Microsoft wants someone to turn Xbox into Xphone
Redmond recruits for mobile gaming
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Microsoft is advertising for a program manager to drive the Xbox Live experience onto Windows Mobile, hoping to raise one brand with the application of another.
The advert, which was posted just before Christmas and spotted by Engadget, states that Redmond is looking for someone who can "bring Xbox LIVE enabled games to Windows Mobile" in what looks suspiciously like Nokia's pitch for the N-Gage.
The N-Gage was promoted on the back of network gaming, using the cellular connection to interact with other players, which echoes the Microsoft pitch for someone to: "focus specifically on what makes gaming experiences 'LIVE enabled' through aspects such as avatar integration, social interactions, and multi-screen experiences".
The N-Gage was supposed to have those too, and there were supposed to be games that would exist on both the phone and the PC platform. Nokia even released one but the idea never caught on.
Things have changed since then - Apple has educated punters to buy applications, and games, for mobile phones. Hardware has come a long way since the N-Gage too, but it's still hardly Xbox-compatible.
Which makes it hard not to conclude that this is about attaching a successful brand to Windows Mobile handsets in the hope of regenerating their success. The Zune just hasn't got the following necessary, and the platform owes its existing deployments to the Windows connection, so Xbox is the last big brand in the Microsoft cannon - expect it to be applied to mobile phones just as soon as Microsoft can fill the position. ®
COMMENTS
Microsoft caught in temporal shift
There was an article not long ago about Apple taking on the handheld gaming market.
It seems like today's news is being sucked through a category-5 wormhole and being delivered to Microsoft 6 months in our future.
I can't wait to hear about the Microsoft Tablet.
Bill Gates, because I suspect the wormhole was his leaving prank.
re: Microsoft caught in temporal shift
there's nothing new about this - i have a bumper sticker at home somewhere that says "Windows 95 = Mac OS 89" - all that's happened is the magnitude of the temporal distortion has decreased. Conversely, in the past, when Microsoft copied Apple, they made lots of money from it, these days, they're not *cough*Zune*cough*Vista*cough*...
performance????
Windows Mobile^H^H^H^H^H^H Phone is too slow to be used for browsing the web, let alone play games ... what are they thinking?
Get the OS act together, then add the games if it turns out they turned the frog into a prince! Have they ever heard of step-by-step? Never get anywhere when you hurry stuff out ...
Windows Mobile is Windows Phone in France, apparently (from the ads I see), have they renamed it in other countries as well?
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
