“There will be a lot of stories analyzing the Windows Phone 8 which appears on the heels of Phone 7 hitting the streets. Apparently the most aggressive features on Phone 8 will not run on the latest Nokia Lumia phones, thus not allowing an upgrade for users,” John C. Dvorak writes for PC Magazine. “This Nokia-Microsoft thing is rather weird since everyone thought that the connection between the two companies was tight. After all, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop came from Microsoft, where he was in charge of the business division. How he manages to keep his job at Nokia is amazing and we all should assume that Microsoft is doing all this to buy Nokia outright. I guess Redmond would rather buy Nokia in shambles than buy it healthy. It’s cheaper.”
Dvorak asks, “Exactly what is the Microsoft marketing department thinking with this announcement? The Windows Phone 7 is getting no traction and Microsoft wants people to pay some attention to it. So they decide to submarine the whole OS with a new version that isn’t immediately available? Was this a move to sell more Windows Phones by Nokia? Really? Are they that brain-dead?”
“After pulling this stunt, Microsoft hopes to get other vendors on board with the Windows Phone OS? What company would ever do it? In a panic move Microsoft has killed Windows Phone,” Dvorak writes. “They’ve killed it dead. You watch.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, Microsoft has frozen the Windows Phone market until “this fall,” but the phones weren’t really selling anyway, so basically they lose another 3-4 months when they’re already years behind. Better to try to unify the mess with one codebase (even if it is Windows) than to continue with what they had, but, really: tick-tock, tick-tock.
Nokia’s Lumia 900 being left out of the upgrade path does smack of last minute, panicked changes. Also, it’s quite possible, even more likely with what we know now about the Lumia’s inability to be upgraded to WP8, that Microsoft simply wanted to kill Nokia all along. This whole Nokia fiasco could have just been Microsoft’s plan to get MeeGo out of their way. Microsoft does hate the guts out of Linux, after all, and MeeGo could have been in a position to become the replacement for Android that the market may be looking for when all of the courts have finally had their say.
We still think that Android has more than enough issues – fragmentation, legal, and otherwise – to open the door to the “not-iPhone” market for Microsoft to finally walk through.
That said, freezing your own market for another 1/4 or 1/3 of a year certainly doesn’t help Microsoft. Luckily, the interminable court systems of the world give Microsoft plenty of time to have something ready for when handset makers just might be desperately looking for something to replace Android.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “dslarsen” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
How Steve Jobs changed the game and forced Microsoft to try playing by Apple’s rules – June 21, 2012
Full 2-hour video: Microsoft details Windows Phone 8 – June 21, 2012
Nokia cuts jobs, slashes R&D; adopts Microsoft’s Windows Phone ’07 in iPhone killer quest – February 11, 2011
Heh, heh, heh….
I enjoy laughing at u tarts. Apple is doomed when windows 8 hit shelves, let me put it this way If Jobs was alive he’d be getting fired again. HE’S IN HELL THANKING LUCIFER HE’S NOT ALIVE !! THIS TIME AROUND.
See a doctor. Any kind will do, for starters.
i was actually thinking of a doctor with particular skills in obtaining difficult-to-extract information. This guy would make a wonderful test subject for newly “enhanced” techniques…
Hey Jexhu that’s high-larious. A good one. Hah-hah! Doomed, heh. Boy MS sure is putting on a good fireworks show for their fast demise eh? I sure hope Redmond, WA has some used car lots there so Ballmer has a place to go after scorching Microsoft into the earth.
Did you hear that? He called us a bunch of mini fruit pies. That hurts.
Naw. He’s just taunting fanboys. The rest of us don’t pay any attention.
I wish I had a mini-fruit pie right now. And some whipped cream.
Looks like a hater has found us. Every so often we get one of these losers. Here on an Apple fan site to upset us somehow? Wow, that seems like a great use of your time. There is not a thing you can say to anyone here that would be of any consequence. We have simply moved on in life. It kind of reminds of he who protests things the most. Usually, there is an underlying desire to be part of the very thing being protested. I bet you don’t like Boy George either.
Jexhu
Did you read the articl?. It discusses how dumb and incompetent Microsoft is. Just like you!
No, he probably didn’t read the article. He’s been pasting the same comment on multiple articles. What a dork.
