Microsoft has not been able to boast live, active sales of smart phones running the new Windows 7 Phone operating system, prompting comparisons to Kin debacle in 2010.
Once it hits the market, had Google Android lot to offer smartphone manufacturers looking for an operating system capable of handling Apple's iPhone: it was open-source, license-free and susceptible to being skinned, or modified to meet the needs of a particular operator or company.
But a new analysis of the initiative bodes well for WP7 and Microsoft in good time.
But Google itself, worried platform fragmentation and competing against Apple's tightly integrated software-hardware stack, is reportedly interested in bringing a little more law and order to Androids Wild West: According to Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the search engine giants Android group, will now require approval for any company do with the platform code.
Randall Stross, a Silicon Valley author and professor of business at San Jose (California) State University, lays out scenarios of how WP7 will succeed in a column in Sunday's New York Times.
That article quoted Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop that says: The premise of a true open software platform can be where Android was started, but that's not where Android will go.
I have already recorded in WP7 saga here, lately noticed the fire sale prices for individual units of transporters and my irritation at having to sign up for Windows Live to do just about anything on a phone WP7 (consensus of the commentors: Well, duh! Course, you must sign up for Windows Live! Were you born yesterday?) Stross says one of the keys to success WP7 may actually be Windows Live.
Nokia recently chose Windows 7 Phone as the software for its smartphones, which will allow the Finnish manufacturer to save on research and development costs.
WP7 will benefit from the success of Microsoft's Xbox Live, which has acquired 30 million subscribers (who sign in with their Windows Live account).
If confirmed, however, Google's decision has broad effects on their competitors.
And Windows 7 Phone developer community is growing.
In the short term, enforce [Google's decision] re-notion that there are some problems with the quality of Android app portfolio, wrote Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, in an April 1 e-mails to eWeek.
Microsoft last week trumpeted the news that there have been 1.5 million downloads of WP7 developer tools (although Network World's John Cox notes, it is only 36 000 registered WP7 developers, only 2.5 percent of the total downloads, and only a third of those who have actually published apps.) Nevertheless, already 11 500 apps mains the shelves of Microsoft's app Marketplace.
This is the result of simple automated procedures around the app approval and we have seen the negative effect in terms of usability, privacy and security.
Between November when WP7 was introduced in the U.S., and at the end of 2010, had Marketplace accumulated an inventory of 5000 apps, reached a milestone three times as fast as Google's Android, Stross wrote, citing an IDC analyst.
Nor have relatively loose standards helped Android fragmentation problems, Hilwa added, which in turn damage the perception of quality and value that ultimately determines the profitability of the units and successful apps developers.
And while the 11,000 apps is a pittance compared to Apple's iPhone and its 350,000 apps, only 1000 apps are all you need to satisfy most users.
Production Partners may baulk at Google tighter control, but in the long term it is in their interest.
I have long said that after a point, Apple has 35 times more apps than any other platform means little if it is, say, 1000, alarm clock apps
Theres also the perception that Google's decision to depth-charge the full model.
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Google's value proposition was that they would be significantly easier to manage than Microsoft and let suppliers better differentiate, wrote Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group, in an April 1 e-mail to eWeek.
How many do you need? Most encouraging for Microsoft in driving adoption is its agreement with Nokia to replace its Symbian OS with WP7
They found that this led to a lot of crap being released on the market and they suck vendor cooperation.
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They are now thinking that the approach to be even more controlling.
Stross quotes a recently released IDC forecast that says that by 2015 WP7 will be the second largest smartphone OS globaly with a 20.9 percent market share, behind Google's Android is 45.4 percent, but ahead of third place Apple's 15.3 percent IOS
However, he believes Google's efforts will eventually backfire.
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In practice, Google, after failing to be different from Microsoft, will try and beat Microsoft on Microsoft's own game.
I bet that fact will not make it into a Steve Jobs keynote
That almost never works, which will likely force them to come closer and closer to Apple's model.
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The end result, he added, is a mistake to do: Instead of figuring out how to make their idea work they kill it by being too willing to form more collaborative relationships with its OEM partners.
Obviously a lot of things can happen between now and 2015, and I'm still disappointed in the Microsoft Windows user, not WP7, as its OS for Tablet PCs, but this article explains why it must be
Google goes after the open.
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Apple is closed, but ubiquitous.
We in the media technology will continue to keep the pressure on Microsoft to give us the right answer to how do WP7
It puts all the pressure on Microsoft to define the middle ground.
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Before the news of Google's (possible) a decision made on the Internet, issued an analyst report suggesting that Windows 7 Phone, thanks to the alliance with Nokia, will surpass both Research In Motion's Blackberry and Apple's IOS to become the second-ranked smartphone operating system in the world in 2015, lagging behind only Google Android.
But if the scenario Stross describes the ruling, Microsoft will, despite the doubters, have a path to success
Until the release of Windows 7 Phone last year, Microsoft has steadily lost market share, while other operating systems has brought forward new and compelling experiences, Ramon Llamas, an analyst with IDC, wrote in a March 29 report.
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The new alliance brings together Nokia's hardware capabilities and Windows Phones differentiated platform.
Nokia alliance, combined with Google's stringent rules, influence decisions on other manufacturers to embrace Windows phone 7 as a platform for their phones? Time will tell.
Reader Comments: Google Android Lockdown Could Benefit Windows 7 Phone, Apple IOS > > > Add your comment now, a user comment on this article even-even VCSy only a few cents per share, Microsoft and its clients have a licence to using the two VCSY patents! which was obtained through a.
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Posted By: 04-04-11By: AnonymousNot All Apps GoodIt necessary for Google to police on the Android platform because there are some programs that are simply garbage.
Posted By: 04-04-11By Tim - www.digitalundivide.comYes Open SourceThey has released the source code later, each release so far, so what's the difference here is the difference here is that Stephen Elop is now ...? Posted By: 04-03-11By:? Ziggyfishopen source Android is open source just for marketing purposes.
If you are open source so why you put the limits? Oh hang on, we realize that we were wrong ....
Posted By: 04-03-11By: peter > > > Add your comment now! \\ U0026gt; > > More Enterprise Mobility Articles > > > More by Nicholas Kolakowski.
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