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Today is a very important day for Microsoft – one that could very well determine the long term success of the company. At question is whether the company can muster the talent to either extend its’ dominate desktop franchise and architecture and put it into the wanting hands of mobile consumers, or redefine its position in the category completely, in what is already a very fragmented market.  Keep in mind; this is Microsoft’s 3rd or 4th reincarnation hailing as far back as its JV with Qualcomm – Wireless Knowledge.

With that in mind, here are five things I think we need to hear from Microsoft.

1. A blistering cool user interface that gets people talking. Given what we’ve already heard, we know there is a new operating system (OS). How consumers feel when use the new OS is going to be key
2. Socially seamless consumer experience.  Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Gowalla plus email, instant messaging, music, picture and video sharing continue to be a growing daily digest of things people do – at home and on their mobile. If Microsoft can seduce consumers to its platform by making the social consumer experience simple and seamless, this may stand to differentiate the company from the field.
3. Mobile Cloud solution for small business – The appetite for getting things done faster, simpler and at lower cost is an insatiable requirement in the small business market. This could be a big home run sector for Microsoft if it puts together a smart toolbox.
4. Tools that allow IT to more easily embrace the consumerization of IT. Increasingly CIO’s and their IT staff are pushed against the wall to support the latest and greatest mobile handset. There is a growing IT policy be dammed attitude brewing that will come to a quick halt the minute some consumer, employee or regulatory infraction results in a lawsuit named after the offending company. Research in Motion (RIM) is the king here; Microsoft needs to go after RIM with both guns afire. Apple has some enterprise hooks, but similar to using the Android platform most CIO’s resort to third party solutions that result in raising the complexity of device management and the total cost of ownership of the mobile solutions.
5. A large application warehouse that has great developer incentives. Nothing more need be said about this.

Clearly there are other basic items we need to hear including but not limited Microsoft’s hardware handset roadmap, carriers and content partners, but this list is a start of what I think could differentiate Microsoft in the mobile sector. What do you think we need to see?

Related articles

• Microsoft pinning mobile hopes on new operating system (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• Microsoft needs to get serious about mobile phones (thestar.com)