Microsoft just became a partner
by Volker Weber
As I was sitting in a Lotusphere presentation about Notes, I heard this off the cuff remark "Yada yada Microsoft is not a partner" when mobile platforms were discussed and there was this dangling question about support for Windows Phone 7. I think we can scratch this bit of arrogance right now. When Nokia is going Windows Phone 7 big time, you will have to follow. Not as a "leader", but you better follow.
Comments
agree.. and good that I didn't tell some customers who are waiting for Traveler on Windows Phone 7 that it would never happen..
Akin to calling Exchange "legacy" during the OGS. Silly.
Sounds interesting!
Which session (ID) was it?
I attended some "mobile strategy" and "traveler" sessions but there was nothing about WP7 / Nokia ...
--hfrmobile
PS: I met a MS guy at LS11 and played with his WP7 device. Seems to be a really cool device + I am a bit disappointed about Android ^^ ...
In my session I made a relatively reference to being less interested in Windows Phone 7 because we were not seeing a corporate market develop. I don't see that as related to leadership at all on my side -- it is about taking the resource that could be used for that instead investing in native Sametime IM clients for iOS and Android, or a host of other useful features for the majority of the market. That's leadership.
I am sure you predicted this course of action -- oh wait no, just a few weeks ago it was you teasing that we didn't support Symbian^3 and how that was embarrassing. Much easier to comment from the sidelines than to actually make these calls, isn't it?
I am afraid that is decidership, not leadership. You decide what you can do and what you cannot do.
Leadership is when you build out an ecosystem that follows your lead. That will not ship a product without making sure it works with your product. Microsoft has shown that leadership in Exchange.
If you want to demonstrate leadership then you have two choices. You either support existing standards and protocols in full fidelity, or you publish your own standards and provide a reference implementation. So far IBM has done neither.
Well, I do see where you are getting your inspiration:
As for the Symbian^3 reference: yup, it's pretty bad that it works with Exchange and not with Domino, isn't it?
@symbian^3: we have a few nokia n8 in our company and the current traveler version works fine on these devices. although it's not officially supported.
Hans, Traveler currently has a Symbian^1 implementation, which is close enough to appear to be working. I can't point out the details, but it's not working with full fidelity.
Windows Phone in its current version is a consumer device , updates will prove if its will be ready for business, so far microsoft have a long way to go on this but hopefully time will sort that out , but they are still far from being fast movers , there is still no updates for WP7 its OLD now , come on get it out there who care if a handset vendor gets left behind , do it android style release it.
as for the nokia stuff personally i think its pretty lame that they didnt show a working nokia WP7 device , they are again moving to slow and will get wiped out if they dont speed up
Flemming, that's pretty much what they said about the iPhone, isn't it? Windows Mobile has the most complete implementation of EAS policies, and Windows Phone 7 is already on par with what iPhone can do with Traveler. Before the year is over, Windows Phone 7 will have caught up with Windows Mobile.
@Volker
True still think they are slow though :)
but my ihpone have been in the drawer since i powered on my Omnia7 cant see a reason to go back.
but with some luck we will have device management pipeline presentet at MMS2011
I think you are making too much of it. IBM's perpective is definitly not a religious one. We tend as a matter of principle to play well with others (Portal runs on HP HW, support AD and Sun Directory, runs on Oracle DB, etc, etc).
Now I'm not a product person making those decision just a front line guy talking to customers all day, and in my world people really care about 2 1/2 platforms:
Blackberry RIM
iPhone/iPad
and to a lesser extend Android (altough it's growing).
These decisions are clearly not strategic ones, but tactical in nature. When/If we get to a point where we see uptake for the W7 Phone platform we will come up with support for it. Same thing with the HP Web OS, or whatever mobile platform du jour. At the end of the day our strategy is to provide meaningfull mobile applications to enterprise customers (email, Webmeetings, Social, etc etc) the type of devices we support will vary based on the market and what our customers are expecting us to support.
@Vowe if you are looking for arrogance, I would rather look at Google's response on the new parternship ;-)
http://twitter.com/#!/vicgundotra/status/35182523650801664
What amazes me is that MS does the same each time :
- take the market with a product, if possible by imposing it thanks to their current leadership in desktop OS
- when a clear leader, their product don't evolve anymore for YEARS
- when competitors come back with better products, they try to catch up..but for all the years in between they have frozen any innovation on this area : is that good for customers ?
