I wonder why they did so well with the Xbox but not Windows Phone. Clearly they're capable of launching a new platform and getting traction with it. Those are very different market segments but surely the general approaches needed aren't that far apart.
Well, I feel like they haven't been doing as well recently (pause for a shoutout to classic MS naming acumen: Xbox 360 -> Xbox One -> Xbox One X / Xbox One S -> Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S. Good luck, mom! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKZ6rqsXhjo)
But perhaps one difference is that with consoles there's a free Sisyphean "reset" with each generation, which never happened with the phone. That gives a spot to enter the race.
Plus the whole thing with the phone carriers...in the US at least I'd wager that if the carriers don't offer your phone, and the salespeople don't talk it up (which phones are going to give the salesperson the most lucrative commission, by the way? Don't forget accessories...), then that's the ball game
I've given up on my hobby projects because it was to the point where each time I got a few hours to look at them I'd spend it all doing updates or adjusting to deprecations.
One thing that struck me rereading Joel's article: those shiny new APIs he rattled off, indeed almost none of them gained any traction. And he was spot on about the UI framework fragmentation too.
Recently Windows Phone popped up and a lot of the same themes popped up, for example changing the SDKs repeatedly, charging for the privilege of using the app store (so much for giving the tools away), etc. I think part of the issue is that Apple somehow gets away with doing this sort of thing but Microsoft doesn't have anything close to the marketing chops to brainwash people into getting screwed over and liking it. Maybe because they go out of their way to make it a positive experience to buy new Apple products, rather than a trip to a dealership for a new car
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=44272078