Earlier this year, I read a piece on ArsTechnica about Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting in which many attendees expressed their belief to CEO Satya Nadella that Microsoft had ceded control of the smartphone market to Apple and Google and had No longer a serious competitor.
A shareholder who uses Windows Phone, Dana Vance, expressed dismay that Microsoft had launched certain applications on iOS and Android before Windows 10 Mobile. Vance also raised the claims that the development of the Microsoft band had been discontinued.
Another audience member was more compelling, and asked Nadella directly if Microsoft was committed to Windows Mobile.
A slow and steady decline
So, here's the thing. Eons ago, Microsoft was one of the market leaders when it came to mobile productivity. This was before Steve Jobs even had conceived the iPhone. At that time, the smartphone race was hard hit between four main players: Palm, BlackBerry, Symbian and Microsoft. Windows Mobile 6 - Microsoft's offer - had a respectable market share of around 30 percent.
Windows Mobile did well with overworked and financial managers who wanted a convenient way of accessing their emails and typing in office documents, but their popular appeal was limited. The vast majority of phones were simply too monotonous and awkward for most ordinary consumers to even consider buying from them.
But in 2007, it all went to shit for Microsoft. Apple launched the iPhone, and in turn transformed the smartphone market into something that had not been seen before.
At that time, the final nail in the coffin of Windows Phone 6 had been almost hammered. It began to bleed users. Microsoft tried to stop the flow with Windows Mobile 6.5, which worked a bit better on phones just touch and had a better browser, but it was not enough.
By the time the company released its first modern smartphone - Windows Phone 7 - Microsoft's global share had been reduced to a fraction of what it was in 2005. This was a deeply humbling moment for a company that had dominated the World of computing since the early 1990s.
Despite the subsequent releases of Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Mobile 10, Microsoft has never recovered in the mobile space.
It should not be like that
The most tragic of Microsoft's unstoppable uncontrolled mobile is that it feels completely unnecessary.
There is literally no reason why Microsoft - a company with vast financial resources and some of the most talented developers and researchers in the world on its payroll - must fight this way.
Perhaps the biggest reason Windows Phone (and later Windows Mobile) suffocated was that there was a void of consumer enthusiasm. Nobody cared. What most frustrates me is that there were things that Microsoft could have done (and in fact, can do) to change this.
The sophisticated application store
Let's address the ten-ton elephant in the room: the app store. At this time, the main reason why you should not buy a Windows phone is that there is a real drought of the applications. Worse, from the dispersion of existing applications, many of them have not received an update in a long time.
Yes, I know that in 2013 he offered briefly to pay developers a whopping $ 100 for each newly released application. Yes, I know there were some private (and strong) financial incentives given to large companies such as Foursquare.
Clearly, these were not enough, and were not maintained to ensure that these applications had parity of features with their Android and iOS equivalents.
Taking Control of Hardware
Former Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer has some pretty strong ideas on this subject. He (rightfully so) thinks that Microsoft should have gotten into the hardware game faster. Doing so would have allowed Microsoft to release phones where it can exert control over all aspects of the device, just as Apple is with the iPhone.
This makes perfect sense. During the brief days of Windows Phone, there were a handful of devices running the software from a variety of manufacturers, including Nokia, Blu, HTC, Alcatel and ZTE.
Many of them were, at first glance, quite identical. In terms of industrial design and internal specifications, there was not much to choose from. On the other hand, it is difficult to differentiate between a Windows Phone device and an Android device because Microsoft only allows a certain amount of software customization.
From the consumer's point of view, this was rather confusing. I guess many people took a look at the then dizzying ecosystem of Windows Phone devices and quickly gave up, instead of choosing to spend their money on an Android or iPhone.
The biggest mistake made by Microsoft was its inertia to remove the Nokia brand and take control of the Windows Phone ecosystem.
When you bought the company in 2014, you should have immediately stopped licensing your software and instead you are committed to launching three phones per year: a low-end device, a mid-range device and a premium device.
This would have allowed Microsoft to take a holistic look at how people use their devices, and allow them to take the same detailed-oriented approach to the user experience that Apple takes with the iPhone.
Microsoft can make incredible hardware. This fact has been tested time and again with the likes of Xbox One, Surface, Surface Book and Surface Studio. Imagine what it would be like if the only Windows phones on the market were a range of attractive and well-constructed surface phones.
Microsoft should have put on its dream cap
In the last five years, Microsoft has evolved from a company obsessed with making incremental improvements to its software, to one that is fundamentally adventurous and obsessed with the new and undiscovered. Hololens anyone?
But this has not really materialized on the mobile front.
I have a theory about this. Since 2007, when Apple launched the iPhone, Microsoft has been playing catchup. He has been so obsessed with ensuring that things work and that the essential features are present, he has not been able to take his vision for things like augmented reality to his mobile product.
From the beginning, Microsoft should have explored how it can differentiate its mobile offer from Apple and Google. I should have been bold. It was not, and today Windows Phone languishes like a smartphone OS also running.
The last hurray?
There were other things I wanted to mention. I wanted to bring confusion, inconsistent branding (note how many times I switch between Windows Phone and Windows Mobile in this article). I desperately wanted to praise about how I thought the platform was poorly marketed. But time is short, and not only was there not the column inches.
Some of you will read my article and write furiously a comment about how I am "a bias" and an Apple fanatic. You would be wrong. Not that it matters, but this Monday I bought a Dell XPS 13, and during my life I have owned four different Windows phones. As a platform, I have given you many opportunities. Maybe more than it deserves.
But time is running out for Microsoft's mobile ambitions. Microsoft is rumored to be working on a surface phone. Satya Nadella says that this will be the "ultimate mobile device". Will this be the last hurray of the company before it eventually consigned to build applications and services for the other two big holders?
Maybe. But I hope not.
I am a perennial optimist, and as a result I have not written Windows 10 Mobile quite yet. I think if Microsoft somehow manages to convince developers to return to the platform, and if they can build a device that can compete with the current range of desirable flagships, then perhaps - just maybe - will have a chance .
