How's that for a title?

Microsoft has, for a long time now, been trailing Apple. This is nothing new, but after hearing it a lot, you get to wondering why. After all, Mac systems are terrible business machines, they have loads of compatibility issues and are seriously overpriced. So what's going on here?

The answer is simple: on an Apple product, the entire unit - hardware and software - is tailored by Apple to be as appealing as possible.

Microsoft has been (up until very recently) a software-only company, producing nothing more than their operating system (Windows) and some software to throw onto it. That model has worked fine for them up until the last few years as the tablet market has really taken off.

Why the tablet market? Answer: Apple thought ahead.

In the process of creating the iPad, Apple patented things. Then, Apple patented more things, and finally ended by patenting more things. As a result, very few other companies have been able to produce a tablet as iconic as the iPad, simply because every time one does emerge, it is stepping on the toes of an Apple patent somehow (Galaxy Tab, anyone?). When the iPad was released, it was a surprise to everyone. There weren't many companies that saw it coming, and then everyone started playing catch up; it was virtually the iPhone all over again. So, the iPad has enjoyed it's glory days for a while now, sitting on top of its patents and eating up market share.

Meanwhile, there have been dozens of other companies doing their best to produce a reasonable competitor, and none have emerged. This was partially the fault of Microsoft, who didn't believe in tablet computing until Apple got it to work correctly (darn them!). Microsoft, under the impression that the iPad would flop, took a gamble and didn't panic.

The result of that Gamble was Windows 8, which is already being compared to Windows Vista - slipshod, buggy and unintuitive.

However, there is hope.

Microsoft finally got sick of the 3rd party problems, and made it's own tablet. The Surface.
Have you tried it? It's pretty cool, and the keyboard mechanism is also fantastic; it's really what the Asus Transformer has been trying to do all along, just done right.

Unfortunately though, a lot of Microsoft's 3rd party companies aren't exactly thrilled that Microsoft is making a competitor, but there isn't much they can do; after all, their only other option I Android, and Google has the Nexus so it's the same all the way around.

However, Microsoft has an opening here.

With the downfall of RIM, and Nokia moving into their market share, Windows Phone 8 is expected to grip 10% of the market by the end of this year. Seeing as it's only a few years old, that's really, really impressive. However, Microsoft still has very little control over the hardware, and despite Nokia's reputation for being indestructible, I have a firm belief that Microsoft will have a hard time really breaking into the market until they create a 1st party phone. However, this is unlikely. Nokia an Microsoft have an agreement, and I have a gut feeling that agreement includes Microsoft and Nokia not competing with each other (notice that there isn't a Nokia Tablet in the works?).

So what are two struggling companies to do?

Merge.

A Nokia/Microsoft Merger would be an ideal solution. Microsoft would obtain the Nokia patents, and be able to implement them into the next version of the surface, and rebrand the Lumia to a Surface Phone (or something like that) and finally go completely first party. Granted, this would shut out companies like HTC and Samsung, but Samsung has already announced that it plans to develop its own OS soon, and HTC is heavily leaning on Android, so I don't consider those to be large losses.

In the end, a first party tablet and phone, mixed with the 3rd part computer ecosystem would be a great compromise for Microsoft and would settle them right back into their own niche.

What do you think?


Note: This is an opinion article and in no way reflects fact or rumor. This is strictly written hypothetically.

Image source found here