Microsoft's smart phone strategy: Copy, copy, and then copy again

Actually, you're not even being elitist. You're just being a prick. I said nothing that should've provoked such a post from you. I'm not taking sides in this fickle Apple vs. Microsoft gig. I'm merely commenting on what I'm seeing. So lay off.

trieste I am not a lawyer but I've been through the DOJ anti-trust process when I was with Microsoft in the 1990s and I know a lot more about it than the people here who are almost totally just guessing about how they think it works or expressing their own wishes as though they were facts. While it is expertise I'd rather have not spent several annoying years gaining, it is, in fact, actual experience.

As long as the DOJ uses Wikipedia for legal research, Apple should be fine.

Does anyone have the first inling this is real? Are these plants? By another sorry media hungry blogger, or maybe MS themselves? Who the hell knows. So stop with the oh I hate this or that and wait for what is real. like tomorrow!!!

"But you have my sympathies, especially with health care up there" WHAAA??!? I have a family doctor, and it doesn't cost me a cent. I can also get emergency care without needing private insurance. I don't have to wait at a walk-in clinic, but people will if they're sensible enough (and most people are around here) not to bother the hospital ER for stupid sh!t. Our walk-in clinic isn't big for the size of the town, but I've only had to go once for a cold bug that was going around town, and I only waited about a half-an-hour when it was full, so it's pretty efficient. Of course, if you're talking about doctors not making it rich like they do in private practises and HMO's in the US, then I guess you'd have something to complain about. I know that most people here will buy health insurance before going to the US though. Many will get it even for day trips, in the event that they're stuck there in an emergency. I've seen drivers on the other side of Niagara Falls, so I know the score.

>> like Microsoft did with ActiveX and IIS Actually, ActiveX was, and is, open to anyone who wants to bother to take the time to learn COM. It was developed at the same time the Unix world was creating a competing technology. This is back in the days of IE 3 if I remember right. IIS is an open platform, again, all one has to do is bother to learn the technology (there are PHP variants that run under IIS) and be willing to code in C++. Even though both were developed by Microsoft, neither is closed technology.

yoshipod, If this were thoroughbred racing you'd be the Triple Crown with these responses. Well Done! I hope everyone now understands that a monopoly does not equal market share but rather market control. Monopoly definition aside, we should also note that Apple didn't resort to giving iPods away in order to establish their market share (loss leader), but rather earned it by offering a product that the majority of consumers saw value in and ultimately were willing to pay for.

Sorry Wae, the stats that you give are not the norm in Canada where waits can be months for typical stuff where there is no wait in the US. Here's a favorite of mine showing real people in Canada, unlike Moore's scripted version. http://www.pjtv.com/video/Louder_With_Crowder/_PJTV_Undercover%3A_Steven...

Okay, first things first: there are waits for health care in the US, and there are waits for it in Canada. The difference is that Canadians don't have to talk to a company whose primary goal is to avoid covering you. On to the phones. Yes, these are copies. There's only so much wiggle room, but both Pure and Turtle are so similar to existing designs (look at the Samsung Propel Pro or Motorola Hint for Turtle-alikes) that it would take a tremendous effort from the operating system and underlying guts to truly separate it from the pack. Looking forward to HTC dropping nearly all its Windows Mobile projects in favor of Android at this rate.

""Each interface that isn't open to competitors equally as to your own internal divisions is considered restraint of trade." "Citation, please?" EU vs. Microsoft" Is this true in the hardware interface world. I believe that the MS issue was in the software interfaces...again, details matter. --tayme

There is the written law and then the is the laws that are upheld. Apple maybe close, to some definition of monopoly, is some areas, digital distribution of media probably. However because they dont use the bully tactics that Microsoft has in the past probably means nothing will happen to them. Microsoft was huge (is still) and acted like arssse hats, using their power to make it really hard for other competitors, and they attracted attention. Once they started coming after MS, MS acted like they did not care.....and they have payed dearly for their arrogance. This stems from Microsoft not being as innovative as others, so they must protect their market share another way, while they copy something and then 3 versions later their version can compete with almost as good products and giving it away free until their competitors run out of money.

Yeah Paul.. I have to agree with the early posters here... I'm not sure you can really say anything about a phone just from its form factor. The reality is, we're talking about the exterior of a phone... there are only so many designs that make sense and work. Copying a form factor, especially this late in the game pretty much just tells me that these are the form factors that work. Ultimately it's what the phone does, and how it does it, that really matters.

"What the hell? I agree with Mike." Me too! "I'm gonna have a beer to celebrate this momentous occasion." Me too! Or maybe a *case* of beer!

Microsoft is clearly threatened by Chrome: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-google-chrome-fr... How pathetic is that? And why wouldn't they be? In a short time Google has surpassed IE in the browser game. If you know about IT, even if you don't, and you "prefer" IE -- you have no intelligence whatsoever.

