“Contrary to rampant market speculation, software giant Microsoft Corp. has no plans to launch a branded mobile smartphone, a person familiar with the company’s thinking said Tuesday,” Jessica Hodgson reports for Dow Jones Newswires.
MacDailyNews Take: Since when does Microsoft think?
Hodgson continues, “‘It’s clearly not Microsoft’s strategy to make phone hardware,’ the person said. ‘Our core competency is creating an operating system and a set of services that enable our partners to produce great phones.'”
MacDailyNews Take: So, where are these “great” Windows Mobile phones? Also please explain why Microsoft tossed their PlaysForSure “partners” into the dumpster in order to execute their Zune debacle?
Hodgson continues, “Earlier Tuesday, a research note from Canaccord Adams suggested the company was readying a smartphone based on hardware from Nvidia Corp., which would possibly incorporate Microsoft’s Zune music device. Such a product would compete directly with Apple Inc.’s iPhone… Such a plan would put Microsoft directly into competition with many of its big clients. The software company makes mobile phone operating systems that are used by a number of handset makers.”
MacDailyNews Take: See previous question.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike in Helsinki” for the heads up.]
If true, it’s too bad; it would have been fun to see the disaster they would’ve cobbled together.
Very disappointing… I was looking forward to watching with glee another entertaining (from a Mac point of view) MS failure.
By the way, how long before they scrape the Zune off?
Can the discussion around Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Apple get any more surreal?
Probably yes!
I reckon if we all say it’s a brilliant idea many many times, Ballmer will decide it’s a good idea and run with the Zune Phone.
Drop him an email, saying how good it is:
monkeyboy@microsoft.com
Peace.
“a person familiar with the company’s thinking said Tuesday…”
But not from an official Microsoft spokesperson, so this could change anytime.
“It’s clearly not Microsoft’s strategy to make phone hardware…”
I would have thought it was a clear and logical strategy given that WM is the main one losing the market share.
Sad. Really sad. All that ill-begotten money and no innovation to show for it.
“Our core competency is creating an operating system and a set of services that enable our partners to produce great phones.”
Almost fell off the toilet reading that line.
“‘It’s clearly not Microsoft’s strategy to make phone hardware”
So Microsoft has strategy? o Yes, they have the strategy to copy all from apple…
Awwww I guess poor Zune Thang will have to wait.
I love the unsaid statement: “‘Our core competency is creating an operating system”….it doesn’t have to work very well of course….but just you wait.
Our core competency is…
… buying our way into a monoplly position, then squeeeeeezing.
More bad news for Apple. Without a Microsoft-branded Windows Mobile/Zune phone to copy from the wannabe I-Phone faces an even steeper uphill climb to gain traction. Face it MAC lemmings, Apple is out of ideas. The I-Phone was a desperate attempt to save the company with a cobbled together backwards Windows Mobile interface. It’s more like a publicity stunt gone wrong. Typical.
Your potential. Our passion.™
MS may not have a choice but to make a Zune Phone. Windows Mobile licensees will abandon that OS for Google soon enough.
Since when does Microsoft Think ?
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Since when does Microsoft Sink
officemax is advertising office chairs on the left side of this page.
If the thing ever DOES appear (and with apologies to Peter Sellers), it should be called the “Phune.”
@ Zune Tang
Your posts, as usual, remain . . .
tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful; characterless, featureless, colorless, lifeless, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating; unreadable, unwatchable; jejune, flat, bland, dry, stale, tired, banal, lackluster, stodgy, vapid, monochrome, dreary, humdrum, mundane; mind-numbing, wearisome, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating; informal deadly, ho-hum, dullsville, dull as dishwater
Please remember (and with apologies to Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman), suicide IS painless.
More like
“Our core incompetency is creating an operating system and a set of services that enable our partners to produce great phones.”
“‘It’s clearly not Microsoft’s strategy to make phone hardware”
Nicely worded, so the question is: who WILL be making the hardware? M$ doesn’t make the Zune, Toshiba does. This is like watching a train wreck about to happen. Inevitable yet horrendous.
Hey ZT you forgot to add, “I’m a PC” 🙁
Competency? That’s a stretch.
“a person familiar with the company’s thinking said Tuesday…”
could be any one of us!
“Our core competency is creating an operating system and a set of services that enable our partners to produce great phones.'”
People who talk lie that should be shot.
The Pomegranate NS08 was a market test for Microsoft’s forthcoming cellular product.
@ Randian
Thank you for the kind words. Believe me, the outpouring of support I get from a fellow Windows and Zune enthusiasts such as yourself is very much appreciated. The fight against MAC zealotry is made a little bit easier with your gentle encouragement. What kind of Dell did you post your comment from? I have a Latitude 610 running Vista!
Your potential. Our passion.™
” A person familiar with the companies thinking” may not be familiar with all the companies secret compartments. If I was Microsoft, designing something like this that would skewer my partners, I would keep it top secret until the last minute.
Based on past experience, it’s most likely true. They can’t think of new stuff on their own.
‘It’s clearly not Microsoft’s strategy to make phone hardware,’ the person said. ‘Our core competency is creating an operating system’
HAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAAAAAAHAHHHAAAAHAHA!!!!
Dude, your own Longhorn/Vista/Win7 project ranks among the biggest displays of core INCOMPETENCE in business history. Worse than New Coke, on par with Boeing’s 787 “Dreamliner” disaster.
MS, you’d better close the doors right now if you consider Windows to demonstrate any kind of competency.
Microsoft has patents on cellphone hardware.
MDN posted some about a year or so ago.
So it is in their DNA to screw over their partners.