Is it game over for Microsoft’s phone efforts?

The question of the day is: “Has Microsoft lost its consumer edge in the phone market?”

A good chunk of analysts and the blogosphere think so.

I’m not so sure. Yes, there’s absolutely no doubt that the company is in defensive mode right now. Blame it on whomever you want. It is what it is. The real question is: Where does Microsoft go from here? There’s a big part of me that keeps thinking people in Microsoft are asking this question. Call me crazy, but I think someone will stumble across the obvious answer that so many of us think we have already.

When the iPhone first came out I dumped the Windows Mobile phone I had. It was too slow, locked up too much, difficult to navigate, lacked connectivity like I wanted, and I was and am pathetic at T9 typing. The iPhone helped most of this for the most part plus added lots of other benefits over time. It was like I entered a new world. I mean it was quite liberating. There were still crashes, dropped calls, lock ups, and on and on, but overall, the iPhone has had no match.

That’s one key reason why I started advocating way back when for Microsoft to really stop what it was doing with Windows Mobile and really carefully look at the iPhone to consider what it was doing and explore why it was gaining so much traction in the market.

Well, Microsoft may or may not be reworking its phone strategy to be more consumer minded, but at least in terms of what it has released and shown so far, it’s still off mark–at least a lot more off mark than lets say the way the iPhone was when it launched the very first day.

Honeycomb icons? Really? Inconsistent layers of UI? Huh? In a rewrite? really? Why any of this is the way it is, I have no idea and I seriously doubt that the consumer market it wants it that way.

So, now as we wait for Windows Mobile 7 to be released, I know it’s probably too late to expect it to really address the issues that iPhone brings up. I guess in a way it’s not that big of a deal for right now, because even with Google’s Android and Palm’s Pre efforts it also looks like they can’t quite get it right. Close, but still not close enough if you ask me.

As frustrated as I am with the iPhone I still use it and it probably doesn’t matter if Microsoft ever releases a stellar WM device. I’d give the Android or some other device a chance before Windows Mobile again–at least that’s my inclination right now.

At least for me, as a consumer, Windows Mobile has lost me. It’s lost my brothers, sisters, friends, and on and on. That’s just the way the consumer market crumbles.