Speaking at the Venture Capital Summit late last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that Microsoft made mistakes with its Windows Mobile smart phone platform that allowed Apple to swoop in out of nowhere and open up the market to consumers. To reverse the slide, he said he has put "some new talent" on the next major version, Windows Mobile 7.
"This will not happen again," Ballmer said, alluding to the Windows Mobile 7 delays that forced the company to ship a previously unplanned interim update called Windows Mobile 6.5 this year instead. "We screwed up."
Microsoft has come under fire recently for faltering in the smart phone market. Its Windows Mobile system is being outsold by Research in Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry in the business market, while Apple's iPhone has created new consumer demand for smart phones, especially in the United States. Meanwhile, new competitors such as Google's Android platform are offering unique ties between web services and mobile devices.
In a bid to catch up with its rivals, Microsoft created an interim Windows Mobile version, Windows Mobile 6.5, which device makers and wireless carriers will begin selling next month. Windows Mobile 7, meanwhile, is expected to hit the market in late 2010 at the earliest. But there are indications that Microsoft won't be able to hit this date, starting with the revelation that it won't showcase Windows Mobile 7 at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in November. The PDC would have been the obvious place to start pushing a next-generation mobile platform, but Microsoft says that it has no plans to do that.
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Christopher:
"MS still owns that market completely, and there will always be strong demand for them in big business."
If Microsoft wants the market for RFID scanners and crap, they can have it. Apple and Google will continue to push the tech industry forward where it actually matters.
"Not to mention hard-mounted vehicle telemetry solutions, GPS, etc. Oh, and Ford SYNC -- you know, in millions of cars."
Like iPod ports are? Oops.
Biggest mistake was the promotion of Ballmer to the top position.
Like a turd sailing toward its inevitable fate, Microsoft continues its spiral around the toilet bowl as Apple and Google lead the tech industry in the new millennium.
@ Christopher:
Eh?
Your posts don't make any sense. Please enlighten us.
Oh don't get me started on health care too. Windows Mobile barcode scanners are used tons in that field. Mostly for scanning patient ID bracelets for verifying blood transfusions, medications, etc. Plus they can have an interface into the pharmacy database and patient medical records. They have some for specialized uses, but I think I've made my point that WinMo is everywhere running some very important tasks. Everywhere except extremely popular smart phones. They've got some good models (Touch Pro 2 with a DVD resolution screen, etc), but they don't seem to have a unified marketing message. Besides sponsoring a pro cycling team, I haven't seen HTC step-up.
so true christopher...but this war is all about the developers baby...
Christopher:
"I never slammed Apple in that regard. What's your point? The iPod port isn't running software. The car is. Tens of millions of people own iPods. That's fine, who cares? Tens of millions of iPods also don't run cars. Competitively though, Windows CE/Mobile sells a lot of units, in the tens of millions annually. Just not all in a smart phone chassis."
My point was that you're trying to claim some victory for Microsoft because their failed software is running in millions of cars, and I pointed out that those cars all have iPod connectors. Eventually, nobody will want or need crashing Microsoft software in cars because it will all be in the phone anyway, and Apple owns that market. Who needs a GPS unit when you can just pull out your iPhone and run an app?
Like a turd sailing toward its destiny, Microsoft continues its spiral down the toilet bowl. Windows--a toy OS for playing videogames. OS X--for getting real work done.
"Who needs a GPS unit when you can just pull out your iPhone and run an app?"
You do realize that handling a phone, including touching the screen to put in data, is rapidly becoming illegal while driving. Unless it can do absolutely everything via voice, directions, dialing, etc, you can't legally use these things in cars. Bluetooth integration will help, but alas the car still needs to run an OS for that.
I know you're basically a schmoe trying to instigate fights with everyone, but you really need to grow up. You're as bad as those political extremists who think one political party needs to rule the world or we're all going to die.
Either you derive humor from this, which means you're not remotely a good person, or you find nothing wrong, which means you have other issues. Seriously, look at yourself in a mirror before you start trying to insult everyone paying for their mortgages, paying off college loans, saving for their kids, etc.
"I don't think that's the case anymore."
Last I was aware, they're running on SAP. Apple needed to do custom clients so that their point of sale systems could interface with an SAP back-end (but I can assure you, the computer on the other side is missing their logo). Their roaming employees still use Symbol/Moto WinMo devices, and their warehouses use the same (plus the aforementioned toughbooks since that's the only computer that a warehouse worker can't kill in 2 hours).
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd think that their back-end is running Oracle on Linux or Solaris.
The biggest ERP system I've customized was probably for about 3-5,000 employees, give or take, and that was on a truly massive amount of hardware for the day. For a company 6 times the size, you'd need something staggering, and the publicly retailed Apple server hardware can't scale out that large. We're talking multiple >=16 processor machines (and I don't mean cores, but distinct CPUs). If you actually take a step back, it's pretty hysterical how much horsepower a company of that size requires for ERP.
