We all know the woe is me Microsoft mantra with mobile, and the company has as much as given up on competing head to head with Google and Apple, at least on a hardware and OS level. Sure Microsoft is pushing consumer services across platforms, maintaining a toehold in the mobile space, but for now, that’s about all they’re doing.
Consumer news is a bit better in the gaming space, and Microsoft seems to understand that gamers are important. The recent launch of the Xbox One X is by all accounts going well, and even without a blockbuster game launch partner, the company’s latest console, and Windows 10’s continued embracing of games and gaming are gaining some good press and some good buzz.
There is of course still a lot of anticipation surrounding the possibility that Microsoft will try again to get back into the mobile market once again, with Windows on ARM, and the possibility of a new form factor device that could well be part phone, part tablet, part computer, and part something altogether new. Supposedly Microsoft will be aiming at a business market, but you can be sure if “Andromeda” is cool enough, consumers will come flocking.
But does Microsoft even need consumers to succeed? That’s the focus of today’s poll, cast your vote here:
We all wish that things had played out differently; that Microsoft would have solved their “no apps” dilemma, that the Nokia fiasco wasn’t such a fiasco, and that Microsoft became a player in the mobile hardware market, the nexus of consumer spending.
That didn’t happen, and from the looks of things, CEO Satya Nadella is far less interested in chasing a consumer dream than was his predecessor Steve Ballmer. Is that a good or a bad thing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
