Microsoft's Charlie Kindel left for ostensibly greener pastures. This might be an opportunity for Microsoft to take advantage of security chaos among iOS and Android.
Microsoft mobile has a chance. Microsoft might be able to chase the competition with Windows Mobile if they can get one thing right: security. This hasn’t been a Microsoft strength. Don’t drop your coffee cup, we all know what kind of architectural security problems Microsoft’s gone thru. Tomorrow, Patch Tuesday Extraordinaire, is ongoing proof that they’re trying to do something about it.
Long ago, around 2003, Microsoft was in a big defensive denial stage. It opened up the door for a lot of needed criticism, but also the hole in the defense lines that Apple shot through. Linux made mince-meat of Microsoft’s server security as lots of the tech community made billions from patching up Microsoft’s post-Y2K security problems.
But security isn’t vendor-specific, and Apple now faces a lot of criticism over its capability to keep iOS both stable and Android’s tender, Google, has been caught several times not watching or minding its Android Marketplace. Bad stuff gets in, phones are compromised, and if they’re used for corporate apps—corporate data can be compromised. Smartphones frighten the living hell out of data security people and for good reason.
If Microsoft can evolve a vetted security system and business channel for apps, then it can leapfrog Apple. Why? Apple has a seeming enormous head start. Google is leading everyone in smartphone sales, which seem to constitute the majority of sponsored phones sold to day. Microsoft? Microsoft whose Windows Mobile chief Charlie Kindel decided to boogie into his own venture?
Yes, Microsoft. Microsoft has the channels, and the business reputation. Microsoft is non-aligned, not carrier-specific (although it has seemed to whiz-off Verizon thoroughly in the US), and it has a manufacturing partner in Nokia that is huge, international, and understands the quirks of its country-based sales efforts. This is, remember, about sales.
But Wait! you shout. We like all those apps! The Apple and Android app makers have found out that the early leaders have made a good fortune, and now Apple takes handsome chunks of iOS revenue, and Amazon—one of the larger channels for Android apps, also lunches on developer profits. Unhappy developers mean stagnating applications, and applications drive smartphone sales. A smartphone, for better and worse, simply isn’t an HDTV, and video media isn’t going to work—especially at the high costs of data to consumers. Apps are going to be where money is for the near future until carriers can get more infrastructure (that’ll cost them stupendously).
What if you had a phone that was cool, had apps, and had very reasonable assurances against getting hijacked? The Anonymous and LulzSec of the world would laugh at this suggestion. Nothing is foolproof, they would argue. We’ll hack into anything is their collective mentality, and the more embarrassment it causes, the better. This drives the market back to the Blackberry and RIM, who’s having difficulty moving forward. They have a reputation for great messaging. Ask any rioter in London.
Is it possible for Microsoft to take advantage of a developer and perceived security weakness in both iOS and Android? Could Microsoft rally developers and make apps also work with Windows 8? This is my quandary as I await their early September announcements. This is why I’m headed to Redmond and to Anaheim: to see if they’re going to drive a legendary wedge into the smartphone market place and try to wrest control away from Apple, and the Google Android/Linux successes. I’ve heard noises before, and I’ve seen lots of competing business units, noise, and SOSDD. Maybe Microsoft gets it. Maybe it’s business as usual. What little there is.
