In 2010 Microsoft held a "funeral" for the iPhone after launching the windows phone 7

[Eric]

 

[Alli]

If only they’d just stuck to Windows Mobile.

 

[Cmaier]

funny how the windows logo in those photos reminds me of a fascist symbol from some straight-to-Netflix dystopian sci fi movie.

 

[Citysnaps]

That's almost as stupid/cringy as the their "Bruce Springsteen" Vista introduction - a real crowd pleaser.

There must be something in Redmond's water supply.

 

[rdrr]

The few at work who had a windows phone couldn't admit defeat and now proudly carry Android based phones. At least that is a viable mobile platform. I still am an iPhone only mobile user, even through antenna-gate and bend-gate.

 

[Herdfan]

The few at work who had a windows phone couldn't admit defeat and now proudly carry Android based phones. At least that is a viable mobile platform. I still am an iPhone only mobile user, even through antenna-gate and bend-gate.

According to some of our friends over at MR, that was NOT a thing.

It was.

Can't say I ever knew anybody that had one.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

My uncle was a lifetime Microsoft employee starting from when they were just a few buildings and retiring as a VP (Something to do with South American distribution) back sometime in the 2010's. Even he had to admit their phone was garbage and eventually ended up getting an iPhone, the only Apple product he had ever owned.

 

[rdrr]

According to some of our friends over at MR, that was NOT a thing.

It was.

Can't say I ever knew anybody that had one.

Oh it was, and I never put it in my back pocket. I believe the protruding camera wasn't a thing yet, and I recall my phone acting like a see-saw when placed flat on the table. Even still I didn't jump ship to Android or *shudder* MS phone.

 

[Cmaier]

Oh it was, and I never put it in my back pocket. I believe the protruding camera wasn't a thing yet, and I recall my phone acting like a see-saw when placed flat on the table. Even still I didn't jump ship to Android or *shudder* MS phone.

Had the phone. Kept it in my pocket. It didn’t bend.

 

[cbum]

"Kept it in my pocket. It didn’t bend."

You may have (or have had) a phone friendly BMI...

And I'm with you on that fascist image...

 

[Yoused]

You may have (or have had) a phone friendly BMI...

The firmness of the adjacent body parts and furniture almost certainly make a difference. And, which pocket.

 

[Eric]

Considering I owe most of my career to MS, where they do dominate the market when it comes to cloud/server computing, I can't rip on them too hard but when it comes to mobile devices they sure tanked.

Also, Android is the redheaded stepchild of phones, appealing to people who drive pickup trucks (even though they never use the bed) and anti-Apple fanatics.

 

[rdrr]

Considering I owe most of my career to MS, where they do dominate the market when it comes to cloud/server computing, I can't rip on them too hard but when it comes to mobile devices they sure tanked.

Also, Android is the redheaded stepchild of phones, appealing to people who drive pickup trucks (even though they never use the bed) and anti-Apple fanatics.

I usually agree with you 99.92% of the time. This is that rare time!

 

[Cmaier]

The firmness of the adjacent body parts and furniture almost certainly make a difference. And, which pocket.

Left butt pocket, if you must know.

 

[Yoused]

Left butt pocket, if you must know.

Huh.

I went looking for the appropriate server and was a little startled to see the domain toomuch.info was for sale for two thousand dollars. That seems like a bit much.

 

[Edd]

I hadn’t bought a smartphone yet when Windows phone was released but it looked pretty good to me and seriously considered buying one. I watched and waited and eventually bought my first Apple product, the iPhone 4s. Then I got sucked in so hard I’ll never crawl out.

 

[Nycturne]

Some context: The org here had spent 18 months on Windows Mobile 7 to see it killed right as it was ready to release, the VP pushed out, and then spent another 18 months rebuilding from the ashes. So after spending three years churning, and two crunch cycles, management wanted to let the org decompress once it was over the finish line. The idea was to have a bit of a "parade" through the campus where each team could make their own float, and at the end of the very short route was food, drink, and live music. Each float was the idea of the members of that team specifically. So something like this was the result of the members of that team, rather than management, and I don't think management thought that this internal celebration of delivering the damn thing was going to make headlines.

I mean, one team did Thriller because it seemed fun:


If you are curious, someone did upload the whole thing as well:


Fun fact, you can find me in the longer video (I checked), as part of one of the other teams' floats. Another fun fact is that you can see Terry Myerson and other upper management in the Thriller video up on the monster truck in the background. I'm trying to remember who was in the Darth Vader suit though, I could swear it was someone I knew by name.

Considering I owe most of my career to MS, where they do dominate the market when it comes to cloud/server computing, I can't rip on them too hard but when it comes to mobile devices they sure tanked.

Which is depressing considering that they were in the market during the RIM/Nokia era. It's ultimately that their pivot in the face of Apple failed (for many reasons), IMO that sealed things. Google's the only one that successfully pivoted from the old style smartphones.

There must be something in Redmond's water supply.

At this point of time, Ballmer's approach of cheerleading was still the norm. There was a sort of "sportsball team" dynamic at play here where you would get knocked on for daring to carry a competitor's product for personal use. It was very weird at times, and thankfully the folks I worked with directly weren't big on that either.

 

[Nycturne]

And I'll just add, from an engineer's perspective, I don't feel bad about the work my team delivered for Windows Phone. It was more an engineering systems team, but we accomplished things there that would still be the subject of tech industry talks today (although incredibly niche). I just hope the Windows team learned from the stuff we built, I never saw that phase of the project.

 

[Yoused]

There must be something in Redmond's water supply.

They probably get their water from Lake Sammamish. It is a long, skinny lake, which is exactly the kind that mythical monsters live in, so everyone in Redmond (and probably Bellevue and Issaquah) drinks water lightly tainted with cryptid piss.

 

[Eric]

Some context: The org here had spent 18 months on Windows Mobile 7 to see it killed right as it was ready to release, the VP pushed out, and then spent another 18 months rebuilding from the ashes. So after spending three years churning, and two crunch cycles, management wanted to let the org decompress once it was over the finish line. The idea was to have a bit of a "parade" through the campus where each team could make their own float, and at the end of the very short route was food, drink, and live music. Each float was the idea of the members of that team specifically. So something like this was the result of the members of that team, rather than management, and I don't think management thought that this internal celebration of delivering the damn thing was going to make headlines.

I mean, one team did Thriller because it seemed fun:


If you are curious, someone did upload the whole thing as well:


Fun fact, you can find me in the longer video (I checked), as part of one of the other teams' floats. Another fun fact is that you can see Terry Myerson and other upper management in the Thriller video up on the monster truck in the background. I'm trying to remember who was in the Darth Vader suit though, I could swear it was someone I knew by name.



Which is depressing considering that they were in the market during the RIM/Nokia era. It's ultimately that their pivot in the face of Apple failed (for many reasons), IMO that sealed things. Google's the only one that successfully pivoted from the old style smartphones.



At this point of time, Ballmer's approach of cheerleading was still the norm. There was a sort of "sportsball team" dynamic at play here where you would get knocked on for daring to carry a competitor's product for personal use. It was very weird at times, and thankfully the folks I worked with directly weren't big on that either.

A nightmare scenario for an IT manager, I'm betting they lost people over that.