But you still can’t buy most of the phones promoted
By Stephen Pate – Microsoft has launched a new site dedicated to their mobile devices – smartphones and tablets without the
“Nokia” brand. They are simply called Microsoft Mobile Devices now.
The big news here is the site is responsive to smartphones and tablets, which the former website was surprisingly not responsive.
It frustrated users to no end if they wanted information about their Surface tablets or Nokia Lumia smartphones and the website was too big for the small screen.
Microsoft Mobile Devices is now formatted for the small and large screen should you be looking for information.
You will be greeted by lots of photographs of people holding up their phones taking pictures. Get the hint – Lumia smartphones are great for taking pictures which is true. The first picture encourages you to “Live it” as in use the phone in your life, Sync It (with OneDrive) and Share It.
Microsoft Mobile Devices picture-taking
The page is a great place to start, especially with the interactive tutorial launched last month called Windows on your phone – try out the newest Windows Phone experience. The tutorial even helps people who already have a Windows phone, even if the videos are strangely wordless.
The page Nokia Lumia Devices lists a surprising 20 different (Nokia) Lumia smartphones and one tablet. You can narrow down the choices by Latest, Featured, Camera, Screen Size and Storage. You can also filter out phones that have 4G .
What the site does not tell you is where to buy any of the 21 models. In fact, on the “Featured” sort the top 4 phones are listed as “Coming Soon” and there are no links on the rest of the phones for “where to buy.”
Today is September 19th, 2014 and for the past 10 days Apple has made it abundantly clear where to buy their latest phones the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Before the weekend is over, 10 million people will buy the new upsized iPhone which is not better than the best Lumia phones. Microsoft will sell very few of their new phones this weekend because you can’t find them. The weekly Best Buy flyer has no Lumia phones for sale, the website has 4 phones and the stores carry one.
The difference is Apple has created a formidable marketing machine that knows how to sell “these refrigerators and color TV’s” (Money for Nothing) and Microsoft is learning the game.
Four days ago, Satya Nadella the new CEO of Microsoft said he was unconcerned about Microsoft’s smartphone sales versus Apple and Android. Seattle Chamber President and CEO Maud Daudon asked Nadella diplomatically, “How do you see yourself positioning Microsoft to increase its market share to become an even stronger competitor?”
To which Nadella replied, in essence, Pay no attention to our current Windows Phone market share!
“When we define mobile in the marketplace, we don’t think of it by today’s market share positions on a given form factor. Devices and device sizes will come and go, even within a single year, you will be changing multiple phones. It’s more about the mobility. In fact, if there’s anything central to our vision, it’s don’t think of the device at the center, think of the individual, the people at the center. And then have the platforms and productivity experiences get built with that at the center.” Geekwire
I spent decades in sales and marketing, sometimes reporting to a Board of Directors. When sales were bad, we came up with fuzzy answers like Mr. Nadella. In the end, business is about sales and sales is about numbers, Winners and losers. Having dropped from 8% market share to 3% market share, I’d say Microsoft is on the losing side of the battle.
Follow me on Twitter at @sdpate or on Facebook at NJN Network, OyeTimes and IMA News Buzz.
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