Gadgetory

hey this is josh from the verge and we were sitting here with Aaron woman from Microsoft director your director of Microsoft you work in the Windows Phone marketing marketing to ya and we're at CES again this is a big it once again I mean how many how many CES is this vid for what it's a really funny story because I was here for our first one so like not that where they'll just showed up he tears like 15 years ago were you yeah so this look like you were just attending them no it's like a technical product manager at the time so you like you're like a Benjamin Button I've been here forever okay by god I've been waiting for phone wow wow so like it's a really wonderful book end for me because yeah like a first last it feels right oh yeah that's right that's sad yeah but you're working on your doing we just fun stuff there's a lot you guys are doing a bunch of announcements here yeah it's been here before eighty big agt partnership you're doing LTE devices the titan to is one of them and the nokia phone that every keeps talking about the Lumia 900 yep and is this must seem like a really exciting time because you guys have spent I mean we saw that we first saw the phones at Mobile World Congress in 2009 10 what year was a thousand ten was a 10 yeah so it's been almost two years now that you guys introduced these but it's it's starting now to seem like you're getting a little bit of traction yeah I think you know what's amazing is you know we think when we unveiled the phone initially we surprised a lot of people you know and i think you know since that time we've actually had the chance to actually bring it to market yeah and actually see it in consumers hands how do you think you surprise people i mean i was surprised when I saw because of the design why design and actually the change of the approach I think people kind of expected us to kind of evolved the product into kind of a slightly better version of windows mobile and so the design is part of it but i also think kind of rethinking how we deal with our partnerships and prioritize OEMs and mobile operators and really think and kind of take accountability for the consumer all up right it was a really different approach and i think that's really starting to pay off in the last year where people really been satisfied with the products yeah so so do you know your market share is right now I don't know it's not high yeah right so what Majnu so the note the note get announcement is obviously a big deal yeah it seems to me like the partnership with Microsoft is pretty tight and you guys always collected and see it as we're going to make this flagship you know here is what the best of what Windows Phone can be and go out there and get it so so my first question is how do you balance that with these other partnerships you make Samsung I mean you guys work with Samsung HTC LG the first thing I would say is like market share is one of those things that tends to be a trailing indicator versus a leading indicator you know it's one of those things that happens as a successful product enters the market and a lot of people fall in love with it and so I think we feel really good with kind of the trajectory in the sense that people are using the product they are falling in love with it you know people that are touching the new products or fall in love with it giving us really positive reviews right and then I think when you think about the step approach of how to actually build into scale there's a lot of things that go into that and one of the probably the most important is the partnerships I mean obviously we don't make hardware so partnering really closely with a nokia or a samsung or HTC really enable us to actually get to just greater choice and greater selection some cases like nokia where they really bet the company's future on Windows Phone that is a product and I said it is super loud it's my just a few I was like this way to see how loud I look at it's like a soundtrack yeah i guess like it's like i'm excited yeah no but i think that partnership is such a critical piece and you know I think Nokia really embraces really similar values we're like this and say but I think that idea focus on design I think that just feels really right we can have designed at the nokia booth they've got things like an asshole NASA helmet next to or is it the kind of helmet my laboratory sitting next to a Lumia 900 the case they are anokhi as a company's obviously taking design and kind of paying this later it's what they're known for you know when you talk to consumers about the nokia brand even in the u.s. people the memory that they haves is just these really beautifully designed device yes right that brand it still has that affinity and it's not because they've got great marketing it's because that's kind of their pedigree of their phones right but but how do you I mean how do you maintain this relationship with Nokia which is obviously very close to keep other partners exams in LG happy yeah in devices well I think a lot of that is going to come from what no key is actually going to provide to the broader ecosystem I think they're going to create demand and awareness for windows phone and I think Samsung and HTC you're going to benefit that right you know my guess is if you'd ask other OEMs whether they would build an iphone they probably would not because there's not just a great competitor in there that's built a great device but there's opportunity demand right and so these things are gonna be really positive nokia ability in your iphone is le you're saying no I do think they're building an incredible device that you know right but is that I suppose in a way right if the iphone is the halo device for Apple then the Lumia 900 is your halo device I think so Lumias 9 hunter is going to be amazing you know like I've touched you on side with Halon device well I just think there's gonna be a lot of different phones for a lot of different people you know the Titan to with the 16 megapixel camera yeah it's going to appeal to people in a very unique way right now and and and so I don't you know I don't want to presume to know what individual people want from a phone i think that's right don't you be alright i suppose of your job to dell what it do a lot of them well but what's funny about that is when you talk to consumers what they want varies immensely right like i actually prefer a smaller devices i actually put in my front pocket yeah my wife carries a purse he doesn't care how big the phone is right and so a larger phone actually is more comfortable right hard and you