You’re right, if by “doomed” you mean “see Mac sales sky-rocket”.
Speaking as an Apple fan, I seriously can’t wait for W8 =D
I love Microsoft!!! LOL
I agree…..
Micro-soft……..
Is too small in thinking !
Is too soft… Can’t stand up on its own feet !!
Microsoft, never in history have so many been screwed so much by something so small and limp…
Hey MDN, what happened to “Think before you click?” This is a Dvorak article!
Dvorak + PC Magazine = 0 (means nothing to me)… both must die.
You are typical of the thoughtless young savages who think killing is funny. Get civilized, punk!
You’re not playing a video game, kid. Grow up.
I think he was speaking figuratively.
Dvorak, yup, the go-to guy for all things technical at MacDvorakNews.
First good article I’ve seen from him in a while!
Finally Dvorak gets something right: “So [Microsoft] decides to submarine the whole OS…”
Well, yeah, what else are you going to do when your new flagship is called “surface”?
I’m calling it here first: When this folly gets axed they’ll rename it “Dive”
That submarine is being readied for a reef-building operation. NOAA has OK’d piling the Lumias atop the Zune and Blackberry Playbook layers, and provisionally will allow the addition of Windows 8 tablets (in the event that they fail to sell).
At least they are going green.
..“Exactly what is the Microsoft marketing department thinking..”
That exactly the problem, they weren’t thinking and never have. And the main problem is not just the marketing department not thinking, but all divisions inside microsoft starting with the CEO.
Same marketing department that let the BROWN ZUNE out the door.
Duh.
Actually I was disappointed this new product didn’t come out brown too.
Now I’m worried. He is usually 100% wrong.
I hadn’t thought of that! Now, I’m worried, too!
When you have carried water for Microsoft as long as John C. has, and are pop-eyed at the company’s miserable bungling, and are a last straggler in the dwindling army of Microsycophants, you will head for the exit with an oath and a curse.
Welcome back to the land of the living, John C.
I doubt that. He’s just scratching at bs hoping he’s right for a change.
He’s terrified he’ll have to leave the Dark Side.
He’s actually right…
The whole Microsoft/Nokia relationship has been a huge failure. When the whole partnership was announced, I assumed the two companies had been working together in secret for months to have a product to launch at the same time as the partnership announcement. Instead, all they had were some pretty Photoshop mockups. How long did it take for the first Nokia Windows Phone to appear? By then, no one cared.
Now, “everyone” knows that those Nokia phones cannot be upgraded to Windows Phone 8. We expect that from Android, but I thought Microsoft was working closely with Nokia.
The issue is that winphone 8 is based on the NT kernel ans existing phones flat out do not have the horsepower to run it.
If Microsoft are serious about all the CPU chomping stuff they want to stuff onto their phones, they’re going to have serious battery life issues, again.
Maybe. They’ve had NT running in the embedded space for years but I don’t know what the track record on energy consumption with the NT kernel has been in that space.
Reading the link posted a few comments down leads me to now believe that its not so much power requirements, but a case of MS not wanting to tailor Winphone 8 to the older hardware. They probably don’t see the investment as being worthwhile considering the sales.
Either way not good for the customers who have already purchased. At least with an Android phone you have might have the option of rooting and upgrading on your own but with WinPhone its going to be a brick wall at a dead end.
And Microsoft already abandoned all the WinCE v6 users with Windows Phone 7. That’s total abandonment of two previous generations of users and developers. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. SOS: Same old shite.
I guess Redmond would rather buy Nokia in shambles than buy it healthy. It’s cheaper.
That’s desperate, and very stupid. I have to wonder what’s in the water in Redmond. And Nokia was already hitting the skids before this bizarro Microsoft move. To me it’s sort of like roasting your marshmallow, then plunging it into the fire and watching it burn. Then you pull it out, reduced to a little chunk of carbon, and eating it. Smooth move. 😯
Thats a fabulous analogy!
I always buy used cars in shambles. It is cheaper that way.
NOT! What you get is a useless wreck!
Gotta love this paragraph: “Wow. I have never seen anything like this, ever. It’s as if someone gave a fully loaded automatic pistol to a seven-year-old and told them to go play outside with their friends and didn’t expect anything bad to happen.” I think the seven year old was Ballmer and Gates gave him the gun.
Good point.
