Insights

Microsoft needs to learn from Palm

If you did not see the news Palm once again took a fall It what is proving to be a very familiar pattern, Palm introduced a innovative and useful product, failed to to get developer and carrier support and lost at the point of sale. Blackberry owns corporate, Apple owns the consumer and Nokia owns Europe, bottom line they can’t compete. Now Microsoft is coming back with the latest version of their mobile platform and it is time to see if they can play the game. Now lets start with a reality check, Microsoft has billions to invest, a desktop installed based to leverage and tons of large corporations standardized on their platform, so they have more than enough resources to weather the battle.

The problem? Microsoft can’t seem to build a system that really leverages the best of what mobile can be. If you are one of the top 5 software companies in the world you should be able to seamlessly integrate the best entertainment products, (iTunes for Windows Mobile?) best business email technologies and social media platforms. Leverage your competitors mistakes (anyone know why Apple still hates flash on mobile devices?) and utilize your expertise in gaming that you have gained form your XBox community.

Palm never did three critical things and it killed their chance for success. A. They never moved beyond Sprint with their product line and by the time they got Verizon signed up, Droid arrived and killed them. B.  They never had a developer strategy that provided solid distribution for their partners and C. They could never make inroads into the corporate market.  These are mistakes Microsoft does not have to repeat.  Redmond has enough money to get all the carriers attention and  they have a huge corporate installed base they should be able to leverage for growth.  Of course they need to come up with a great alternative to the AppStore.

Google, Apple, Blackberry and Nokia are all ahead of Microsoft right now and Mr. Balmer need to catch up fast.  He need only look to Sunnyvale to see the price of failure.  Tell me what you think, Sal