Just like that, the second holiday season for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform has come and gone without the mobile OS making a name for itself. Windows Phone continues to hover somewhere in the single digits of market share despite the brand recognition offered by Nokia in its new partnership with Microsoft. With the version 7.5 Mango update, Windows Phone has become a more than capable platform, and even Android has taken some design cues from it.
So what’s the problem? With hindsight being 20/20, let’s see how Microsoft has failed to capitalize on Windows Phone 7.
Announcement and launch
Microsoft officially unveiled Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress in February of 2010, but it was originally called "Windows Phone 7 Series." The name was such a mouthful that even Microsoft had to back off and shorten it to Windows Phone 7. Microsoft was up front that the platform wasn’t going to be out until the end of 2010. That was the first problem.
By the time Microsoft had started to push the new platform on users, iOS and Android had built up huge market share. Redmond wasted time and resources working on the catastrophic failure that was the Kin, and allowed inter-department rivalries to slow Windows Phone's development.
It does take time to build a good mobile operating system, but Windows Phone was late before it was even announced. In that awkward few months between announcement and release, carriers were still selling Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. If that doesn’t pollute a brand, nothing will.
Bad ads
Microsoft spent big on advertising Windows Phone 7, as much as $500 million(Opens in a new window) according to some reports. What did that get Microsoft? Not a whole lot, as it turns out. The opening volley of ads(Opens in a new window) were all based around the idea that Windows Phone was easy to use. “Get in, get out, get on with life,” was the tagline. It’s a nice idea, but it completely misses the psychology of the average smartphone user.
People really don’t like to be told something it too complicated for them, even if it is. The implicit tone of Microsoft’s original ads might as well have been, “Here’s a phone that’s easy enough for you to use, dummy.” The ads completely ignore the fact that smartphone users often have their noses buried in a screen because they like using the device, not because they have no choice.
The Windows Phone ads also failed to really show the device in-use. There were a few ads with some generalized features shown off, but they were not widely aired. Apple has had massive success making ads that focus with laser-like precision on a single feature at a time. People respond because we’re very visual creatures. Seeing how a device works is more compelling than being told it’s good in a flashy ad.
Carrier problems
Windows Phone’s issues on the carrier side of things are two-fold. The first problem came early on with the lack of CDMA support. In the US, that meant there were no launch devices on Sprint, and more seriously, on Verizon. Right out of the gate in that first holiday season the majority of US customers simply didn’t have access to Windows Phone 7. Making CDMA an afterthought was probably a necessary concession to get the software out the door, but that delay might have affected the carriers' desire to play ball with Redmond.
To this day, there is only one Windows Phone device on Verizon, and it’s not even clear the carrier wants it there. The in-store displays are designed to push certain devices. There are no Windows Phone ads in the stores, and the phones themselves are often hidden away to make space for more iPhones and Android devices.
Even the website barely acknowledges Microsoft’s mobile platform. You have to scroll down past the iPhones, top tier Android phones, mid-range Android phones, and even past the BlackBerry selection before Verizon will show you its solitary Windows Phone, the HTC Trophy. Sadly, the situation isn’t much better on other carriers. No banners, no prominent placement, and no bundle deals -- it’s like Windows Phone 7 doesn’t even exist.
Microsoft should have been offering enticements, paying for advertising, and working with both OEM and carrier partners to get its devices featured prominently. Users trust what they can see and try for themselves, but no one is putting the devices in front of users in carrier stores. All the clever YouTube videos and blog posts on Earth won’t change the reality that in the US market, the carrier is still king.
Missing features
Windows Phone 7 launched in a state that was just not competitive. Despite Microsoft’s frequent assertions that it was working on updating with must-have features like copy/paste and multitasking, it took far too long. Unfortunately, the platform got a reputation for being behind on features, and not even the recent Mango update has been able to turn that around. Support for hardware options like LTE and dual-core processors has also lagged behind the competition.
The sad thing is that in its current form, Windows Phone 7 has a lot of compelling features. The browser is good, the keyboard is excellent, Office with SkyDrive support is useful, and it has that multitasking problem licked. Signing into a Windows Phone is a very compelling experience as your content populates the home screen tiles and the phone becomes "yours" with very little configuration. This is an experience people don’t see because it took so long for Redmond to catch up, but now no one is watching.
App selection
While most users vastly overestimate the number of apps they use, the number of apps on a platform really helps to lure new users. Spend five minutes in an Apple store and see how many times the size of the App Store is brought up by eager sales reps. Windows Phone got off to a rocky start app-wise, but things are picking up. Microsoft was able to coax some high-end developers to port iOS games to Windows Phone, but very few are coming over of their own accord.
As iOS and Android run away with the market, we see time and time again that budding development houses are putting out games most frequently on iOS, and sometimes with a concurrent Android release. Windows Phone 7 is left scrounging for the scraps not because it’s bad for developers, but because of its small user base. What comes first? The all-important app ecosystem, or the user base? Microsoft is experiencing a mobile catch 22.
Perhaps the saving grace of Windows Phone is the huge pile of money Microsoft consistently makes from products like Office and Windows on the desktop. It can afford to continue subsidizing Windows Phone development for a long time to come. The Xbox had a killer feature in Live, and that helped Microsoft worm its way into the gaming market. Windows Phone 7 is still looking for that undeniable selling point, but give it time.