I hope people stop writing things like this in articles. The board may take notice. Ballmer hasn’t finished his job yet. We need him there a little longer.
Just imagine the crap storm if Apple pulled this. Eol a phone after 3 months.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3096945/windows-phone-7-8-upgrade-no-windows-phone-8-existing-devices
Wow.
Microsoft just ‘Droided’ their customers. amazing.
Two big dinosaurs mate and produce another… big dinosaur…
MDN is right. MSFT hooked up with Nokia in order to destroy MeeGo. The best way to do that was to destroy Nokia in the process. Microsoft’s plan to supply the post Android device-makers is working – if Android actually does get smacked hard enough for slavishly copying Apple’s IP.
I just don’t think MS is that smart.
Never ascribe to conspiracy when simple incompetence will suffice.
Anyone know where i can get a replacement battery for my Zune. Best. Damn. Music. Player. Ever.
Really? There’s an old guy down the road from me with piles of old junk all over his yard. He might be ablle to help you.
All Microsoft really did was to guarantee to its mobile phone sellers that their customers will have to buy a new phone and thus enter into a new 2 year agreement. There weren’t enough Windows Phone 7 users to worry about anyway. And now there will be fewer Windows Phone users.
And Windows Phone developers.
I for one will not be buying one of those things that looks like the start of a Brady Bunch episode. Those tile thingies are the stupidest things I have ever seen..
I think it’s brilliant – the whole tile motif, since these phones and tablets may finally find a use as floor tiles after their abysmal failure as electronic devices.
+1000 that Brady Bunch bit
Here’s the story of a man named Ballmer,
Who was given a big company selling Word.
They made hardware of their own, all copied Apple,
The latest one’s a turd.
I don’t know what is stranger…. MDN publishing a Dvorak article or Dvorak bashing MS but good. Entertaining at least. Thanks!
I think the Surface guarantees Microsoft will never attract OEMs for their phone OS going forward.
They’ve already turned on them in Music, and now in Tablets.
Confirmation.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57458288-75/microsoft-weighing-its-own-windows-phones-analyst-says/?tag=mncol;topStories
I’ve said it all along that Nokia should have taken the same approach as other handset makers – that is to not put all their eggs in one basket, but to make both Android AND Windows Phone handsets. That way, they would not be screwed like they are now.
This is very old news, although he is right about freezing the market. There were plenty of windows phone 8 rumors well before 7.5 mango lumias hit the us. And anyone in the know new it wouldn’t upgrade to 8 and that 7.5 was only a stepping stone to give devs a head start on their first real mobile OS core. All current win7.5 3rd party apps are completely abstracted from the OS through silverlight or xna so that nearly all win 7.5 apps will automatically run on win8. Which was pretty brilliant.
Oh and don’t get me wrong, I’m an apple fanboy and iOS developer, I just like to follow microsofts moves for the giggles.
I thought that meego was the future after all hook up a hard drive ,keyboard ,and monitor to your phone..the only computer you will need.
Microsoft acquiring Nokia… That’s an interesting thing to ponder. What a horrible predicament it must be for both Microsoft and Nokia – especially Microsoft. They’re both cornered and none of the very limited options they have are attractive.
Acquiring Nokia would mean that Microsoft can forget about licensing WP8 to other OEM phone vendors. It’s do or die with Nokia and it’s already close to death. Not acquiring Nokia would mean that the Nokia burning platform would sink into the ocean anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
It’s the same thing with what MS is doing with Surface. They made a choice to go it alone and have now royally pissed off their OEM partners. Samsung, for one, has yet another reason to develop their own software platform and ecosystem. They saw Google get Motorola and decided: “Okay, we can’t rely on any of these software guys anymore.”
Apple is pushing the competition to the brink, making them do stuff that was unimaginable only a few years ago. I heartily laugh at the idiots who said that the mobile devices industry is shaping up to be a repeat of the PC wars of the 80’s and 90’s and that Apple still hasn’t learned and will suffer the same fate.
Now there is utter chaos developing in the Android and Windows worlds as their inhabitants claw and fight to avoid the fates of RIM and Nokia. What a sight! Couldn’t have happened to a better bunch of companies… This is entertainment at its finest!
Dvorak has realised the PC & MS is doomed. Time to morph into the Mac ecosystem as a columnist about a platform with a future.