Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
Personally I think the big mistake MS is making is they are targeting the wrong crowd. They should take enterprise first. That has traditionally been their strongest area of dominance, and both Android and iOS are weak in this area. Most corps would love to drop RIM, at least I have never met any that are happy with Blackberry's servers.
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Honestly? That kind of thinking is exactly why so many consumer-focused Microsoft products don't do well. For example, look at Windows Home Server (WHS). The first version was awesome. It was squarely targeted at the consumer market, had some brilliant advertising (the "Why is there a Server in the House?" kids book, the Genie ads, etc), some awesome drive expansion features, etc. Then Microsoft decided to merge the Small Business Server (SBS) and WHS teams and suddenly they couldn't care less about the consumer market. The Drive Extender feature was cut because it didn't work well in the enterprise, even though it was almost perfect for home use. Media Center integration was cut. Consumer device partners were driven away. The end result is that WHS 2011 is a dead product explicitly because Microsoft decided to target the enterprise with a consumer device.
Smartphones are inherently consumer devices these days. They're much more about playing games, using apps, and surfing the web than they are about corporate communication or email checking. In this market, if you go enterprise-first you end up like RIM, teetering on the brink, at risk of toppling over the edge at the slightest breeze.
Or, if tl;dr, how about this: Microsoft tried targeting the enterprise in the phone space, and that didn't work out for them. That's why Windows Mobile is dead and Windows Phone lives. As long as the phone has Exchange support and remote wipe, that's sufficient for 99% of enterprise use.