Optimism is a renewable resource at Microsoft.
In 2011, the company, in a belated attempt to catch up with Apple and Google in the smartphone world, announced a partnership with Nokia, the Finnish device maker. “There are other mobile ecosystems,” Nokia and Microsoft executives had said. “We will disrupt them.”
Last year, with sales flagging, Microsoft bought Nokia’s handset business for more than $7 billion, aiming to spur better results by coupling hardware and software.
Still, sales have not materialised. The global market share of the company’s phones was just under 3 per cent in the third quarter. Analysts, long sceptical about Microsoft’s mobile strategy, have largely thrown up their hands. Mobile-app developers too are paying little attention to Windows Phone.
Cue that optimism.
On Wednesday, Microsoft plans to unveil details about Windows 10, a new operating system for PCs, at an event at its headquarters outside Seattle. The operating system, the company says, will help win back developers by allowing them to more easily adapt PC applications to mobile devices. The company hopes it will also increase the availability of applications for — and lift sales of — the company’s smartphones.
