Chinese Phone Maker ZTE Turns Down WP7

An anonymous reader writes "Chinese smartphone maker ZTE, fifth largest in the world, has publicly criticized Microsoft for the lackluster market reaction to its Windows Phone 7 operating system and said that ZTE has no plans to develop a WP7-powered phone. That's bad news for Microsoft for its well-regarded but not well-received mobile OS."

smart executives holding out for more MS money

[Locutus]

if you don't know by now, Microsoft spends lots of money( billions ) getting people to use their stuff and get some market share. I've seen the Chinese government play games with Microsoft a few times declaring Windows as the "standard" for this, that, or the other thing and the deal includes big cash incentives for doing this. I have little doubt that this company has executives who know Microsoft is spending billions buying resellers of their rehash of a Windows phone OS and are just holding out for more money. They will most likely ship some WP7 phone eventually and get paid well for doing so. We'll see if they are smart enough to not tie the money to sales figures for the phone.

LoB

Re:Good.

[hawkingradiation]

Besides all the integration with other Microsoft products...let's divert this discussion to if we actually need to use Microsoft products. Usually it is all or nothing. XBox live, Office, Zune are them. And what of "The Hubs concept of deep integration?". Also I thought that Windows Phone 7 was a more or less universal operating system for cell phones. What is preventing some other operating system that is universal from having that same button for photos? Are you talking about a specific model of phone that no other manufacture has? Same thing with the standard FM tuner. Is that exclusive to Win 7 phones? And what gave you the insight to predict that Windows 7 will catch up with such time? To me you are portraying it as a different sort of beast which makes me wonder if it is really far behind either. Maybe the reason it is behind it because it doesn't have market share and because it doesn't have market share it is behind. Kind of ironic when the same reason Linux is behind in desktop usage is for the same reason eh? Enjoy.

Re:Alternative...

[amiga3D]

Because it's backed by MS and everyone likes to kiss some Microsoft butt in hopes of making big money. It's probably just a negotiation ploy to get Redmond to sweeten the deal for them. They know that MS is going to have to open the wallet and spend big to get back in the mobile game against the droids, berries, and iphones.

Why Microsoft new products keep failing.

[goruka]

I thinks it's pretty simple if you think about it. Consumers all around the world don't see Microsoft as a true innovator in the technology business. What does this mean? It means that people does not see Microsoft products as "must-have" because of innovation, features or overall coolness.
Microsoft products become "must-have" only when they become the only platform available to run something the consumer wants.
Windows (Windows applications), Office (Office documments) and X-Box (X-Box games) are the main successful Microsoft products and all three follow this lock-in scenario.
Any other products, platforms or services they created (that don't depend on external content or software) were soon taken over by superior alternatives.

Re:Slow burn

[Anthony Mouse]

It's going to take a while to find traction.

That's a problem. If you can't show strong sales out of the gate (which both iPhone and Android did) then after a few months, developers start to realize that there is no market for WP7 apps and they put their efforts for the platform on hold indefinitely. Then you have a platform lacking in users and applications, and the users are waiting on the apps while the app developers are waiting on the users.

Worse yet, the phone manufacturers do the same thing -- if few people are buying WP7 phones then it makes no sense to pour R&D money into producing many different models with new features etc., and on top of that the Nokia deal has already said to all other manufacturers that they're second class customers. I assume here that Microsoft hopes Nokia will produce first class WP7 hardware in order to offset this, but the hardware by itself isn't sufficient, and the other manufactuers' business logic is sound -- if you continue to dump your money into R&D for a platform that nobody is buying, you're ultimately going to sink your operation. Or to put it another way, WP7 better not be a "slow burn" or else Nokia is going to have to defect to Android or exit the market, and either outcome would put a pretty serious pall on Microsoft's platform.

To fragment or not to fragment.

[Elimental]

The problem with WM7 for manufacturers is that with the fear of fragmentation Microsoft went ahead and :
1 Dictated the hardware, so as manufacturer don't have much say on how the device going to look, no small screen with dedicated keyboard or such designs, so in essence no real distinction between one manufacturer’s phone to another. This would not be a problem if it was not for the second point.
2 Manufacturers are not allowed to change the UI to place there own “look & feel” to the phone. So end of the day one WM7 phone is exactly like the other.

We all know a HTC (Android), Apple (iOS), or Motorola (Android) phone just by looking at it. But all the WM7 phones look and feel the same. For some people that is selling point but for a manufacturer it not. How can you make someone buy your WM7 phone and not your competitions.

I do think that ZTE will sell WM7 phones they just want a cash incentive to do so.

Personally I don't like the WM7 blocky interface or the half words that break to show that there is a next screen, and I do think Microsoft did a bad thing aiming something that you cant really customize to gamers 1st (Xbox Live). They should have targeted a market that hates customization – the work place, in other words they should have build better Office/ Exhange/ Sharepoint integration instead, cause that is where they can seriously 1 up the competition.