Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Desktops, Hardware, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store
MS software architect: Apps don't make the phone
This sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me: Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software engineer, told a Professional Developers' Conference earlier this week that it wasn't the apps that would make or break the smartphone platforms. Of course, that's what most press and blog outlets seem to be focusing on (maybe because we all already know what the hardware is like -- apps change every day if not every minute, and the hardware only changes occasionally), but Ozzie says customers won't buy a phone for the apps. The biggest apps, he says, will eventually be available on every platform. To put it in as few words as possible, you'll be able to tweet from everything in the future.And he's got part of a good point there: it's true, the major functionality of "killer apps" will be available across platforms. But Ozzie forgets (or is just ignoring) that that's already the case on desktops. While yes, you could claim that porting to the various smartphones is easier than porting to the various PC platforms, that doesn't avoid the fact that I can tweet, IM, email, browse, edit photos and movies, and do whatever else I want on both platforms as well. And for some reason (ahem, the hardware and the way both software and hardware are designed), I'd rather do them on the Mac. People love their iPhones not just for the apps but for the way it fits in their hand, and how just plain slick it is.
That's not to say that the smartphone platform war is over -- no way, it's only beginning, and we consumers will take innovative ideas wherever we can get them. But Ozzie saying the apps don't count (and echoing his fellow Microsofters in trying to separate Apple from their software strategy) seems to mean that even he thinks he's already lost that race -- they certainly do play a large part in which platform consumers eventually choose.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
gib said 11:23AM on 11-19-2009
Wait, does anyone still make phones for Windows Mobile (opps, I mean, Windows PHONE)?
Reply
TIm said 11:39AM on 11-19-2009
". And for some reason (ahem, the hardware and the way both software and hardware are designed), I'd rather do them on the Mac."
Isn't that exactly his point though? It is not the apps, it is the hardware, the design .. stuff like that that will trigger the buy?
T.
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Jordan said 11:43AM on 11-19-2009
This article sounds like sour grapes to me:
You say the same exists for the desktop platform, yet look at market share sizes. If the reason people use their iPhone is, like you say, because of the style, then the same would hold true to the desktop. Yet, look at the marketshare numbers for computers...
You say they've lost the race, yet, again, look at the market share numbers. iPhone is the current high seller, yet when you look at total number in use, iPhone is a very very small percentage. iPhone has been out long enough for people's contracts to expire with other carriers, yet here they are still using other phones. If the mainstream apps are on all platforms, and iPhone is not yet the market leader in share size, then I don't ever expect it to be.
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SIP said 12:18PM on 11-19-2009
@Jordan: "iPhone has been out long enough for people's contracts to expire with other carriers, yet here they are still using other phones. If the mainstream apps are on all platforms, and iPhone is not yet the market leader in share size, then I don't ever expect it to be."
Of the billions of handsets out there, only a small percentage are smartphones, and not everyone needs or wants one of these. The only way everyone will use a smartphone is if all other handsets are killed off.
rvr said 12:05PM on 11-19-2009
msft has a huge blindspot: quality. they used to argue that windows was better because it had *more* apps. now they're arguing that *more* apps doesn't really matter, and all apps will be available on all platforms (which is ridiculous, of course, but most basic functions will).
they entirely leave out the quality of those apps. ask someone who has used both the best twitter clients on the iphone and the best on android or blackberry, for example. they're not in the same league. ask people who develop iphone apps. aside from the significant issues with app store approval, you'll hear many rave about the development environment. it's all about the frameworks. with the iphone os you get so much great stuff for free that it's hard not to develop at least a decent app, and if you care enough it's relatively easy to make a great app.
i think this is a major point, and is a big lead for apple. will others catch up? maybe, but apple has spent a long time creating an os that offers powerful frameworks and core functionality that enable devs to build great apps with less effort. it's called mac os x, and the success of the iphone wouldn't have been possible without it.
i don't know if msft will ever wake up, or own up, to this fact. they have always seemed to choose quantity over quality. we'll see how that goes for them in the new age of mobile.
Reply
Jordan said 12:08PM on 11-19-2009
Ah yes, but the key is that Apple didn't use to have the basic applications, Microsoft did. Microsoft is arguing that all phones will have the basic applications.
rvr said 1:46PM on 11-19-2009
actually, there have always been the basic applications for mac os, and apple actually pioneered some of them. what the mac didn't have, in my experience, were the business applications, and that's where msft became dominant, was through owning the workstation market where corporations were buying in quantity and deploying industry- and company-specific apps.
as an individual mac user for about 20 years, there have been very few instances where i couldn't find an app to do what i needed to do. at times some software companies have discontinued their mac versions (i.e. intuit), but it's rare that the only option for doing something doesn't exist on the mac.
msft's old argument about quantity of apps always bugged me, too. maybe there were 50+ different ftp apps for windows, but in my experience, the three i could get on the mac were all better than the majority of the windows apps.
so my point was that even when all the mobile platforms have the basic apps available, there is a still a big gap. it's a gap in user experience *and* developer experience. if it's easier and more enjoyable to build an app in apple's dev environment, and it's easier to make it great because of things like core image, core data, etc., then you're going to get both more choices *and* better quality apps.
that is leaving aside all the other factors like itunes and hardware performance, which apple also leads in. the bottom line is that msft is not talking sense.
