Nadella on Windows Phone, Microsoft will "keep coming at it"

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Yesterday Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined his new vision for the company, emphasising cloud services and mobile, naturally. Although he didn't go into detail in his main memo to the world, he did go into slightly more detail when chatting to The Verge, with some quotes below. Summary? 

Nadella on stage voicing his memo etc.

First of all, a snippet from the main memo:

...In addition, we will build first-party hardware to stimulate more demand for the entire Windows ecosystem. That means at times we'll develop new categories like we did with Surface. It also means we will responsibly make the market for Windows Phone, which is our goal with the Nokia devices and services acquisition.

Note 'make' the market, implying that resources will be piled in as necessary, to raise awareness and create marketshare by sheer force (of brand and of marketing spend).

Going into slightly more detail with The Verge, Satya said:

We’re going to change [mindset] by producing phones — where we grow in countries where we’ve grown from 3 to 10 percent, celebrate that. And then have higher ambition. There are many countries, even in Western Europe, where we have over 10 percent share, and I completely recognize that if you are not growing in the US, for you we are nothing, and I’m grounded in that reality. But at the same time, [we will] keep coming at it and keep coming at it...

Again note 'keep coming at it', implying persistence. This doesn't sound like giving up on Windows Phone anytime soon. Microsoft's vision is clearly completely cross-platform (including the cloud) and very definitely mobile, with Windows Phone a core element.

Satya also said:

You’re defining the market as "It’s already done, Apple and Google have won, because they won the consumer side." And I’m going to question that. I’m going to say "No, any thinking consumer should consider Microsoft because guess what, you’re just not a consumer. You’re also going to go to work, you’re also going to be productive and we can do a better job for you in there." And that’s what I want to appeal to.

Echoing a very good point that we've been making for a while, that if part of the mission of a smartphone for you is to integrate into what you do at work, with Office, OneNote, Sharepoint, and so on, then Windows Phone is arguably the number one contender in the world right now. From this angle, at least.

Source / Credit: The Verge