Microsoft lost the smartphone war to Apple and Google. The company failed to see the potential of expensive but smart phones during the early years.
When the iPhone was released, CEO of Microsoft, then Steve Ballmer, said that it was an expensive phone which doesn’t even feature a full sized keyboard. He also made remarks that no one would be willing to buy the iPhone as it lacked the things which almost all the phones had back then.
However, earlier this year, Steve Ballmer said during an interview that he regrets not understanding the potential of the iPhone and also that he made bad bets on the phone business.
Leaving all that behind, the company now run by Satya Nadella is moving forward – the NOKIA business has been scrapped, no updates to the Lumia and there have been rumors in the past that the company is indeed in the process of releasing a new phone with a new brand.
The branding will be “Surface”, according to the rumours and it’s pretty obvious. It’s new for Microsoft’s smartphone line but not the laptop, tablet and desktop categories. The addition of a phone completes the company’s product line.
In Satya Nadella’s own words : “We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today’s market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device. Therefore we stopped doing things that were me-too and started doing things, even if they are today very subscale, to be very focused on a specific set of customers who need a specific set of capabilities that are differentiated and that we can do a good job of.”
Microsoft might release a truly great phone but the question is how will they get apps on board the Windows Mobile OS.