Why Microsoft Lost the Smartphone War

Why Microsoft Lost the Smartphone War Windows Phone had a distinctive design, Nokia's cameras and Microsoft's resources. Why couldn't it become a durable third smartphone platform? From Pocket PC and the iPhone to Live Tiles, Lumia, the Nokia acquisition and Surface Duo, this film follows the relationship between hardware, applications and trust. The story includes the products that worked—and the transitions that made the next investment harder to justify. Did you use a Windows phone? What kept you on it, or made you leave? CHAPTERS 00:00 A phone that deserved a future 01:52 Microsoft was already in your pocket 04:02 The center of gravity moves 06:07 A genuinely different answer 08:04 Nokia chooses a side 09:57 The hardware makes its case 11:56 The upgrade that was not an upgrade 14:03 The app gap is a daily experience 16:00 Two ways to win a customer 17:55 Buying control of the phone 20:07 Microsoft chooses where to compete 22:05 One Windows, another difficult transition 24:00 The ending arrives in stages 26:03 What the tiles could not solve PRIMARY SOURCES Pocket PC launch, 2000 https://news.microsoft.com/source/200... iPhone introduction, 2007; App Store launch, 2008 https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/0... https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2008/0... Windows Phone 7 launch portfolio, 2010 https://news.microsoft.com/source/201... Nokia–Microsoft partnership, 2011 https://news.microsoft.com/source/201... Windows Phone 8 and the 7.8 upgrade, 2012 https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexpe... Nokia transaction announcement, 2013 https://news.microsoft.com/source/201... Microsoft FY2015 annual report https://www.microsoft.com/investor/re... Office on other platforms, 2014 https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014... Windows 10 Mobile upgrade eligibility, 2016 https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexpe... Continuum for phones https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexpe... Windows 10 Mobile final update notice https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/h... CONTEMPORARY REPORTING YouTube app dispute, 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/technolog... Joe Belfiore on the platform's future, 2017 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/... The €5.44 billion figure is the announced 2013 business-purchase and patent-licensing transaction, not the acquisition of all Nokia. The $7.5 billion figure is the final FY2015 phone-hardware impairment, not a new cash payment or the total historical cost of Windows Phone. This film uses an AI-generated narrator and illustrative AI-generated scenes. Historical devices, interfaces and documents are sourced separately. MUSIC “Perspectives”, “Digital Lemonade”, “Tech Live”, “Deep Haze”, “Lost Frontier” and “Dreams Become Real” — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Independent editorial documentary; not affiliated with Microsoft, Nokia, Apple or Google. VISUAL CREDITS CNET photography: Sarah Tew, Josh Miller, Kent German and credited contributors. Additional sources: Microsoft, Nokia, Apple, HP, Centre for Computing History, BBC, GeekWire and The Verge. Historical software remains its owners’ copyright. Unmodified photographs used in the documentary: HP Jornada 568 — Hadhuey, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... iPAQ 3800 — Terje Norli, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... iPhone — Carl Berkeley, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... T-Mobile G1 — Michael Oryl, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...