The iPhone is the coolest phone in the world. And people are still hacking it. Because they want to customize it. They want to make it theirs. And yet, Microsoft has decided to be even more protective with their new Windows 7 Phone devices.
Microsoft announced that users will be given only one default search engine: Microsoft Bing.
Microsoft claims that they simply ran into technical problems when trying to accommodate search rivals. Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager at Microsoft said, “The search engine has been heavily integrated into the OS, so it would be hard to offer an alternative.”
This is just stupid. Bing has gotten a lot better lately. But all limiting consumer choices does is make consumers resent you. Now, other search engines can still be accessed through the phone, and these individual companies can create a Windows 7 Phone app of their own. But, why make it difficult? Why not show that you’re proud of what you have, and that you believe it can hold up against the toughest of competition.
Maybe because they know it can’t?