Microsoft Eyes Apple for Cues as iPad Transforms Media, Pundits Say
SEATTLE -- Having made its name beating Apple in the desktop wars, Microsoft is now taking cues from its consumer-savvy Cupertino rival in more closely managing the various Windows platforms, tech pundits said late Wednesday on a panel hosted by the Puget Sound Business Journal’s TechFlash blog. They also predicted a steep climb for Google’s Android platform versus Apple’s iOS which is found in the iPhone and iPad. The tech community was gathering for TechFlash’s annual Flashies awards, in which readers voted for “do-gooder” (Northwest Entrepreneur Network), “newcomer” (Founder Institute, a startup and entrepreneur training program), “stunt” (T-Mobile’s designation of its HSPA+ network as 4G) and “debacle” (Microsoft’s short-lived Kin phone) of the year, among other categories.
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There’s really no peer gadget for the iPad, a “relaxing device” not comparable to a phone or laptop, said Wilson Rothman, deputy technology and science editor at msnbc.com, which is part-owned by Microsoft. “The numbers game is misleading” between mobile application stores because developers are building the best applications for the iPad specifically -- not a blown-up iPhone version -- making use of its 10-inch screen over the 7-inch screens found on Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy, he said. Recipe website Epicurious and casual game Angry Birds have improved functionality on the iPad, for example, he said. The iPad is teaching media companies how to improve what are now terrible interfaces for features such as video-on-demand, Wingfield said.
Windows Phone 7 shows that Microsoft has learned “hard lessons” from Apple, Rothman said. Microsoft’s new mobile platform doesn’t give much “wiggle room” for manufacturers -- an Apple trademark and contradiction of Microsoft’s open strategy that made Windows the desktop default, Rothman said. Users can have a “whole relationship with this device without going out and getting apps,” he said, calling himself initially skeptical of Phone 7 but eventually impressed. Licensing the Phone 7 OS is much less lucrative than Windows for the PC, showing Microsoft is “building a moat” around the Windows brand in a similar fashion to Apple’s unified ecosystem, Wingfield said.
The fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs criticized Android in Apple’s latest earnings call showed what a threat it’s considered to the iOS, Duryee said. Android and its partners such as HTC are also a litigation magnet for competitors, which is “partly about blunting Android’s ascendance,” Wingfield said. Android’s smaller application market, not directly managed by Google, isn’t necessarily a liability, said Matt Marshall, editor and CEO of VentureBeat.com, whose staff largely uses Android. Developers will be drawn to the platform because Android devices are selling at a brisk pace, he said: “After you get past 500,000 apps, how many do you really need?” Android’s ongoing problem will be malware, Rothman said, noting the popularity of a malware application scanner in the Android Market. “It only makes the ‘closed’ argument better.” The Android Market also suffers from using the unpopular Google Checkout as the default payment mechanism, no carrier billing and no in-app purchases, Duryee said. The iPhone still dominates in the “modern mobile browsing experience” despite its absence of Flash support, Wingfield said.