Is it possible to feel sorry for Microsoft? Needham analyst Charles Wolf skewers Microsoft’s higher profile products as well as their venture into stores.
To convince customers that there’s more to Microsoft than the mostly lackluster me-too products it now sells represents the major challenge of its stores,” Wolf continues. “The mantra of the campaign, according to leaked documents, is ‘Engage, Educate and Excite.’ Microsoft plans to focus on the ‘user experience.’ But typical Windows users are not interested in this. If they are, they most likely have already switched to a Mac.
What of Apple’s nearly instant success with the iPhone vs. Microsoft’s lengthy lifetime in the cellphone market with Windows Mobile?
Windows Mobile in its current incarnation is clearly the least user-friendly mobile operating system on the market. How does Microsoft put lipstick on this product? What Microsoft actually needs is a new mobile operating system that can compete with the iPhone OS, Android and BlackBerry. The same type of comments applies to the Zune. It’s a so-what product that’s now two generations behind the iPod.
Is Microsoft doomed?