Microsoft Holds iPhone Funeral Event 311
theodp writes "TechFlash reports that Microsoft celebrated the completion and upcoming launch of Windows Phone 7 on Friday with a 'Windows Phone Pride Parade' complete with zombies, a 'Thriller' Dance, and pallbearers carrying a giant iPhone. 'These kind of "ship" parties are common throughout the industry,' explained Microsoft communications VP Frank Shaw. 'It's a great way for teams that have worked overtime to create a kick-ass product blow off steam and have a little fun.'"
Re:HA HA HA (Score:3, Interesting)
IDC and Gartner (Score:2, Interesting)
Optimistic... (Score:4, Interesting)
MS has been nothing if not consistent in mobile phone marketshare. Up til now, I'd characterize it as not even really trying seriously. Now that they have started to try in earnest, every move they make is a huge head scratcher.
Kin is a shining example of MS not 'getting it'.
Every demo and discussion of WinMo7 seems to show that not only do they not get it, but they are actively screwing over WinMo6 users too. Sideloaded apps? No, copying Apple means none of that. Copy and paste? No, they copy iPhone 2G. Multitasking? Again... no.. Decent UI? No, that would mean knocking off Apple *too* much....
Android is taking it without any contest (though I like WebOS better).
Re:Are they 'kin mad? (Score:1, Interesting)
Kin was a carryover from the aquisition of Danger (you know, the TMobile Sidekick guys).
The Danger built system just happened to be the big one that failed after MS aquired them (and not a backup to be found... oops).
I've come to the conclusion that Danger was a poor aquisition (i.e. waste of money) for Microsoft.
Verizon had as much to do with Kin's failure as Microsoft/Danger.... underpowered smart phone targeted at a teen/social audience, but with outrageous data/service prices.
Re:Are they 'kin mad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, it seems that you absolved MS of any responsibility of failure.
The Danger built system just happened to be the big one that failed after MS aquired them (and not a backup to be found... oops).
A year after MS acquired them, the Danger systems failed. It has not been explicitly explained but one rumor is that a SAN upgrade went wrong. You don't know why. Maybe MS decided that Danger should eat the dogfood and this led to the failure. This is what happened to hotmail.
I've come to the conclusion that Danger was a poor aquisition (i.e. waste of money) for Microsoft.
MS acquired Danger to get a head start on what would become the Kin. Two MS decisions would doom it. First MS decided to scrap the Java based system and redo everything with Windows CE because a MS product could never use Java. Second, the head of division didn't want both Kin and Win 7 Phone so he withheld resources from the Kin team. Those decisions delayed the launch by at least 18 months.
Verizon had as much to do with Kin's failure as Microsoft/Danger.... underpowered smart phone targeted at a teen/social audience, but with outrageous data/service prices.
What? Verizon didn't decide on the hardware or software. Those were MS decisions. As for the data prices, Verizon was willing to give MS users a break on the prices so that they could get the Sidekick users (teenagers), however, MS was 18 months late so they didn't give MS a break in the end. 18 months is almost 2 generations in cell phone lifetime and rather unacceptable.
Re:Are they 'kin mad? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think Apple has ever determined that they must win.
In the early years Apple (Jobs) wanted to do to IBM what Microsoft (Balmer) wants to do to Google today. In the early days Apple saw IBM as their main competition.
Pics or it didn't happen? Yes.
http://www.edibleapple.com/old-school-steve-jobs-flicks-off-ibm/ [edibleapple.com]
http://www.pidjin.net/2010/04/11/stop-me-if-i-can/ [pidjin.net]