An ex-Microsoft employee by the name of Charlie Kindel recently wrote in a blog post that the Windows Phone platform is superior to Android. And the reason for why Windows Phone has yet to succeed, according to Kindel, is because there is a mismatch between carriers and device manufacturers.
According to Kindel, the issue for Microsoft is that it has an “impedance mismatch with the carriers and device manufacturers while Google’s approach reduces friction with carriers and device manufacturers at the expense of end users.”
Kindel, who left Microsoft earlier this year after spending 21 years with the company, wrote in his blog that he would never stop using Windows Phone. “I may stop using some Microsoft products now that I’m out of here. But not Windows Phone. The BEST product Microsoft has ever built. Do not let up! To my kids: No, just because I don’t work at Microsoft anymore you may not use Google. Remember, every time you use Google, a puppy dies.”
From what Kindel says, Google gives all of its stakeholders the opportunity to do what they want and when they want. Google simply develops Android and hands it over to device makers to make modifications. On top of that, Google takes a hand-off approach with carriers and allows them to market the products however they want. Microsoft, on the other hand, “raises it’s middle finger at both the device manufacturers and mobile carriers,” telling vendors what kind of “hardware spec you shalt use” and carriers how the software “will be updated.”
“Spending marketing dollars on advertising Android devices is an easy decision for the carriers. Pushing retail sales professionals to push Android is easy. Spending marketing dollars advertising Windows Phone 7 requires Microsoft to push hard on the carriers. Getting retail sales professionals to push Windows Phone 7 requires Microsoft to push hard on the carriers to incent their retail sales professionals correctly,” Kindel states.
Kindel also believes that Windows Phone 7 delivers a “superior end-to-end experience for the end user” compared to Google’s Android.
“The question in my mind is whether Microsoft’s continued investment in Windows Phone and close partnership with device manufactures such as Nokia will eventually enable a breakthrough here,” Kindel wrote. “I know that Microsoft can be very persistent and patient; it’s been so in the past.”
