Why did Microsoft fail at mobile?

Microsoft failed the minute they released their first phone.

Technically they didn’t really fail, because they didn’t try nearly as hard as they did with Windows, Office, Azure, etc. Here are some simple points as to why Microsoft, as of Q4 2016, has such a low mobile market share:

• Microsoft used to be more like a collection of smaller companies poorly glued together. That, combined with a bad corporate culture of warring divisions led to a company that was fat and slow to respond to market disruptions. The iPhone was one such disruption, and Ballmer dismissed it, even though I’m sure he had at least some doubts about his vision.
• By the time Microsoft acknowledged the problem, they had too much catching up to do, yet they still didn’t fully commit to it, for reasons that have to do with shareholders and key people inside the company that lacked true vision. Mobile was just one of many things, and was always pushed down in the list of priorities.
• When WP7 and WP8 hit the market, backwards compatibility was broken, and developers as well as users were thrown under the bus. With Windows 10 Mobile, the transition has been poorly executed, so many users don’t know they can upgrade or simply can’t because of upgraded system requirements.
• Apps. Apps. Apps. Developers are key, and for them the motivation wasn’t there because of ever-changing mobile strategies at Microsoft. It’s true that the ecosystem of apps on mobile Windows is just not in the same league, but Microsoft only recently began to address the two biggest problems: junk apps and porting tools. Xamarin and Project Islandwood might change that, if new hardware indeed comes out. See next point.
• Hardware. With WP7 and WP8, hardware was ok and the OS and apps ran pretty well, but then Microsoft decided to buy Nokia and make a bazillion more low end models in the hopes that people will jump at the opportunity. But unlike Android and iOS, Google apps and some other big-name stuff that people want were not quite there, and still aren’t. Then they decided to just stop making new hardware after the 900 series and the 650, and no more advertising either. See next point.
• The current situation is not as bad as it looks if you view it in absolute terms. Tens of millions of smartphones out there run Windows, it is only when you view this number relative to the number of iPhones and Androids, which are hundreds of millions, and over one billion respectively. Microsoft won’t make new hardware until it can bring something Surface-like to the table. A game-changing, category-bending device.

You also ask about features - that’s not quite where the biggest problem is. iOS and Android aren’t perfect in that department either - there’s always room for improvement. The problem is that there’s not a lot of hardware options available to buy, not enough apps to make people happy, and nothing in the way of advertising Windows on mobile. When you take these things into consideration, it’s an incredible achievement that Windows is still present in that graph.

Microsoft isn’t giving up on mobile, but what’s clear is that it’s given up on trying to go head-to-head with iOS and Android, or flooding the market with dozens of cheap devices that don’t even have enough apps. Nadella is a smart man, and knows that the future is software, not hardware. He’s already attacking the next big thing (mixed reality), and he has said in an interview that Microsoft will only push inspirational devices moving forward, and that he no longer views market share as a goal.

Don’t get too hung op on apps and games missing, most of what you need (except Snapchat, Google apps, and other top 500 things) is there in some form. Do not fall into the hands of FOMO (fear of missing out), as smartphones are not the center of the universe as some armchair “analysts” are saying. The only constant in the tech field is change, and you never know who might come and disrupt the current leaders.

The smartphone is a great tool, but the current app model has many problems (discoverability, user retention, closed silos - unlike the mobile web) that will warant some changes - I think most of the “app gap” will be covered by the next generation of web technologies, which should dilute the importance of using a specific hardware or OS, as well as open up the current app silos.

Bots will get better, are cheaper, and easy to discover in your favorite messaging apps. This will replace the need to have hundreds of apps for utility, commerce, tech support, etc. - and you won’t need to install anything and/or create accounts, leading to lower friction.

We can’t divide attention in two many directions, and even some big name apps and games die like flies, which is to say people might WANT more, but don’t really NEED more. Enjoy your device of choice, and try to support companies that develop for the web FIRST.

