Microsoft to make a push in smart phones

International Herald Tribune ^ | 1/14/2005 | By Victoria Shannon

[KwasiOwusu]

Microsoft, showing its endurance in the mobile phone business, is expected to announce on Monday a partnership with the largest contract electronics manufacturer, Flextronics of Singapore, to make low-cost smart phones that run on Microsoft's mobile operating system.
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The device, in a so-called candy-bar design, will have the interactive features of a smart phone at the price of many standard mobile phones today, Microsoft executives said in advance of the opening on Monday of the 3GSM World Congress, the mobile phone industry's annual trade show in Cannes.
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Microsoft began making software to power mobile phones five years ago but has faced the dominance of Nokia of Finland, which uses a version of the Symbian software as its smart phone operating system. Since then, Microsoft has licensed its phone software to more than 40 manufacturers, many of them small Asian contract manufacturers. But it has also signed up Motorola and Samsung, two of the top five mobile phone makers, as licensees for its mobile software.
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Wireless carriers like Cingular or Vodafone then contract with the manufacturer to customize and make the phones for consumers.
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Smart phones, which start at several hundred dollars, combine several functions besides the ability to make phone calls, usually incorporating some features of hand-held computers, such as calendars and address lists, e-mail and Internet access and synchronizing all of the data with a personal computer.

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snip

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Because of the size of Flextronics, "we can get some pretty good buying economics," said Pieter Knook, Microsoft senior vice president for its mobile communications businesses.
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The potentially lower cost of this Microsoft-operated smart phone is likely to appeal to cellphone operators, most of which heavily subsidize the phone for the consumer, he said. ....

[KwasiOwusu]

Interesting.

[Dead Corpse]

Yay! I've always wanted a cell phone subject to the same hacks-n-cracks my PC is subject to. So now, not only being able to get at my passwords and Address Book, they can get at my stored phone numbers as well.

[KwasiOwusu]

" So now, not only being able to get at my passwords and Address Book, they can get at my stored phone numbers as well."

You know of course that you DON'T have to buy a Microsoft Smartphone, don't you?
Go buy a Palm smartphone or whatever, and stop whining already.

[Dead Corpse]

Ah... heavily invested in M$ stock are we?

[JoJo Gunn]

[RetroWarrior]

Microsoft to make a push in smart phones

Good luck with that, Bill.

[kezekiel]

Yes, the brand I've come to trust in desktop computing now wants to make my next cell phone. I'll pass, thanks.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Yes, the brand I've come to trust in desktop computing now wants to make my next cell phone. I'll pass, thanks."

That's the beauty of free markets.
You can choose whatever smart phone you like.
Equally people like me (and millions of others to come) will continue to use Microsoft Smartphones, like my excellent Motorola MPX220 running Microsoft Smartphone software.
I love it. :)
Last quarter, Microsoft sold more Windows Smartphone units than in the entire 12 months before that. That is quite impressive.
So please, you can go take your business elsewhere.
Won't make any difference to anything.

[kezekiel]

So please, you can go take your business elsewhere. Won't make any difference to anything.

Well, which is it, Kwasi? A free market that makes the rules, or an irresistable Microsoft juggernaut (I can take my businesss elsewhere, but... it won't really matter anyway). Personally, I think that there is nothing irresistable about Microsoft being in the cell phone/PDA space. I could count on them only to try to find ways to leverage their desktop monopoly into handsets. Companies like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Palm, Blackberry, et al know that they live in a heterogeneous, interconnected world. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it is too often a world unto itself (Embrace, Extend, Destroy). More proprietary protocols and file formats. Nothing works quite right unless you're using Microsoft soup to nuts... No thanks, Kwasi. You may love Microsoft now (Lord knows for years I trusted them implicitly and used and advocated their products), but wait till they start pissing you off and limiting your realistic choices. Then you might realize that no matter how much of a raving fan you are, the company is moving aggressively in every space to hem you in and limit your options.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Well, which is it, Kwasi? A free market that makes the rules, or an irresistable Microsoft juggernaut (I can take my businesss elsewhere, but... it won't really matter anyway)."

Of course free markets make the rules.
Equally, Microsoft usually keeps at something till they grab a significant market share.
Right now Symbian rules in the smart phone business, but Microsoft's Smartphone software has been increasing market share over the past year or so.
Will Microsoft ever have 100% of any market?
Never. Least of all the smart phone business.
That is why I said, it's perfectly ok for you to go use some other company's smart phone software.
Let's face it, there are millions of people who will never use Microsoft software, for all kinds of reasons.
You appear to be someone very determined not to use Microsoft software on your cell phones.
That is fine with me (not that it makes any difference to you if its fine with me or not).

[KwasiOwusu]

"Then you might realize that no matter how much of a raving fan you are, the company is moving aggressively in every space to hem you in and limit your options."

Today, the real powerhouse in the smart phone business is Nokia, who effectively control Symbian.
Microsoft is only just beginning to compete in that space, increasing market share fast, but from a very , very small base.
So I think Microsoft is actually increasing people's options in the smart phone space, saving them from what was an effective Nokia/Symbin monopoly.

[kezekiel]

So I think Microsoft is actually increasing people's options in the smart phone space, saving them from what was an effective Nokia/Symbin monopoly.

Symbian is not a Nokia monopoly. Symbian handsets are available from Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Panasonic, and others. Applications can be written in Java and C++, rather than some proprietary MS language. And unlike Microsoft's handsets, you can choose to synch to something other than Outlook.

[dennisw]

M$ will blow millions on this crap, same as they did on the xbox. There are a few vanity divisions at M$, where softies get to pretend they are entrepreneurs.

[KwasiOwusu]

"M$ will blow millions on this crap, same as they did on the xbox. There are a few vanity divisions at M$, where softies get to pretend they are entrepreneurs"

XBOX (Home and Entertainment Division) was profitable last quarter, and even the Microsoft Smartphone(Mobile and Embedded Devices) division was nearly profitable., with loses down to only $4 million, from $110 Million a year ago.
Expect that to be profitable next quarter.
MSN division has been profitable for some time now too.
The Business software division is not profitable yet, but even here, the losses were sharply down from last year .
I like the trend overall.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Symbian is not a Nokia monopoly. Symbian handsets are available from Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Panasonic, and others"

I know that.
I was talking about the effective ownership and real control of Symbian.
Sure you can get Symbian phones from all those you mentioned, same as you can get Microsoft Windows PC's from lots of PC makers, but Microsoft still supplies the Windows OS, and has been accused of being a monopoly, not in PC's , but in PC operating systems.
By being the real power behind Symbian, and with Symban's huge market share, Nokia was in effect the OS monopoly for smart phone software.