Thoughts on the new Microsoft Windows Phone 7 ads

> [Microsoft](http://crunchgear.com/tag/Microsoft), ostensibly, is trying to break us of this habit and I say ostensibly because, if you really look at the [Windows Phone 7](http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/10/11/the-windows-phone-7-launch-our-take/) UI, you’re actually dealing with more swipes and taps than you’d expect given the sparse interface they are presenting. Sure, the phones are fast and the UI, at times, is strikingly beautiful, but it’s still a phone and, as such, requires lots of attention. Many opinions floating around about the new Windows Phone 7 ad campaign. This article from Mobile Crunch is correct in noting that while the new OS from Microsoft isn’t going to actually solve the problem of the “face down culture” Microsoft is smart to target this audience anyway.

Take a look at the market, and you can quickly see that Microsoft’s best shot for success is with first-time smartphone buyers. Apple iPhone users are loyal the extreme, so much so that they stick with crappy service just to keep their precious iPhones. So you’ll never get them. Blackberry users are hard-core business users, and although Microsoft has a strong customer base there as a company, this new OS is largely lacking the security features and overall business appeal necessary for that group. Android users are mostly one year into a two-year contract. (Remember, the explosive growth of Android in the US all happened in the last 12 months.) So it would be financially painful to leave your Android phone, even if you wanted to. So that leaves people who have never had a smartphone before.

And there are lots of people in that situation. Tech geek that I am, I have lots more friends and family members who don’t have a smartphone than have iPhones or Android phones. And while many of those people haven’t taken the plunge to a smartphone mostly because of the financial commitment (something that Windows Phone 7 won’t help), many have also expressed a discontent with the seeming obsession of people like myself with my phone. They don’t want to “become a slave” to their phones. Many of them avoided getting mobile phones in the first place until it became absolutely socially unacceptable not to have one. These are the “late adopters,” the people who get dragged kicking and screaming into the next technological wonders. And they are a big group.

They also won’t care at all about the lack of “cut and paste.”

So while the ads may be largely deceptive in the sense that Windows Mobile 7 will not fundamentally reduce your “face down” time, from a marketing standpoint, this is actually a pretty smart campaign.

Just as the DROID marketing campaign succeeded by appealing only to the relatively small market of supergeeks (much to my surprise and chagrin), these Microsoft ads will specifically appeal only to the much larger group of non-supergeeks. Like everything else Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 7 so far, I think this is a smart tactic.