It would be extremely humiliating, Linux is a 'cancer' remember. Imagine Microsoft having to adopt it in order to stay relevant. Heaven

Would they have to go through the charade of making Windows Phones nobody was buying in order not to reveal it was their Android phones that generated the money? Could they persuade carriers and retailers not to let the cat out of the bag?

Not only that but being forced to adopt Android in order to gain some relevance could make their monopoly of desktops even more vulnerable to an Android incursion.

Wrong, adopting Android wouldn't affect their desktops.... not if they want it to.

Carriers don't release information like that. Sometimes they do reveal their top selling smartphone.... but it will be the iPhone, noone would know if MS is making more money or sales from WP/Android.

Besides it's not humiliating in the least, it's only business.
Was MS humiliated when they revealed they make more money off Android royalties than Lumia sales?? Nope.

The industry has changed. You either lead it, or adapt with it ...or watch yourself fall from relevance as it happened to:
Nokia, BlackBerry, Palm, Motorola, (lost marketshare) LG and SONY.

humiliation really means mind share / market share to a company. it means brand value as well. yes, there is money to be made but look at the bigger picture.

if they support Android (implicitly or explicitly), that would have an impact on their entire portfolio of products and services.
1. Office 365 - better support for Android
2. Office for Android would need better support
3. Visual Studio needs to be updated to support Android development
4. Mobile device management in System Centre to include Android
5. Windows Server to include support for Android (tablets for example might need support for Kerberos authentication, cached credentials, etc).
6. Internet Explorer to be ported to Android
etc

It's huge, and it means more than just $$$ gained from having Nokia sell Android phones. There is a lot of investment to be made and MS will really need to look at what benefits they gain from this and what Google makes out of it (indirectly or otherwise). As it stands now, I am quite sure MS will not invest in Android in such a large scale so Nokia will be on its own if it really launches this device.

falling from relevance isn't necessarily a guaranteed outcome. inability to change is a guaranteed death march.

MS can always choose to innovate, build new products, bring new R&D technologies to the market, etc to combat Android. It will try and try again till it gets it right. If there's one thing MS has, it's tenacity (and a lot of money) to keep trying.

I believe MS will eventually get it right with Windows Phone because Google is now moving Android into 2 different areas for improvement
a. Introducing new features
b. Providing more frequent updates by moving core OS services and features into packages that can be updated more frequently and easily.

Both of these are territories that MS is very good in fighting.

The rise of Android is partly due to the fact that it is cheap (almost free depending on which licensing model you pick) and it's *almost* open source (in the early days anyway).

I'm not counting MS out of this race yet even if they are the underdog now up against crazy odds.

This. Photo. Right. Here.



Elop. Presenting. Android.

omigods!

I will have to eat the humble pie, poor me

I was so sure this is a hoax, I just could not see a way for Microsoft to ever release a Linux-based device, I thought that went so against their DNA, to actually admit their prized top-secret source code would not be the best solution for everything/everywhere, that actually something originating from Open Source World would have any value whatsoever

So, this is my public apology, I now admit I know really nothing about the way world turns...

Enjoy !

--
I do understand that you do not understand. Neither do I.
What was the positive aspect of killing a successful line of linux-based devices then?
But maybe this is the reason why we do not earn m/billions! We just cannot make dumb decisions, just to make decisions...

It may just be that the only thing they are using Android to, is to release a batch of Android derative products ment to cement the image of Android being a lower end product with a natural upgrade path to Windows Phone.

And in the next round they will have the opportunity to scrap this line of products and state that Android could just not be beaten into shape to fullfill their own requirements to quality and performance. Elop's gotten a new platform to torch!

Elop was a double trojan horse - to bring down Nokia and then Microsoft??

He's now Xbox head after reportedly suggesting the Xbox division should be sold off... This guy is really a genius at convincing head honchos to hire him