14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Microsoft introduced its very first Lumia phone in history, so the Redmond-based tech giant is finally ready to embark on a journey that would put the focus on hardware devices more than ever.
Ever since Steve Ballmer started the “One Microsoft” restructuring plan, the company migrating toward devices and services with every new product, but after completing the takeover of Nokia's Devices and Services division, the firm started making the necessary steps to bring its very own devices to the market.
As a result, Redmond has recently replaced the Nokia brand with Microsoft Lumia, and the very first device included in this series of products came out today, wearing Microsoft's logo on both the front and the back, and signaling the beginning of a new era for a company that was until recently completely focused on the software business.
Microsoft’s Head of Phones Design Peter Griffith, who joined Nokia in 2005 and transferred to Redmond earlier this year after the acquisition came to an end, talked about the company's mobile efforts in an interview published on the Conversations blog, showing that the relationship between Microsoft and Nokia already existed, but this deal made everything official.
“We're one company now”
Griffith explains that while Microsoft has only recently purchased Nokia's Devices and Services firm, the two firms already have a long history today, and bringing Windows Phone to life was only possible thanks to both of them.
“For some time there’s been a lot of integration – don’t forget we’ve been working with the Windows Phone platform for a number of years! Now that we’re all one company, we’re able to collaborate in new and more significant ways. If our focus is on the person using the device, we need to be able to orchestrate where all of these things come together. Reaching out to all areas of the organization is extremely important.”
“We learn from people as they use their devices”
Microsoft isn't quite an old player in the mobile industry, so in terms of design and functionality, it's really important to bring to the market the right features at the right time to the right buyers.
Ever since Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer at the helm of Microsoft in February, the company has adopted a strategy that is more focused on feedback than ever, so many of the improvements we see today are actually suggested by users.
A similar approach is also being used for smartphones, Griffith says, as the company tries to learn from people as they use their devices.
“Think of it as a landscaped park and the paths people chose to walk – these may not be what was intended but are the routes people have decided to use. If you’re a landscape designer, the idea of letting the grass grow over your nicely paved walkway and shifting your path to where people actually want it, can be tricky, but this is exactly how we want to design products; watching how people use them and making adjustments according to how people require them to work,” he adds.
Since Microsoft barely holds 3 percent of the global smartphone market, there's no doubt that it still has a lot of work to do in this business, so it'll be interesting to see how the company tries to improve its products to compete with Android and iOS.
The full interview with Peter Griffith can be found in the section after the jump.
