Microsoft: Pay me $250 instead

If this article is accurate, Microsoft is paying Nokia almost $250 for every Windows phone that Nokia ships. The payback, ostensibly, is twofold:

Wide enough adoption that Microsoft becomes a player in mobile
People, through usage, will stick to Microsoft services, and become long term customers.

I wonder if Microsoft could achieve both aims through a software-only play? I imagine buying my new Android phone, and then installing "Windows Phone 8", the App, for which Microsoft will pay me $20/month for every month that I am an active user. They can do that for 12 months for the same amount that they are paying to Nokia, so they have a full year to make me a believer in Microsoft solutions.

Of course, Google may react and try to shut down, or limit, such a practice.....but operators might endorse it. More Microsoft services, more data usage.

The marketing tradeoff is straightforward: is it easier to get someone to download the Windows 8 App, or to purchase a Nokia phone? With most of the planet sitting in front of a Windows OS, and using a Microsoft browser, they would seem to have a lot of leverage for promoting a software download.

Why won't Microsoft do this? Because it implies that the OS is no longer important (the App would run on Android!).

The Centre Cannot Hold

Some thoughts on decentralization . With all of the blockchain and Ethereum news, along with the dramatic uptick of ICO's, it is worth building a framework for decentralization. The linked post makes a start on that.

Acsoi - Land Grab Economics

"Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income" ( Acsoi ), is a measure of what a companies profits would be if they were not spending like crazy to acquire a space: in GroupOn's case, this would be retailers. To me, using Acsoi as a measure is really an admission that a company has no staying power beyond brand awareness. So, they need to grab and own as much mindshare as they can, as quickly as they can, to increase the barrier to entry for competitors. Without intellectual property to help protect them, and with the cost of switching (for a user) being effectively zero, building a global brand, and relying on brand stickiness, is the best way forward. Companies like Amazon that have been effective at this have also built in other "sticky" factors over time: recommendation engines, one-click purchasing, etc. This increases the cost for the user to switch, and allows the company to stop pouring money into marketing and acquisition costs. You also buil

Gliese 581g

So...there is probably intelligent life out there. As the old Monty Python saying goes, "I hope so, cause there certainly isn't much here on earth." Case in point. The video for Gliese581g is on MSNBC, and works fine in IE, but crashes in Chrome [ here ].

Todd G. Simpson

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