Recently Microsoft killed of its mobile efforts publically on Twitter. This also meant the death of my favourite mobile OS Windows Phone!
While the news of the death of Windows Phone bought with it sadness, time has managed to make me realise that it was necessary.
The news of the death of Windows Phone was followed by the news of a new beginning. Microsoft launched a news launcher or home screen for Android and announced that it was bringing Edge to Android and IOS! The made it all clear to me, that Microsoft wanted to survive in the mobile ecosystem like a germ. It wanted to feed off the already established mobile platforms to keep its services alive.
It made me ask myself, Why did Android and IOS succeed? The answer: Apple was the first one to the party. Google, however, succeeded for a completely different reason! Google won because they provided services which were popular among the masses. Think about it Google had Gmail, search and YouTube. Three services which make our life tick. They capitalised in these popular services and launched a mobile operating system, to bring their services to the hands of people. Not only that, by rejecting to bring their services to other platforms, like Windows Phone, they have continuously crippled them. Eliminating competition and strengthening their grip on the mobile market.
It showed me how Microsoft has taken a page from Google's playbook and is finally concentrating where it should!
The New launcher and Edge builds on the plethora of apps that Microsoft has made for Android and Apple. And these apps, if they succeed, might allow Microsoft a chance to pull off a move like Google.
Launch a new operating system yet again with the best experience of their services!
And Microsoft's intention is quite visible. I adore the new Microsoft launcher. To me, it provides the best home screen experience on Android! The look is clean, it allows me to customise by using icon packs and the feed is a neat way to put away all your widgets to get useful information from them in one place!
This launcher is also heavily hooked to Microsoft services. The clipboard feature, which allows you to seamlessly copy your files onto your PC, is powered by OneDrive. The universal search is powered by Bing. And since I have switched to Microsoft launcher, it has also managed to persuade me to switch to Cortana, as my primary and only assistant! Similarly, I switched to OneNote and OneDrive. The Office suite by Microsoft and Outlook were already on my phone. I would call it mission accomplished for Microsoft. It has somehow managed to get me into their ecosystem.
Edge is only going to capitalise on this and further get people onto the blue side. Edge is still in beta, but I like what I see. The continue on PC feature will be a major selling point. And how it is easy on the resources on both PC and phones is just icing on the cake.
Microsoft provides good services and they have now decided to back them up with terrific Apps! Apps like outlook, which is hands down the best mailing app on any platform and the excellent Microsoft launcher are only signs of what is to come!
The future looks bright for Microsoft if only they don't mess it up! And maybe when its services are popular enough. We might see that Surface Phone!
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