Can Microsoft make its future mobile? BBC news article

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7766699.stm

"For years the giant of desktop computing has tried to push into the mobile phone market - not without success, but ultimately remaining a niche player.

Two things held Microsoft back in the past: technology and usability.

For years mobile phone technology simply wasn't advanced enough to play to the strengths of devices that were actually mini computers.

Windows Mobile and other smartphones were held back because they had to "live with the hardware capabilities of the past; key pieces were missing," says Andy Lees, the boss of Microsoft's Mobile Communications group.

But the real Achilles heel of Microsoft's devices was their abysmal user interface - firmly wedded to the look and feel of old-fashioned computer desktops, a concept that doesn't work on small screens."

The reviewer claims the X1 is the 'most accomplished' device - yet he's still got a 'pre-production' one apparantly.

Overall quite a negative article :-(

M.S

[Guest Monolithix]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7766699.stm

"For years the giant of desktop computing has tried to push into the mobile phone market..."

This is wrong, of course. They actually mean "push into the enterprise e-mail market", which they've actually had pretty significant success with.

So far all MS have done to push into the mobile phone market is the 6.1 homescreen on WM Standard, and not only is it not anything special, it's for a platform most hardware manufacturers seem to have abandoned (except for, wait for it... mobile email!)