Inside Microsoft's Wireless Strategy
News.com is running a very interesting interview with Pieter Knook, head of Microsoft’s Mobility Group. According to Knook, mobility and all the related issues around mobility, were treated like a silo for a long time. But now MS is coming to realize that mobility and wireless is a part of everything they do and so they need to think about mobility more broadly. Even more interesting is that Microsoft believes that sales of their mobility OSs (PocketPC family) will be driven more by phone oriented devices than by PDAs. That’s clearly a sign that they are going to go after Nokia. But Nokia’s relationships with mobile operators is a huge advantage, for the moment. The last time MS tried to enter a market dominated by service providers, cable, it was boxed out. That’s not to say MS can’t break in, it will just take time. Nokia needs to use this time wisely.
