WEBVTT 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:01.520 Thanks for watching Techquickie. 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:05.920 Click the subscribe button, then enable notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any 00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:07.600 future videos. 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:12.520 So unless you've gone against the tide and used a Mac or some flavor of Linux, you probably 00:00:12.520 --> 00:00:16.700 have a desktop or laptop running Windows, for better or for worse. 00:00:16.700 --> 00:00:21.400 But how is it that Microsoft managed to be the dominant player on PCs, yet be almost 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:24.600 invisible on smartphones that were all carrying everywhere? 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:29.820 Well, believe it or not, it wasn't too long ago that the Windows Mobile OS was actually 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.060 the market leader on smartphones. 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:33.060 Wait, what? 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.280 Haha, yeah, about that. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:40.100 So before the original iPhone was released in 2007, the smartphone market was a mishmash 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:44.840 of lots of different devices, without any real must-have models among them, and many 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:46.880 of them ran Windows Mobile. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:51.700 So many, in fact, that Microsoft owned nearly half of smartphone OS market share before 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:53.540 Apple got into the game. 00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:54.740 So what happened? 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:59.040 Well, even though Microsoft's presence in smartphone land was very significant, it was 00:00:59.040 --> 00:00:59.820 still a company whose brand name was Microsoft. 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:03.440 Microsoft was bread and butter with software for traditional PCs, and their management 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:07.660 at the time wanted to be cautious about throwing themselves headfirst into mobile, skeptical 00:01:07.660 --> 00:01:09.460 as to whether it would catch on. 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:13.540 As a result, Microsoft didn't devote enough resources to Windows Mobile, which quickly 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:19.300 became dated, while at the same time, Apple's iOS rapidly gained popularity. 00:01:19.300 --> 00:01:23.860 Making matters worse, the Windows Mobile experience felt a little different depending on which 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:28.440 phone out of that mishmash of devices I mentioned earlier you were using, something that makes 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:29.040 a software product very different. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:34.060 But hold on a minute, Android does this. 00:01:34.060 --> 00:01:36.540 So why did Google succeed where Microsoft didn't? 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:40.800 Well, by the time Microsoft decided it really should be focusing more attention on the mobile 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:44.540 market, Android had already become widespread. 00:01:44.540 --> 00:01:48.660 And not only was it technologically superior to Microsoft's outdated offering, but it 00:01:48.660 --> 00:01:50.920 was also free. 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:56.180 By contrast, Microsoft charged phone manufacturers for Windows Mobile licenses, just like you 00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:59.020 have to pay for a Windows license for your home PC today. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:03.420 Now, Microsoft justified this because they thought Android was too bare-bones and would 00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:05.320 cause fragmentation of the market. 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:06.460 Sound familiar? 00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:10.900 But what actually happened is that it gave the phone industry a freely available base 00:02:10.900 --> 00:02:15.360 that included tons of Google services that people actually wanted to use. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:21.120 So in 2010, Microsoft, realizing the PC was losing ground to mobile devices, decided to 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:25.280 take its mobile competition seriously and replaced Windows Mobile with Windows Phone 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:26.160 OS. 00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:29.040 But while reviews of the OS were actually pretty good, one of the main reasons for Microsoft's 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:34.760 failure was that by this point, app developers were already focused on iOS and Android. 00:02:34.760 --> 00:02:36.760 So it became a chicken and egg problem. 00:02:36.760 --> 00:02:41.360 There weren't enough Windows Phone users for app developers, even big ones like Instagram, 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:43.320 to bother to support the platform. 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:46.760 And it's hard to attract users without, like, a YouTube app. 00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:52.240 All this came to a head in 2014, when Microsoft bought Nokia's phone division, hoping their 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:56.220 name and market power would give Windows Phone a boost and show the world, hey look, Windows 00:02:56.220 --> 00:02:57.220 Phone is worth something. 00:02:57.220 --> 00:02:58.420 It's going to be all over Nokia devices. 00:02:58.420 --> 00:03:02.140 But this backfired, catastrophically. 00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:07.100 There was still no incentive for non-Nokia manufacturers to pay for Windows Phone licenses. 00:03:07.100 --> 00:03:11.540 Because now, not only was it not free like Android, but their Windows Phone models would 00:03:11.540 --> 00:03:16.500 also have to compete against Nokia's phone division, which was now owned by the same 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:19.240 flippin' company, the one they were paying. 00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:23.220 So in 2017, the Windows Phone project was finally put out of its misery. 00:03:23.220 --> 00:03:27.940 And Microsoft is now focusing its mobile efforts on cheaper laptops, the Internet of Things, 00:03:27.940 --> 00:03:31.490 and getting its digital assistant Cortana onto more devices. 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:34.770 So there may be an important place yet for Microsoft in this new world where it seems 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:37.210 like everything needs to be connected to the Internet. 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:40.110 But don't expect your friends to be impressed by your Windows Phone unless they also love 00:03:40.110 --> 00:03:45.650 your dope HD DVD player and your lit flip HD video camera. 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:49.230 And speaking of being impressed, do you want an impressive solution for protecting your 00:03:49.230 --> 00:03:51.490 privacy and getting around geo-blocking? 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