Another example of how bad IE8 is looking these days: "IE 8 runs ten times faster with Google Chrome plug-in" Microsoft must be hating this. Threatened, surely! http://news.techworld.com/networking/3202572/internet-explorer-8-runs-te...

@roteague "trouble is, those making the claim can't seem to put up much in the way of examples." There would have been no Zune HD, had their not been a iPod Touch. The new Microsoft stores are a photo copy of the Apple stores. These are the most recent.

"I have a family doctor, and it doesn't cost me a cent. " I always figured you were a tax evader, Wae. It "costs" you, alright. To claim otherwise is to be blind to reality or deusional. You pick.

"NoNameAtAll said: Actually, you're not even being elitist. You're just being a ***. I said nothing that should've provoked such a post from you. I'm not taking sides in this fickle Apple vs. Microsoft gig. I'm merely commenting on what I'm seeing. So lay off." All right. Fair enough. Sorry. My response was indeed draconian.

Yep Chip, you would think that a large install base with Windows should welcome a WinMo phone, and WinMo 7 has yet to be released. They could easily grap a large market share, especially with the right data plan. Sell affordable, or less expensive plans [rather than force you with one, like ATT iPhone] and ppl may flock to the stores. Gotta keep the phone price as low as iPhone as well. Charging less for a limited data plan, but more for the phone may not work.

"if he is below the poverty line, it very well may not be costing him anything." Sorry, but I'm not, TYVM. Regardless of my income or insured status, I can get emergency medical care, as can all other citizens in my country. Can you say that?

BTW, no one gets turned away from a US ER for emergencies if they have no insurance. Our hospital alone does multi-millions of dollars in indigent care. They send out bills, but don't get paid. My group alone did $ 3 million in pro bono services because of the lack of insurance. They don't get told to leave the ER because they cannot pay. The waits can be long at busy times because the ER is used as a clinic for the uninsured, many of which are illegal aliens, although probably not the majority. But we take care of them like another patient. I don't even know that they have no insurance when I perform any serivce, including angioplasty/stent work, or just reading a chest xray. I jsut don't get paid, just like any other doctor treating them. What's important is that I give them competent care, not getting paid, although it would be nice too.

" NOBODY WANTS TO BE A DOCTOR IN CANADA" I know that. That's why there's very few specialists. Specialists in the US get paid huge money when they open up their own practise or work for an HMO. I know this, because I know of 2 doctors that recently moved to the US for that exact reason, one of which is my father's cousin, and another is a doctor that my mother, who is a retired RPN, worked with. These are doctors, wanting to get rich off the US health care system. You call it broken. I call it abused. " Your taxes are very high to pay for big government, which is partly why you pay more for your phone service." Also not true. The government (specifically, the Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commission, or CRTC) doesn't regulate the cellphone industry. They used to in the 90's when there were 6 different companies, most of which were US offshoots, like Cantel AT&T, Sprint, etc. They decided the industry didn't need further regulation because there was enough competition back then. Only 2 of the original companies still exist (Bell and Rogers) but they aren't same companies they were back then. Now there's basically a tri-opoly of companies, and no gov't regulation. ".... insurance companies that are hell bent on denying needed care [they call it pre-authorization]. Of course in Canada, you just would not get the service." There's another difference. If it's life-critical service, insurance companies can't deny service in Canada. In fact, the government regulates those industries already. If it's needed care, they can't deny service either, and the doctor's get the final say, not the insurance company, so you're wrong about that last part. " I don't even know that they have no insurance when I perform any serivce, including angioplasty/stent work, or just reading a chest xray. I jsut don't get paid, just like any other doctor treating them." See that's the difference. Doctors in Canada get paid regardless. It's not a commission job. "The waits can be long at busy times because the ER is used as a clinic for the uninsured" Our ER's aren't. Our clinics are publicly-accessible, regardless of insured status. The admin nurse for the ER will redirect non-emergency patients to the clinic. They get pissed if someone comes into the ER with a cold or sore throat or whatever, and send people out if the clinic is open. Otherwise, people will wait according to emergency priority. Obviously, ambulance emergencies will take a high priority over waiting patients too. "Where malpractice is put of a control, doctors had left states, creating a void of services, including neurosurgery and high risk obstetrics to the point where needed services are sparse in states with high malpractice" That's another topic of interest. Malpractise lawsuits aren't common in Canada. All doctors and nurses require malpractise insurance now, and Canada's law system is not the same in the US. In Canada, like in many other countries, the loser pays the legal fees of the winner, which nearly eliminates frivolous lawsuits. Eventually, our health care system will end up like Ontario Hydro, where government ran it as a public utility, and now it's been deregulated, and private providers and distributors abuse the public's requirement. Our health care system has begun to fail because private organizations are turning it towards the ideals of "Americanization". That's a commonly held truth that most doctors and health care workers believe. http://www.profitisnotthecure.ca/what/americanization.html