http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/26/new-york-times-windows-mobile-sinking-android-and-apple-benefi/
Microsoft owned the smartphone market for years, so it is a mystery to me why they fell so far behind.
How is it a mystery, you dummy. Here’s the Microsoft business plan in its entirety:
1. Enter into market late, after most everyone’s established on what works and what doesn’t.
2. Copy successful market leader(s).
3. Bundle/tie in with desktop OS, preferably for free.
4. When market dominance is achieved, stagnate.
They have done this with every single product. The only reason they can’t win with their online properties is because they didn’t have a rapidly-iterative culture; but that’s changing, and will allow them to get a foothold.
Apropos: notice how iPod, etc. were late entries that came to dominate? Yeah, AAPL learned a thing or two from their arch-nemesis. The trick is to innovate late. Let the punters sort out the hard details.
