The formal death of Windows Phone
Last week I commented on a news release from MS regarding the sale of the Nokia feature phone business based in Vietnam. In the commentary the question was raised regarding whether MS was not only selling off a feature phone business but also the Lumia brand and line of phones.
Well today, MS announced the layoff of nearly 1900 employees and a $900M write down that were the remaining Nokia Devices group employees based in Finland.
So effectively all Nokia employees that were part of the $7.6B MS acquisition of the devices group have effectively been let go and MS over the last 2 years have written off somewhere between $10 - 11B as they exit the smartphone business.
Back in January of 2015 I wrote a couple of posts discussing the risks with the current approach that MS was taking with Windows Phone and that 2015 was going to be a tough year. Well I was correct. Windows Phone went from around a 2.6% WW market share to less than 1% today.
The most recent 5 series devices while spec'd relatively well were executed on horribly and just didn't sell. Various software ISVs are exiting Windows Phone support and I expect that to accelerate with this announcement.
MS has stated that they are committed to Windows 10 Mobile and have even discussed a new device. But that won't be until sometime in the Spring of 2017 with the Redstone 2 release.
While there were all kind of rumors regarding an Intel Atom based phone potentially under the Surface brand that appears to be dead as well. Especially since Intel effectively killed the Atom CPU line last month.
Additionally MS recently changed the hardware specification for Intel based tablets raising the screen size minimum from 7.99" to 8.99". That means that the Intel based 8" tablet like the Dell Venue 8 Pro I use today is also dead.
So it sounds like that potentially the "new" device will be a Surface (not Surface Pro) based on an ARM Processor running Windows 10 Mobile Redstone 2. So potentially not a phone at all. So think a Surface mini. But I argue that nobody will care about this. Tablet sales as a whole are dropping and I don't think folks will flock to an 8" or 9" Windows 10 tablet.
It is entirely possible that MS will rely on partners like HP, Acer, Huawei, Alcatel and others to actually swim through the chum waters of a Windows 10 based phone. I've got to wonder how those partners really feel about this and whether these products are going to be very short lived.
Personally I think they've bought a bill of goods and why they may sell some to some died in the wool MS corporate or government customers, will never really make enough money to see any return on their investment. I doubt that they'll sell 1M of these in the first year.
Bottom line is that MS is out of the phone business and I think permanently. The 6 year experiment that was Windows Phone has failed miserably.
Well today, MS announced the layoff of nearly 1900 employees and a $900M write down that were the remaining Nokia Devices group employees based in Finland.
So effectively all Nokia employees that were part of the $7.6B MS acquisition of the devices group have effectively been let go and MS over the last 2 years have written off somewhere between $10 - 11B as they exit the smartphone business.
Back in January of 2015 I wrote a couple of posts discussing the risks with the current approach that MS was taking with Windows Phone and that 2015 was going to be a tough year. Well I was correct. Windows Phone went from around a 2.6% WW market share to less than 1% today.
The most recent 5 series devices while spec'd relatively well were executed on horribly and just didn't sell. Various software ISVs are exiting Windows Phone support and I expect that to accelerate with this announcement.
MS has stated that they are committed to Windows 10 Mobile and have even discussed a new device. But that won't be until sometime in the Spring of 2017 with the Redstone 2 release.
While there were all kind of rumors regarding an Intel Atom based phone potentially under the Surface brand that appears to be dead as well. Especially since Intel effectively killed the Atom CPU line last month.
Additionally MS recently changed the hardware specification for Intel based tablets raising the screen size minimum from 7.99" to 8.99". That means that the Intel based 8" tablet like the Dell Venue 8 Pro I use today is also dead.
So it sounds like that potentially the "new" device will be a Surface (not Surface Pro) based on an ARM Processor running Windows 10 Mobile Redstone 2. So potentially not a phone at all. So think a Surface mini. But I argue that nobody will care about this. Tablet sales as a whole are dropping and I don't think folks will flock to an 8" or 9" Windows 10 tablet.
It is entirely possible that MS will rely on partners like HP, Acer, Huawei, Alcatel and others to actually swim through the chum waters of a Windows 10 based phone. I've got to wonder how those partners really feel about this and whether these products are going to be very short lived.
Personally I think they've bought a bill of goods and why they may sell some to some died in the wool MS corporate or government customers, will never really make enough money to see any return on their investment. I doubt that they'll sell 1M of these in the first year.
Bottom line is that MS is out of the phone business and I think permanently. The 6 year experiment that was Windows Phone has failed miserably.
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