When Nokia and Microsoft last week announced their new intimate cooperation I thought this was a move by two loosing parties, Nokia loosing the smartphone war (or more correctly not even being in it) and Microsoft clearly going from loss to loss in the same space. I did get one of the first Windows mobiles and was so annoyed after just a few weeks I nearly tossed the bloody phone out the window. So can two losers unite to become stronger?
Well at first I thought this was just a very silly and desperate act, I even thought I should write something about this in the blog.
Then I looked back in time and realised that for over twenty years Microsoft has had the strength to build strong brands even when everything looked a disaster. I’m no big fan of MS but one do have to give them credit for what they’ve achieved. As I looked back I came to think about something I once said in the Swedish magazine MikroDatorn in 1991: -Windows is just cosmetics but that will be revealed as user demands increase.
Well, few things that I’ve been quoted on in print have I regretted that much. What I did mean (and it’s in the article) is that when user’s demands increase they would need a more robust and powerful system than Windows and would switch to OS/2. Wrong again! I was not wrong about demand increasing but I was all wrong about underestimating Microsoft’s ability to act and meet that change.
Lesson’s learned and this time I’m not counting them out yet… I may not want Microsoft to succeed in this space as well, but I’m not counting them out.

And, yes that is me some twenty years ago 🙂