Where Was Android In Microsoft's iPhone Funeral Procession? Taking The Pictures
Microsoft is a company that doesn't seem to be too concerned with saying outlandish things that may or may not result in the company having to remove a foot from its own mouth. This happens from the top on down.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft reached Windows Phone 7's release-to-manufacturing milestone in early September 2010 and chose to mark it with a mock [[entity:iPhone Funeral Procession]] through its Redmond campus — hearses for iPhones, employees in mourning dress. It is a striking posture for a company whose own analysts flagged it as having missed the boat on mobile back in 2008.
The funeral follows days after Microsoft's pricing salvo: the company claims Android carries expensive hidden costs for handset makers that dwarf its own flat $15-per-unit Windows Phone 7 license. Taken together, the RTM milestone, the licensing pitch, and now the theatrics read as one coordinated campaign to make Microsoft the anti-Google option in smartphones.
First-order effects
- Microsoft converts the Windows Phone 7 RTM milestone into a public jab at both Apple and Android, forcing its two dominant rivals to share the stage of Microsoft's own launch narrative rather than set it.
- The stunt's rapid pickup by outlets like Neowin gives Windows Phone 7 earned media attention ahead of launch that its market position alone would not have bought.
Second-order effects
- Handset makers weighing Android against Windows Phone 7 face sharpened framing: Microsoft's hidden-costs argument plus the $15 flat license turns the choice into a pricing decision Microsoft has scripted, pressuring OEMs to justify Android's economics publicly.
- Apple and Google are cast as defendants in Microsoft's courtroom of stunts — any response they make amplifies the funeral procession further, which is precisely the attention dynamic the theatrics were built to exploit.
Third-order effects
- If the licensing-plus-mockery playbook works, smartphone platform competition tilts further toward brand theater and per-unit economics over hardware specs, making marketing aggression a structural weapon for third-place platforms trying to buy relevance.
- The episode deepens a pattern where Microsoft attacks competitors' business models rather than matching their products feature-for-feature — a strategy whose success depends entirely on whether Windows Phone 7 ships well enough to make the swagger credible.
The trend: Smartphone platform competition in 2010 is shifting from product specs toward pricing narratives and marketing spectacle, as trailing players like Microsoft use provocation to buy mindshare they cannot win on install base.