nokia would have folded if not for the WP cash injections. So they ruined Nokia by saving it. They eventually just had to buy it because WP was such a failure. So your claim the M$ killed Nokia has a faulty null hypothesis.Morawka - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
The suppliers are not needed. MSFT has their own hardware suppliers thanks to Xbox One and Surface Hardware. No need in having a completely different supply chain. This is just efficient business management.They are trimming all the fat that made nokia unprofitable, and using key patents they acquired with the acquisition to strengthen their platform. Nokia Windows Phones will become much better because they can do like apple and integrate hardware, software and ecosystem.
Yes its sad so many lost their jobs, but that's how the business works.
Penti - Saturday, April 26, 2014 - link
They were needed for Nokia to stay in business, you know make money as you suppose to do as a good capitalist, for Texas Instruments to stay in the mobile field and so on. Now they had to choice to exit the market instead, while Microsoft gained about 10 000 assembly workers in Asia. While Qualcomm/Microsoft hindered them to continue to focus on camera tech.Nokia was profitable, if you read the damn post I point out that the Devices & Services division didn't make a loss until the quarter after Elop pulled the rug under everybody's feat with his memo. Microsoft couldn't buy a 60 000 employee firm, and they don't care that the business they bought still makes huge losses, they just need somebody peddling Windows Phone devices to be able to make the claim that they aren't ignoring the growing markets of mobile devices. You can't claim that it helped them in any way. You don't put forward any arguments or facts to back that up.
Microsoft didn't acquire any of the patents. Neither will the phone business become part of the Windows Phone-group as they will keep the OS development separately, they will source and fab their phones at different facilities (their own in many cases) than those who make their Xbox's and computers. And so on.
MartinT - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
I don't think the Lumia line produced a single quarter of profits in the 3 years since Mr Elop announced Nokia's decision to go with Windows Phone.darkich - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Exactly..numbers show that their smartphone division was their biggest money loser ever since the dismissal of Symbian and Meego.It was their feature phone and Asha lineup that kept the company from falling apart
melgross - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
It's not a matter of them ruining Lumina. It's a question of what percentage of those left who are buying Lumina devices are buying them from some sense of loyalty to the old Nokia. Let's face it, many if us pretend to ourselves that we are making an objective choice, when we're not. So if a fair percentage of that fairly small number of people still buying Nokia phones are mostly buying them BECAUSE they are Nokia phones, they may lose interest when they are labeled Microsoft phones.Microsoft tablets haven't taken off, and the Microsoft name on them hasn't helped. Neither has Microsoft's marketing dollars. So it will be interesting to see what will happen here.
lmcd - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Microsoft tablets, no, but Windows tablets, yes.We'll see if it improves, but I'd bet it will.
Lord 666 - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 is the killer app for Xbox One.cmdrdredd - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Windows phone will beat up Android because you think hardware sells a device? No...software does. If the phone can't do half of what people do every day with the apps available on Android and iOS, it just won't sell. It's that simple.As for the XB1 and what you say "killer app". Those don't exist anymore. Look at how many PS4s and XB1s sold in 4 months time with the release lineup they had. Seems people are finding different reasons to buy them today, not for the single ultra hyped game that nobody else has. Those help move some units, but they don't define a console anymore.
meacupla - Thursday, April 24, 2014 - link
There are still plenty of SGS3, Nexus 4 and iphone 4s floating around in the market place and they are still very usable thanks to firmware/software updates, where as windows and blackberry have become obsolete junk thanks to lack of updates.If microsoft wants more windows phone customers, it needs to up the software support for (soon to be) older hardware, or end up like BB and their, basically, garbage hardware that no commoner wants.
tiwi13 - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
The ORIGINAL WP7 phones got their last update March 2013 (and they were released in October 2010). That's pretty substantial.Barring carriers "testing updates" (basically jamming their fingers up their asses), every WP8 released since October 2012 is running the latest stable version.
Plus, they've opened up the "Developer Preview" (WP8.1 Beta) to ANYONE for free. Even if your carrier hasn't decided to do anything with it.
Alexvrb - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Barring carrier interference, every WP8 device should get 8.1. They've already gotten multiple GDR updates... they're supporting WP8 quite well, actually. But it's pretty obvious to anyone here that you don't have much experience with the platform, given that you're attempting to compare it to Blackberry.Hrel - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Test commentkwrzesien - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
Test receivedsolipsism - Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - link
You have AIDS.Morawka - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
wow, Bing advertising revenue up 36% really blew my mindSpuke - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
I am thoroughly confused.