Re:Apple will attempt to jam Facebook's web-tracking tools
by ubermonkey on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @01:50PM
(#17249349)
MSFT has historically had a REALLY hard time doing anything objectively good and successful in mobile. It's amazing to me, given their resources.
I think, in the Ballmer years, what hurt them was his ideological obsession with Windows Everywhere -- like, down to the Start button. I'm still pretty convinced that mobile needs a fundamentally different interface than desktop, and not coincidentally that's the way Apple has approached it. MSFT under Nadella is way better in lots of ways, but they still seem to think Windows oughta be the way for every device, and it hurts them.
Android fixes this with side loading, but forces you into a surveillance model that many find unacceptable.
At win phone’s peak many people (including me) incorrectly thought that MS would be able to provide the best of both worlds, since that’s what windows used to be, and they weren’t ad dependent at the time.
With Win 10, it is clear that they’re going the opposite direction: surveillance + walled garden + pay for the OS and services.
This let’s them triple monitize the windows platform, so it is great for the short term stock price, but it is a risky, user-hostile, bet.
Full disclosure: had android, then win phone, typing this on an iPhone.