SEC_BSD said 1:58PM on 11-19-2009
Did you know the pressing the "shift" key will change a letter from lowercase to uppercase?
rvr said 2:09PM on 11-19-2009
THANKS FOR THE TIP.
LD said 12:07PM on 11-19-2009
He's right, it's not really the apps themselves. But I think he misses the big point, it's the entire ecosystem. iPhone has that with iTunes and the App store. Microsoft is still suffering from disparate stores (Zune Marketplace, some sort of crappy Windows Mobile store, etc).
So it's not JUST the Apps. It's everything. And that's why Apple is winning and Microsoft is failing.
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LGgeek said 9:32PM on 11-19-2009
As usual MS doesn't get it, just like the web. An OS is interesting but it's what you can do with it that makes it useful. The key concept is content.
Apps/music/movies/podcast = CONTENT, Apple understands this.
MS can keep doing all the FUD they want but the mobile is the next big thing and it is here.
So have Balmer throw a few iPhones against a wall so it can end up on YouTube and be watched on iPhones.
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Russ said 12:17PM on 11-19-2009
Apps, dont make the phone services does, I have had every iPhone since they have came out, and delt with the bad service area for some time.
But now I have switched to the Motorola Droid and am extremely happy with service and phone.
APPS Dont make the phone, all around the phone needs to work best for calling and AT&T does not.
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Noah Ramon said 12:34PM on 11-19-2009
So, in short : NOT Developers, Developers, Developers.
Gotcha.
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Patrick said 12:52PM on 11-19-2009
Apps are the only reason I have an iPhone.....without them I'd go back to a Blackberry. Fortunately I have no problems with AT&T coverage where I live.
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Stephen Antonucci said 1:19PM on 11-19-2009
Funny coming from Microsoft as it was there mantra for years that Windows was better because Macs had less apps!
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Jordan said 1:21PM on 11-19-2009
Again, Microsoft is talking about the quality of apps here. We all know (and you cannot deny) that the vast majority of apps on the iPhone are just crap
Doug McIntosh said 1:21PM on 11-19-2009
What ever happened to Ballmer's "Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers!!!!!" Monkey-boy rant?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE
Guess software doesn't count when you're on the short end of the stick, eh?
What a sad, sad, company Microsuck(tm) is turning into these days.
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duncan said 1:28PM on 11-19-2009
The one major thing they haven't thought about - but the consumer does very much so - is that even IF you can tweet (or whatever verb you want to insert for any given app) from any phone in the future, the problem for the consumer is that once they have purchased an app on one platform (i.e.- the iphone), are they really going to want to have to pay for that app again on another platform? They aren't free...
I've spent easily $300-$400 on apps for our 3 iphone household and that alone is a huge barrier to entry for any new phone platform in our household.
Much like MS built their empire on the desktop through the availability of apps and the investments (both $$ and work behaviors...) - think about the major reasons why people didn't/wouldn't/won't switch from a PC to a Mac and you get the idea - I believe they have allowed Apple to get so far ahead on the app/software front on the mobile platform that they only way they catch them is if Apple missteps.
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Jordan said 1:41PM on 11-19-2009
"only way they catch them is if Apple missteps."
Which Apple is doing, Google voice and App review process anyone?
rvr said 1:54PM on 11-19-2009
actually, there have always been the basic applications for mac os, and apple actually pioneered some of them. what the mac didn't have, in my experience, were the business applications, and that's where msft became dominant, was through owning the workstation market where corporations were buying in quantity and deploying industry- and company-specific apps.
as an individual mac user for about 20 years, there have been very few instances where i couldn't find an app to do what i needed to do. at times some software companies have discontinued their mac versions (i.e. intuit), but it's rare that the only option for doing something doesn't exist on the mac.
msft's old argument about quantity of apps always bugged me, too. maybe there were 50+ different ftp apps for windows, but in my experience, the three i could get on the mac were all better than the majority of the windows apps.
so my point was that even when all the mobile platforms have the basic apps available, there is a still a big gap. it's a gap in user experience *and* developer experience. if it's easier and more enjoyable to build an app in apple's dev environment, and it's easier to make it great because of things like core image, core data, etc., then you're going to get both more choices *and* better quality apps.
that is leaving aside all the other factors like itunes and hardware performance, which apple also leads in. the bottom line is that msft is not talking sense.