"You left off the fact they use them in the Apple Stores as well."
I don't think that's the case anymore.
Christopher, you are of course right. Keep thinking that the only innovation in the world is in consumer electronics that Apple happens to be a part of. Plenty of innovation occurs all around us, but much of it just isn't very sexy. Let's also not forget that the stock market that allows for Apple stock to reach new heights largely runs on Windows/SQL.
Not to mention hard-mounted vehicle telemetry solutions, GPS, etc. Oh, and Ford SYNC -- you know, in millions of cars.
Mobile devices are about a lot more than vain sales guys who want a shiny toy to impress clients (although there is a decent number of those guys in business too)
"I think you're giving him too much credit. He's just a troll, plain and simple."
True, but I'm at fault for being overly curious. I wonder what makes a person that way. Inferiority complex in real life that they can pretend doesn't exist when on-line? Severe introversion that leads to a chronic dislike of other people? A pressing need to be loved by one and only one group of people (i.e. upset everyone else, and get bonus points among your very-limited peers, like Cindy Shehan and other fringe activists).
Call me intellectually curious. Granted I'm reading medical journals about leukemia these days, so maybe researching trolling will get more of my attention after the benefit of time makes me less freaked out about other things.
Paul, Why do you always try to spin the iPhone as a consumer device only with no relevance to business? I travel a lot throughout Europe and the North America on business, and iPhones are everywhere in business meetings and at the airport.
You apparently visit Europe too, yet you don't see the same thing?
i just don't get it.
"Your posts don't make any sense"
I hadn't had my coffee yet, so I neglected to say I was referring to WinMo, which should have been inferred. WinMobile runs on millions of bar code / RFID scanners, delivery confirmation devices (those mobile pads you sign with GPS and data connection to relay the signature to home base), GPS telemetry units hard-mounted to most fleet vehicles, and is the basis for Ford SYNC... Not to mention most of those bar code scanners can be bounced off of wet concrete repeatedly, and still work fine. Win CE also runs a lot of other odd things, card access systems, some DVRs (the old Ultimate TV), etc. CE is of course the basis for WinMo, which is basically a UI shell+application set.
A mobile OS is a heck of a lot more than phones. Microsoft never really succeeded there (was the automatic leader for awhile), whereas they own almost single other mobile utilization for the business market. BB/Palm/Apple handle the communication/email market exclusively, which is pretty much half of business use (but spills over successfully into the consumer space).
Frankly the WinMo OS itself is fine. The problem is the default UI, which is garbage (they tried to use a desktop paradigm on a 3 inch screen, which flatly doesn't work). HTC solved that with most of their devices, and they did it a lot quicker than Microsoft seems to be doing. They should have created something like TouchFlo 3D for WinMo 6.5.
And the shiny toy reference was a dig at vanity. A lot of the sales guys treat devices like status symbols. Like the proverbial gold Rolex (you wouldn't believe the number of those I've seen on sales guys, sheesh). The problem is it's hard to separate vanity purchase from well-researched ones. Vanity tends to obscure facts. The iPhone does some things better, but for example, WinMo is going to be more centrally manageable (or can be deployed with custom apps, or have features forcefully disabled). There is a lot of choice out there.
"If Microsoft wants the market for RFID scanners and crap, they can have it. Apple and Google will continue to push the tech industry forward where it actually matters."
Really, so you don't like anything that comes from a warehouse? You do realize that Apple uses WinMo barcode scanners in their warehouses too, as well as Panasonic toughbooks, etc, etc. If you took away everyone's mobile phone they could survive just fine with a land line. Take away all the bar code scanners in the world and no one could ship anything effectively, run inventories, track packages. Basically everything we take for granted would come to a screeching halt (or regress to days when things were much less effective).
Many years ago during college I worked at Radio Shack. This was in the days before mobile PDA bar code scanners. It took a group of 4 guys almost 12 hours to inventory our store. Now, you can have one guy do it in almost half the time.
"Like iPod ports are? Oops."
I never slammed Apple in that regard. What's your point? The iPod port isn't running software. The car is. Tens of millions of people own iPods. That's fine, who cares? Tens of millions of iPods also don't run cars. Competitively though, Windows CE/Mobile sells a lot of units, in the tens of millions annually. Just not all in a smart phone chassis.
"Paul, Why do you always try to spin the iPhone as a consumer device only with no relevance to business?"
Probably because millions of them sell configured as ruggedized water and dust proof barcode/RFID scanners, delivery confirmation devices, and running ERP software for warehouses, job sites, etc. Some of you need to open your eyes and realize mobile devices are used for a lot more than phone calls, web surfing, and MP3s. MS still owns that market completely, and there will always be strong demand for them in big business.
@Christopher:
I think you're giving him too much credit. He's just a troll, plain and simple.
