When talking about smartphones, Microsoft isn’t the very first name that comes to mind. For the past couple years, the consumer market for Windows Phones has been lacking and thus, it makes less than 1 percent of the total ownership. But according to CEO Satya Nadella’s recent interview with the Australian Financial Review, the Redmond giant isn’t ready to give up just yet. The company might have missed the mobile revolution but is ready to tackle the market via its unique and innovative features.
Earlier this year, the tech behemoth took certain bold steps to accept the faults within its flailing hardware division. Microsoft sold off its feature phone business acquired from Nokia under the regime of Steve Balmer in 2014. But that was not it. The company also wrote off the $7.6 billion it had spent to buy the said devices and services. In addition, it also scaled back and further streamlined its mobile division with massive 1,850 personnel layoffs.
Now that Microsoft has cleared its financials and got rid of the burden, it has finally started piecing together its vision for the “most ultimate mobile device,” says Nadella. In the interview, he mentions that the Redmond giant will “continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today’s market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do.”
This means Microsoft plans to continue producing mobile devices but not envy its competitors and port features from their offerings to Windows Phone. The company plans to carve its own path and produce a smartphone with completely unique and first-of-its-kind features, which are directed towards a particular niche in the market.
Therefore [with Nokia assets], we stopped doing things that were me-too and started doing things, even if they are today very sub-scale, to be very focused on a specific set of customers who need a specific set of capabilities that are differentiated and that we can do a good job of,
stated Nadella.
The Indian-origin Microsoft CEO then cites two perfect examples which indicate the company is rapidly innovating when compared to its arch enemies. Redmond, he says, has matured its product development ideology and is ready to take bold risks to bring innovative products to the market. Microsoft was the first one to debut a hybrid two-in-one touch laptop and the game-changer HP’s Elite x3 device — which can be connected to an external display, a mouse, and a keyboard to convert the same into a full-blown desktop PC. This useful feature is called Continuum, and the company is reportedly working on an x86 emulator to enable the smartphone to run all Windows apps. This is expected to debut with Windows 10’s late 2017 ‘Redstone 3’ update.
I mean, take even Surface. Three years ago, the two-in-one as a form factor was questioned. Does anybody need one? And now guess what, even our competition has decided that it’s not a refrigerator and a toaster but it’s actually a two-in-one,
he adds.
It is now taking even greater leaps with the release of its creative-centric Surface Studio. That’s one shiny piece of innovative tech which has certainly ranked Redmond above Apple in terms of innovation this year. The company is now developing tech innovations which other will be craving to copy in the coming months. Now, all that remains to add to the successful hardware lineup is a Windows smartphone, and we expect Microsoft to unveil an ultimate beast sometime soon. But one cannot be sure if the Windows Phones will carry the ‘Surface’ branding or not.
What is your opinion on the same? Should Microsoft release new ‘Surface’ Phones? Comment your thoughts down below.
