And People Say Paul Thurrott and I Never Agree

Paul Thurrott:

Also it’s worth pointing out that the future is cloudy, and that my record on prognostication is something like 127 to 3, with me being on the raw end of that score. I’m just not good at predictions.

Needling aside, Thurrott makes a good point regarding the catch-up game Microsoft is playing against Apple in the mobile space: it’s not enough to catch up in terms of the consumer user experience, but they need to catch up with regard to what Apple offers developers, too:

To those who would argue that this is early days and that Microsoft’s documentation can only catch up, I’d say, wake up. When the iPhone debuted three years ago, it was a bolt of lightning in what was then a very immature smart phone world. Three years later, everything has changed, and the market in which Windows Phone will compete is vastly different. In 2010, it is not enough for Microsoft to provide what Apple had in 2007, and this is as true with developer tools and documentation as it is with anything else. Microsoft isn’t competing with the Apple of three years ago.

What we need, then, is not a trickle, but a fire hose. We need what Apple offers iOS developers. That’s the bar.

★ Monday, 21 June 2010