Devices and Services

Listening to Twit in the car this morning, it was pointed out that Microsoft’s homepage listed that they were a “Devices and Services” company. It was argued that if you provide both of those, you’re an OS company as well. That got me thinking about why they would push either side of the OS, when Microsoft is clearly, amongst other things, an OS company.

I think Microsoft might be onto something here. Most average consumers, and probably without realising it tech savvy consumers, don’t care about the OS. That comment will probably draw a “WTF are you talking about” comment from some people, but bear with me.

I have a Galaxy S3, and I’m a big fan of it. My wife has a new iPhone 5, and she is very happy with it. We both like the hardware design of the phones (Devices), and they both have excellent app ecosystems (Services). At the end of the day, if either of these phones lacked one of these (eg, either phone looked terrible, or the app ecosystem was garbage on one of them) then we probably wouldn’t buy. Obviously the OS is important, however almost anyone can pump out a great OS. People love iOS, people love Android, hell, people even loved WebOS, but only iOS and Android have survived because they meet the other ends of the requirements, Devices and Services.

This also plays into the problem with Windows Phone 7/8 and Blackberry. Windows phone has got the Device Side down (Nokia’s are looking great, as well as the new HTC’s), but the Services side is lacking…but only just. With Twitter, Facebook, and good email intergration, it only needs a few key apps and it’s off and racing. Blackberry is in real trouble here though, as their devices are looking extremely dated, AND their app ecosystem is a wasteland.

I think it’s the right idea to focus on devices and services, because that’s what people want.