The Causes And Impact Of Microsoft And The Smartphone

Reason for Nokia failure is on one side that Apple redefined smart phones with touch screen and Blackberry with email, and on the other side, Android proved that software matters more than hardware. Nokia was slow to respond to these trends. In 2008, brands like Samsung, HTC, and Sony found roots to extend their market. Samsung's Android phones are user friendly and budget friendly too. When every

Since the breakthrough of the initial Apple and Samsung smartphones, both companies have garnered millions of buyers from all around the globe. According to Sam Mattera of Fool, “ Samsung’s Galaxy brand and Apple’s iPhone are ubiquitous. Combined, the firms produced more than one-third of all smartphones sold globally [in the second quarter

Microsoft has their dominance of the industry at stake. They could potentially come out on top if left to continue their current tactics. They are masterfully “marketing their products” and it is paying off for them (Love, 1997).

They have expand their business from only on computer software and hardware to online search engine, home gaming devices and smartphone, those business are the popular business in the world, Microsoft is trying to adapt the new market.

Currently, the worldwide market size for Smartphones is only about 110 millions and this becomes about 6 percent of total mobile phones globally. Market analysts expect that the share of Smartphones might grow about 18 to 20 percent by the 2012. Hence, going forward the demand for Smartphone 's OS is expected to rise significantly. (The coming Smartphone Operating System wars, 2007)

Smartphones made up 54% of all mobile phone sales in North America (SmartOnline, 2011). Nielsen 's figures show Android as the leading OS with 46.3% of all currently-owned

* Revenue generated from selling Microsoft mobile devices may be affected by the downward trend of the popularity of the Microsoft mobile operating system.

2000-2006: HTC made first time profits when it engineered and developed PDA for Compaq computer. HTC made an alliance with top hardware companies and became best hardware maker which led to release of the XDA, the first Windows based smartphone by collaborating with Microsoft. HTC operated in ODM business and Mobile operator business. HTC designed customized phones for Mobile operators based on their specifications which led them to gain attractive contracts from different Mobile operators. HTC contracts with mobile operators was reason for HTC’s early success. HTC relationship with Handspring to develop Treo smartphone facilitated the opportunity to learn about software and User-Interface design. By 2006, HTC was shipping more than 70% of the world Windows Mobile smartphones.

Microsoft is a growing company that began with Bill Gates’ ambition in the garage of his home. Microsoft “purchased MS-DOS, the PC’s first operating system, from another firm” (mondediplo 11/1997) as a company it learned the ways of the market and was able to buy out most of its competition. “Microsoft has succeeded in part because its management was willing to spend enormous resources to improve its products, which were often poor performers in the early releases, and also because it excels in marketing its products” (mondediplo 11/1997). Microsoft has become the epitome of a company that has nurtured and grown its own success and now is being penalized for doing so.

Microsoft is the biggest multinational corporation in the personal computer industry which owned major of the market share (over 90%) in Window Operating System (Windows Phone, 2015). In the year 2010, the Guinness Word Record for being the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever released had break by the Microsoft. Microsoft also has the greater financial power that Nokia unable to compete. In the year 2008, Microsoft bought over the Symbian and makes the OS as free to use by everybody. It is because it wants to motivate people to create applications on Symbian to compete from Android and IOS. Microsoft also was once a dominant player in personal digital assistant

Microsoft had to split their operating system company from the rest of their organization. Another action Microsoft took was its relations with Java. They licensed a version of Java that worked mainly with windows where they tried to drive out the competitors and in later years they didn’t even allow Java to work with Windows XP (Rivkin 4). Microsoft tried to basically kill Java and with this the producers of Java sued Microsoft. Last, Microsoft took actions toward their competition in open-source software: Lunix. Microsoft responded by opening up into own server OS code like Lunix did. They actually sold stripped-down versions of the code to emerging economies and they also set up a lab that’s sole purpose was to find competitive weaknesses in the Lunix OS (Rivkin 5).

Microsoft is the most established software giant and Nokia is the company that is the icon for electronic and communication equipments. Microsoft had a partnership with the computer manufacturer IBM that made the software of Microsoft from DOS to modern Windows 8 famous and most used. The same underlying principle of symbiosis has been used inn this alliance. There are many reasons why Microsoft had to enter the cell phone industry. Arch Rival Apple came out with the iPhone and revolutionized the mobile world. Though the gadget was not a direct competitor, Microsoft was out of a huge potential market, namely the mobile segment.

Keen on addressing these issues, the company’s management had to react fast, and this is how the birth of windows 8 surfaced. One main impact this change had management, is coping with competition from the established mobile app developers: android from Google and apple. Commanding a considerable market share was a daunting task for management. Statistics from the industry show that, android, the leading mobile app provider, releases between 10,000 and 140,000 new apps every month. Windows 8 released only 200, 000 apps in the first year of its operation which is far below the trendsetters, android. Windows 8 was also built to support only Microsoft specific apps, which made rolling out the change a more complex undertaking to management. To deal with these change demands, the company’s management, embarked in restructuring the organisation in order to incorporate they change demands (Rash, 2013). This began with reorganising the employees into new structures, which meant new duties and responsibilities.

One company that appears to have a gap between its mission and its capabilities is Microsoft. The software giant has long had a problem with respect to innovation, and continues to rely on aging franchises for the bulk of its revenue. It was left out of the mobile operating systems boom and has failed to be a leader in either software or consumer electronics as a result (Clarke, 2010).

Microsoft Company makes poor decisions on acquisitions and investments. The company also has a high dependence on manufacturers of