Sad days for all the Windows-loyal out there. Strong evidence of another Microflop (or more correctly Macroflop) from Microsoft is emerging.
Microsoft and Ballmer have been laughing at iPhone. And stating that they have a strategy which is going to make sure they stay ahead also when it comes to cellular phones and smartphones.
That was then. Where has this strategy brought Microsoft? Years after Ballmer laughed pictures of their fantastic Pink phones started circulating. I am not a product designer (thank heaven) but I know what I like and what I don’t like. Just looking at it. And the design of the “Pinks” did not appeal to me at all. Anyway, I may not be in their target customer group.
The design in itself is sad enough. But now we get rumours stating the the project is in danger of caving in due to sloppy project management. So they did not understand the techie bits of building phones and didn’t see the significance of choosing this or that technology? Does not surprise me. Maybe they should start out reading the book The Chip by T.R. Reid. It’s a fantastic book on the history of the chip. And by reading that book the Pink project might have understood the implications of protocols? That different communcation technologies could imply different chip sets.
But what seems worst of all, and a lesson to be learned by anyone trying to break a new product into being “the next hit”: try to avoid making your partners in the process pissed.
Even so, I have to admit that I do not care too much about Microsoft getting a dent in their bodywork. Best of all: they only have themselves to blame.
