Thanks for your thoughts. It is interesting to me that Microsoft is emulating Apple with the Zune and to some extent the xbox…. so they don’t completely dismiss the strategy. They obviously think that phones are different in this regard and have chosen the Windows model.

For Apple et. al designing their own proprietary hardware is only a problem if they can’t get the volume up to achieve efficiencies of scale. Apple has learned how to do that so if one assumes that the price is within the ballpark it comes down to what you noted: the user experience.

Even if Microsoft came out with the best mobile software in the world tomorrow, they have their work cut out for them with the 20 year old crowd, thats for sure.

Mike

I just saw an article where Steve Ballmer was quoted saying “Nokia, RIM and Apple will all lose out as the mobile market expands over the next five years, because they design their own proprietary hardware and tie it closely to their software.”

But I believe it is the user experience that people are looking for, which is one of the reasons the iPhone has done so well. I’ve used Windows Mobile, and it was awful. Even version 5. The iPhone is much easier to use because it was designed as an end-to-end solution. It has really set the bar for what people expect in a mobile device, and it seems like Microsoft doesn’t get that yet.

So I guess I’m agreeing with your conclusion – that your observations don’t bode well for Microsoft in the mobile space (which hurts to say since I used to work there!)

The article I referenced above is at: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/26/ballmer-still-searching-answer-google