Subtitle: If I were running a multi-billion dollar software or hardware company in the smartphone industry.
If I were in charge, we'd fish.
This is going to be a regular piece for me. It’s my attempt to tell all of those out there that run massive corporations what they should be doing. For the record, I’m available for any CEO positions at multi-billion dollar corporations. I’ll even consider other high-level executive offers.
We’re going to start this by taking aim at one of the first companies to enter the smartphone industry: Microsoft. They were visionaries 10 years ago. Today, Windows Mobile pretty much sucks. I actually have about 50 things to suggest and if you read this long enough, you’ll hear all of them. For now, we’re going to focus on what I consider to be Microsoft’s biggest fail in the hand-held phone arena: Lack of integration with the Windows PC. I know what you Microsoft managers are thinking: “But we work great at sync’ing email, contacts, and calendars.” Okay, sure, you do that really well. Here’s the problem, though, people want much more from their phone in today’s world.
Consider this scenario:
- I have my Windows 7 machine setup with a cable connection, running Media Center, and I’m recording, for free, my favorite TV shows on my Windows 7 box.
- I’ve got an XBox and an XBox live account and I regularly purchase and play games over the Internet.
- I’ve got a Zune Pass that allows me to play unlimited music for $15/month.
- I have a bunch of documents and files on my Windows machine that I would like to be able to travel with and access anywhere.
- I have an internet connection on my phone.
Think of the advantages Microsoft has with the above scenario if they would just pull their heads up and make Windows Mobile 7 capable of the following:
- Easily sync new Media Center content. Apple charges $1.99 (at least) per show. I can have Media Center, like Tivo, setup to record my favorite shows and get them for free. That would make it easy (and did I mention free) to take my Cobert Report, Sports Center, or latest episode of the Bachelor with me anywhere I go.
- I can play at least a subset of my purchased XBox live games on my phone. Better yet, I can use the wireless or 3G to play other people over my phone.
- I can use my Zune Pass to listen to music on my mobile phone (without having to sync through any other software). This seems like a no brainer. In fact, I should be able to seemlessly play my Zune Pass music on all of my devices the way I can with, say, Pandora. Why is this so difficult for Microsoft to figure out?
- Lastly, I’d love it if I could use my mobile phone as a miniature hard drive as well as a phone. Again, this doesn’t seem like such a huge deal to me. Create a new folder on Windows 7 called My Mobile (or whatever nomenclature they’re using these days for built-in directories) and anything I put there immediately sync’s to my phone and vice versa. Think USB drive on steroids.
- Lastly, that whole syncing your contacts, emails, and calendar thing. I’d really love for that to be stored in the cloud. I’d even pay for it. Seriously, Microsoft, just rip off Mobile Me from Apple and get it working. I should be able to add a contact or event to my phone, my computer, or any web enabled computer in the world and it should just show up everywhere for me. In fact, I’d really like that option for any other data (see point 4 for more details).
Lastly, all of this needs to be implemented in a way that is EASY for user to figure out. Sorry about the all caps there, I know it’s rude to shout, but Microsoft needs to hear this. The fact is, a number of the items listed above are things you actually can do already. The problem is you need a PHD in mathematics and a minor in developer psychology to figure out how to do each of them. That’s the real beauty of the iPhone – it’s simple.
In short, Microsoft should be dominating the entire home and mobile digital eco-system since they have a virtual monopoly on the centerpiece: The PC. Come on guys, this is not rocket science.