Note: Lemme explain another thing I find really stupid about apps through a few examples: Touchpress produces apps for education(ever heard of “The Elements”, or “Molecules”?), and most if not all are restricted to iOS, which means they won’t reach people who can’t afford an iPhone or an iPad. With the current web technologies it would be ridiculous to say that they can’t be universal. But no, in reality you have companies like Google which has used Microsoft’s platform for growth, and wouldn’t even develop Chrome for Windows if Windows weren’t so ubiquitous. With Windows Phone, they can afford not be there, as it doesn’t benefit them all that much, and they want to be able to do all the mining they want - which Microsoft likely doesn’t allow as easily as they do on the desktop. The web is meant to be open, unlike apps which are usually developed for one OS, and maybe ported to the others.

When Microsoft entered the smartphone game, iOS and Android were already strong contenders. People had noticed that they didn’t have to pay for updates to their iOS and Android phones, unlike their Windows computers. When you bought an iPhone the price of software updates were included in the price tag, and Android is free software anyway.

Microsoft, on the other hand, charged a premium for its software. That’s why a Windows Phone with 512MB memory cost as much as an Android phone with 1GB. This also lessened the scope of innovative features on budget minded phones. People weren’t too happy with this.

Later on, Microsoft removed this, and Windows Phone became a bit more feasible. However, it was still missing two things -users and apps. It didn’t have much app support due to the lack of users, and it didn’t have users due to the lack of app support.

By Windows 8.1, they had gotten a lot fixed. It had the most app support and users as it ever had in its entire life span. Things were getting really good really fast. The acquisition of Nokia helped substantially.

Just then, Windows 10 rolled out. Users were quite excited to see their Windows Phones learn some new tricks. They jumped onto the update. Just when they did, they discovered that instead of learning new tricks, their phones were killed.

Windows 10 Mobile was a disaster. It was slow, buggy, limited, and it overall wasn’t tested well enough. From this point, it was a down-hill run. Windows Phone lost hope, app support and users. Microsoft tried to save it with Lumia the 950, and added innovative features like Continuum, but it didn’t help much. A few months later, Windows Phone was dead.

-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made it clear he still does not understand how Microsoft lost its software dominance and consumer relevance to Apple and Google.

He underlined the idea that Microsoft should have built out its ability to produce 1st party hardware, saying hardware was an expression of software, and that licensing software was the wrong monetization model for mobile.

His ideas are consistent with his push to purchase Nokia, but fails to recognise the real mistakes Microsoft made and which Google capitalised on with Android, which currently has more than 2 billion active users.

In short, Steve Ballmer is still blinded by Apple envy, and it was in the process of pursuing this closed software/closed hardware dream that Microsoft lost everything in mobile. Mistakes such as rebooting Windows Mobile, being very prescriptive towards OEMs, prohibiting them from customising the software, preventing consumers from side-loading software and making the OS incompatible with older Windows Mobile software itself planted the seeds for the failure of Microsoft’s mobile initiative.

By the time they opened themselves to licensing, it was too late, too late for apps and consumers. People have already formed opinions.

It failed because of a myriad of reasons. But I'll list the most important ones .

1. It was around before Android and iOS were even a thought. With this much of a head start, it should have never let it's competition improve to the levels they have. Period.

2. Lack of good and Updated Apps and a bad User Interface to Understand and work on.

3.Windows Phone and Mobile weren't open source. This may have worked wonders for iOS, but that's because it made the iPhone. It was revolutionary and Market Changers .Infect it changed the whole mobile industries.Love U Apple….Windows.... not so much.

4. My most important reason personally is because it destroyed Nokia. Literally. Stephen Elop, Microsoft, and Windows destroyed Nokia. This made millions of Nokia fans steer clear of WP just cause.

Windows failed without a doubt because it let Google make the mobile OS it should have made from the start.

Actually Microsoft is late bird in mobile technologies.

When world is looking for great smart features and complete automation(Example: Smart Home Connected to Mobile, Smart finance connected to Mobile etc.) Microsoft started mobile services that to by adopting Finland Nokia. Unfortunately already other mobile companies Samsung, apple etc. are understand the needs of a common user to high level corporate users and they made it.

One more a step by Microsoft is Windows 10 OS with as SaS which works for all kinds of devices like tabs, mobiles PDAs etc. at this point of release world already habituated to Gesture communication with devices which is making users to stay connect to digital world with minimal usability.

There may be another reasons as per knowledge above are some points.