Narrative: Microsoft's Consumer Challenges
Each narrative page (like this) has a page describing and evaluating the narrative, followed by all the posts on the site tagged with that narrative. Scroll down beyond the introduction to see the posts.
Microsoft launches Skype Lite Android app for India and other emerging markets – TechCrunch (Feb 22, 2017)
This looks like a great bit of innovation from Microsoft – both well customized for a local market and the first really compelling implementation of its bot strategy that I’ve seen. Facebook has been doing well for a while with its Lite offerings, which have expanded its reach in emerging markets, and this Skype version seems to offer some of the same benefits. The future integration with the government identity scheme sounds particularly interesting. There’s obviously strong competition in India for the services Skype provides, many of which already cater for users with limited bandwidth, and Microsoft continues to struggle to monetize its consumer efforts including Skype, but it’s great to see it innovating in this very localized way.
via TechCrunch
Minecraft Pocket Edition will no longer receive updates for Windows mobile devices | Windows Central (Jan 19, 2017)
It’s becoming ever clearer that Microsoft is going to go through yet another revamp of its smartphone OS strategy, on top of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone (you could argue Windows 10 Mobile as it currently stands is already a third, but it was very much an update to Windows Phone in reality). Other developers have been abandoning their Windows Phone apps for some time now, but for Microsoft itself to do it is the clearest sign yet that there’s no meaningful future for Windows on consumer mobile devices as it currently stands. The article holds out hope for the full Windows on ARM strategy Microsoft is working on, but it still seems very likely that this will end up being a marginal and enterprise-centric play rather than something that gets Microsoft back into the consumer smartphone market.
via Minecraft Pocket Edition will no longer receive updates for Windows mobile devices | Windows Central
The Verge 2016 tech report card: Microsoft – The Verge (Dec 29, 2016)
This is a good summary of Microsoft’s 2016, which was the year in which a significant turnaround or even a comeback seemed to become plausible. The company made some big advances in key areas, although there was no real advance in first-party tablets or laptops, and it all but killed off its Lumia smartphone business. There’s lots of potential here, but we’ll see in 2017 both whether Microsoft can really turn around its consumer business, and whether it can make its hardware business grow again.
via The Verge 2016 tech report card: Microsoft – The Verge
Microsoft might add ‘game mode’ to Windows 10 for maximum gaming performance – The Verge (Dec 28, 2016)
This isn’t coming out of left field – one of the big consumer features of Windows 10 has been its gaming emphasis, so this is a natural evolution. Gaming has been one of the big consumer success points for Microsoft amid broader questions about its strategy and especially monetization among consumers going forward.
via Microsoft might add ‘game mode’ to Windows 10 for maximum gaming performance – The Verge
Warm Takes on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 – Medium (Dec 27, 2016)
Part of the recent version of the Apple is Doomed narrative has Microsoft in the ascendant, ready to eat its lunch. As with the rest of the narrative, that’s overblown, and this piece does a nice job of highlighting the challenges for Microsoft in winning over Mac users. It’s also a good entry in another couple of narratives – Hardware is Hard, and Microsoft and Hardware, pouring some cold water on the plaudits for Microsoft’s recent hardware efforts.
via Warm Takes on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 – Medium