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Mobile Miscellany: week of September 24th, 2012
If you didn't get enough in mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, Dan Hesse shared his turnaround vision for Sprint, Jim Allchin revealed where T-Mobile stumbled and AT&T welcomed a new GoPhone. Not to stop there, we discovered two updated launchers that've piled on inspiration from Jelly Bean. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of September 24th, 2012.
Microsoft made the Zune because partner hardware "sucks"
Thanks to yet another Microsoft antitrust suit in Iowa, subpoenaed emails have revealed a moment of candidness and clarity at Microsoft in 2003 when Jim Allchin (Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, depicted left) and Amir Majidimehr (Corporate Vice President, Consumer Media Technology Group) had an email thread that basically summarized the portable media device playing field then, and for the most part, now. Some choice quites from the email back-and-forth:Jim: title "sucking on media players"; regarding a current Creative player (probably a Nomad, perhaps a Zen Touch): "My goodness it's terrible... What I don't understand though is I was told the new Creative Labs device would be comparable to Apple. That is so not the case."Amir: "Now you feel our pain." He suggests giving cash bonuses for partners that come up with decent devices. In the instance that doesn't work: "it is time for us to roll up our sleeves and do our own hardware."And of course so they did, with great hype and great failure to immediately capture market share, the Zune was born many years later -- far too late by most accounts, but hey, you've gotta start somewhere. Still, it's funny to think that for these guys rolling up their sleeves and doing their own hardware means taking an off the shelve portable media OS (PMC 2), getting Toshiba to make a modified Gigabeat, and cutting some seriously anti-consumer deals with major labels.
Full text of Microsoft exec's "I'd buy a Mac" e-mail
Remember that incident where a Microsoft Executive said that if he didn't work for Microsoft that he'd personally buy a Mac? Today's Seattle Pi has uncovered the full text of that e-mail. You can download a copy of it here (PDF). "I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way," he wrote. "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC on a MAC you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way." Allchin points Gates and Ballmer to an Apple video, highlighting their philosophy. "They think simple. They think fast...If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to heart." In the end, it's not about who wins--Apple or Microsoft--but delivering the best possible product to the consumer, which is why I personally buy Mac. I'd be thrilled, however, to see Microsoft step up its game and take the lessons of Apple to heart.[via Microsoft-Watch] Thanks Rich and Mike
