New York Times columnist Jim Stewart wrote an article recently titled, "In Microsoft’s Nokia Debacle, a View of an Industry’s Feet of Clay," in which he emphasized how the $7.5 billion write off that Microsoft Corporation MSFT 0.38% had to bear because of the Nokia Corporation (ADR) NOK 0.28% deal was a big lesson for the company.
Stewart was on CNBC Friday to discuss how Microsoft's mobile strategy is over. Stewart also took the opportunity to outline the new strategy the company is working on.
Only Apple
Stewart was asked if Microsoft bought Nokia only to save face or out of fear that nobody else would run its mobile OS on the Microsoft platform. He replied, "Many people have been lured by the Apple model, which is doing so well in this area. But it's really only Apple. Even Samsung— it's basically a duopoly now. Samsung has big market share, but they are really not even making money on this. So, what Microsoft now has to do, they are now doing a new strategy."
He continued, "They disagreed with me, I was [...] 'Well aren't you embracing the Google strategy? No hardware agnostic?' They said, 'No, no, we are not hardware agnostic; we are still making phones, we are still going to make other things.'
"So they are moving clearly in that direction. It's the only choice they have now. But the mobile first strategy – it's over, they have missed that wave and they pretty much concede [to] that."
Are They Doing That?
"So, I think the question now is if they have learned this lesson, they have missed this wave. They say their lesson is we have to get on the next wave, we have to get ahead of it, we have to disrupt, we have to innovate. So, the question is, are they doing that?" Stewart concluded.
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