While all eyes have been trained on Microsoft's big bid to buy Yahoo, it has managed to quietly snap up a mobile phone development company that may give the Apple iPhone the best run for the money we've seen yet.
Microsoft announced this week that it has acquired Danger, the maker of the hugely hip Sidekick, currently sold by T-Mobile and a must-have device for many of the twenty-something and upper-teen crowd.
The big question is what will Microsoft do with Danger?For now, the company is just mumbling in its typical corporate speak that the acquisition is "a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like.”
Blah blah blah. Why is it a rule that the bigger a corporation is, the more mind-numbingly bland their news releases?
We may be scratching our heads about what "improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like" really means, but I guarantee you that the iPhone people are really paying attention and trying to read between the gibberish.
Microsoft has proven itself over and over as an aggressive, albeit often bumbling, copier of cool. The Sidekick is cool. The iPhone is cool. Microsoft ... well, not so cool. But buying a cool mobile phone maker signals that Microsoft wants to jump into the mobile business big time. The existing Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system is nobody's favorite, though business types are grudgingly stuck with it if they want access to their corporate e-mail and Office programs.
I'm betting the Danger team will be redesigning Windows Mobile adding a lot of the nifty features of the Sidekick to hip up corporate types who use Windows Mobile for its Outlook capabilities.
But I'm also betting Microsoft sees a much larger market here, planning to make a whole new mobile operating system and a whole new phone that goes after a chunk of that iPhone success.
But will copying cool make it cool? Depends on how much Microsoft lets Danger innovate. Something Microsoft, with the exception of the XBox 360, hasn't been very good at. The worst thing for Danger is if it gets buried in the Microsoft bureaucracy, which, looking at the org chart that has it reporting to the Microsoft Premium Mobile Experiences team which in turn is under the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, seems a distinct danger for Danger.
What Microsoft and the new Danger team should do is start looking for a wireless partner like Verizon, which needs a hot, cool phone as much as Microsoft needs to find a new cash cow.
AT&T has been rejuvenated by the iPhone. The anemic T-Mobile network has survived largely because of the Sidekick. Verizon, which has a great network but consistently misses the boat in getting those exclusive deals with hot phones, would be a perfect fit for whatever Danger/Microsoft comes up with.
FREEP.COM
