Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella questioned by shareholders on mobile strategy
At its annual shareholder meeting, which was held on November 30th, Microsoft had to answer multiple questions regarding the company's future ambitions regarding mobile devices.
The conference began with the announcement “Please silence all Windows Phones and other devices” - words which in any other circumstance would sound comical. However, as this was an exclusive Microsoft event, there were a lot of fans of Windows Mobile present, and some of them expressed a genuine concern in relation to Microsoft's apparent mobile retraction.
Nowadays, the software giant has limited it's handset production to a smaller number of premium devices, a fact that prompted a shareholder who claimed to use his Windows Phone device for “18 hours a day” to ask Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “Can you calm me down… and tell me what your vision is for mobile?” after hearing that the company could potentially be “stepping away from mobile.”
Nadella's response indicated that focus is currently shifted towards bringing innovation to the market:
He hailed the HP Elite x3 as a Windows 10 phone that successfully follows this approach and his reply reconfirmed the company's ambition to build the “ultimate mobile device”.
Dana Vance, a longtime shareholder, avid Windows Phone admirer and owner of a Microsoft Band questioned Nadella about the company's vision for it's consumer devices, after citing reports that indicated that the Band project has been suspended indefinitely. Vance also mentioned that he was surprised to receive an e-mail, which stated that the Microsoft Pix and Outlook apps were available for Android and iPhone but not for Windows Phone.
In response, Satya Nadella declared that the company is “not stepping away” from supporting Windows Phone users, but insisted that Microsoft software must also be available to other mobile platforms:
The conference began with the announcement “Please silence all Windows Phones and other devices” - words which in any other circumstance would sound comical. However, as this was an exclusive Microsoft event, there were a lot of fans of Windows Mobile present, and some of them expressed a genuine concern in relation to Microsoft's apparent mobile retraction.
Nadella's response indicated that focus is currently shifted towards bringing innovation to the market:
We think about mobility broadly. In other words, we think about the mobility of the human being across all of the devices, not just the mobility of a single device. That said, we’re not stepping away or back from our focus on our mobile devices. What we are going to do is focus that effort on places where we have differentiation. If you take Windows Phone, where we are differentiated on Windows Phone is on manageability. It’s security, it’s Continuum capability — that is, the ability to have a phone that can act like a PC. So we’re going to double-down on those points of differentiation.
In response, Satya Nadella declared that the company is “not stepping away” from supporting Windows Phone users, but insisted that Microsoft software must also be available to other mobile platforms:
We will keep looking at different forms and different functions that we can bring to mobile devices, while also supporting our software across a variety of devices. So that’s the approach you will see us take. We are not stepping away from supporting our Windows Phone users. But at the same time we are recognizing that there are other platforms in mobile that have higher share, and we want to make sure that our software is available to them.
source: GeekWire via MSPoweruser
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