Microsoft reduces focus on smartphones and may leave thread

After the writedown of almost the entire value of the unit of Nokia phones that the company had purchased about a year ago and fired about four-fifths of employees of Nokia, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, will again focus on a smaller number of appliances intended for three groups of people: corporate users , price-conscious customers and lovers of Windows.
The logic is that Microsoft keep the phones in hopes of attracting a nuclear group and the smallest users – as a niche player. This is the strategy that Nadella adopted with some success for the Tablet Surface.
However, even that will be difficult. The iPhone, Apple Inc., and the devices that use the Android operating system, Google Inc., predominate among customers that Microsoft wants. About the Windows Phone fanatics, I found that this group is small.
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History is replete with that phone manufacturers tried to recover from the loss of market share and barely managed to keep his head above water or no more sinking further, the BlackBerry to Nokia, which was once the largest manufacturer of mobile phones.
Even if Microsoft stop trying to be a big player with this change of focus, the most likely outcome is that she continue losing participation, which will force the company to abandon this market before it's too late, analysts said.
"It seems that the curtains are being closed," said Will Stofega, Program Director of market research firm IDC, in an interview. He estimated that the market share of Windows Mobile will go from 3 per cent to zero within a year. "The Outlook is not good."
Nadella commitment
Nadella, in a memo sent to employees to announce layoffs on Wednesday, promised not to abandon smartphones. "I'm committed to the appliances that we manufacture, including with the phones," he wrote.
"[Microsoft] is not yet giving up on their own devices or Windows Phone, but I think that's inevitable," said Jan Dawson, Chief Analyst of the Jackdaw Research.
Microsoft will launch one or two models per year for each of the three categories, thus reducing a unit that currently offers about a new model every week if you consider all the modified versions to different regions and operators, said an industry source who requested anonymity because the information is not public.
The company also said it will abandon ties with carriers and countries where did not succeed, the source said, although it will continue selling appliances in the us due to the size and importance of this market.
"It makes sense and I think they can keep it," said Ramon Llamas, IDC's Research Manager, in relation to the new plan for the phone unit. "I think Microsoft could not afford to leave the smartphone segment. She needs to continue there. "