Will that help it?

The Zune HD interface was liked by critics. But the public did not want it. If it came out 6 years before it did, it would have been a big hit. But coming in late to market, and copying an established and entrenched competitor (iPod), is a different matter. The Zune simply failed.

The same thing is going to happen in the phone world. Microsoft’s new Zune-like phone platform will not be able to compete against iPhone.

Google’s Android could only do it because it found an opening in the handset OEM market, of licensing its OS to other manufacturers. Someone was always going to take the OEM market, whatever iPhone did, and Google took it. Now Google’s Android OS is also established, with positive momentum.

Microsoft was just too late. The market has been taken. The only way to dislodge Android and iPhone at this stage, is to come out with a revolutionary product, which Microsoft won’t. The only way Windows Phone 7 can go is to fail, just like Zune did.