think show you think she'll be a fan of the 4.3 inch screen versus you're using already using a radar i'm using a ratos 3.7 yeah it feels really good it's rounded doesn't catch on anybody it's a really nice fights they've executed really well on it and yeah so I think you know she's she's kind of had some of the larger devices in the past and I think that's something that really appeals to her it's just really easy to use you know and it's going to come down to that kind of personal preference and it's one of the beautiful parts about Windows Phone is you're seeing kind of more and more selection of devices at individual carriers like HD you know if i look at HTC and samsung at 18 teen then you add nokia that's that's actually a pretty good selection yeah a really high quality phone it allows people to choose yeah so so when so Stephen Elop a couple of times yesterday on stage said that this is the first real windows phone I asked him about it sure I want to ask you being first off does it do you bristle a little bit when you hear the first real windows I'm even Ellen windows phones for like a year I I mean the thing I admire most is Stephens passion you know they I mean he's he's actually really fun to watch on stage he's probably boy it has a really diplomatic right well I think he's really passionate you know and I think so many great businesses are built around passionate people getting involved and caring deeply about their product and right you know it's some level like I have the most beautiful kids on the planet I don't know who this is a true statement I go fat you're like as they are the most i can prove it I've done studies at least my first one for sure yeah well you gotta have to choose your other children are you really love west a few years but i think i was the dad and but it but i think that idea that people can get so in love with the products they want to build and have that amount of passion yeah that's really a teeny is appealing for me to hear this end Stephon but does that really mean anything yeah I think it means that people care about the quality of products supreme the marketplace I mean so yeah I think it I think it articulates something that he believes and i think is true when you touched their products it doesn't feel like something that was thrown together was sorry that was thoughtful and they've thought through in that includes the entire lineup even the 710 which is a much more reasonably priced device i mean it's going to be available i think at t-mobile tomorrow yeah i mean it's really well thought through device yeah and we did everybody with it not really i think we liked it you think they're I care about what your man by did I didn't interview I can't remember the score was bad thanks for him in here I don't think it was like a Lumia level level score blows I mean it's a different device four different person right you know um but again I think they thought through what they could do within that price range and bring a really quality advice to to consumer so like you know I think I think they really thought through it so and so now you've got this device is really beautiful halo device that everybody's talking about I love that you're going to use the halo but I mean I think I think that when you I think that given what we've heard from Microsoft and Nokia about the partnership given the level of hype and focus has been put on this particular device yeah then their line of these Lumia phones I don't think it's unfair to say in North America the flagship or the hail I think it's going to be a great windows device is the Lumia 900 but say so you've got the gray phone yeah you've got an OS that I think a lot of people really do like and I yeah it's great I think they're I mean I have my nitpicks but I my name picture everything but I do think I mean I looked I played with the 900 today and I think yeah this is really sexy I could live with this device yeah and so now and this is really where the marketing guy comes in how do you make these things make an impact I mean you get intense competition right Apple huge footprint just it kind of in this endemic you know footprint yeah there you've got an android yeah I'm huge market share people know them people love them there have not been they don't have good memories I think of Microsoft in the mobile space if you use windows mobile at its tail end and you probably walked away from it to something else because saying I want a blackberry or i won a parent I to repurchase right so how do you bring people back to this and how do you bring new people to I mean what's the strategy yeah I think it's probably going to come down to three things the first thing is continue to build a great product you know I think we're very very focused that people will forgive low market share over some period of time but there's not a lot of forgiveness for a poor product so you know job number one is really just building a great quality product job number two then comes down to kind of working through our mobile operator partner especially here in the US we're focusing and getting them to get passionate about the product and helping you know retail representatives really talk to consumers in a way that's credible and humble in terms of our history but also you know true to the things that we are great at so that we can actually kind of qualify customers at the point of sale an enormous number of customers that come into a store haven't actually made up their minds right terms of which phone and so you know trying to win the hearts and minds at the retail stores it's such a big effort and why 18 TS announcement was such a big part for us right i mean this is something that i think that Stephen Elop talked about on stage yesterday which is or baby even ralph de la Vega care about who but there was a particular point made about getting the people who are in the store educated about your phones and saying it is a huge piece that's actually I mean I remember hearing when when palm released it pre that there was a lot of trouble with verizon with the people just not knowing about the device and understanding them and not being able to tell people about them and they would direct them to my phone so for you guys as the as the guy who's trying to get in there yeah it's basically your biggest barrier in some ways is if they don't if you don't ever point someone to it in a store usually retail people do an incredibly good job of trying to listen to the customer you know so right you know most of those people aren't in there just hockey phone stuff the door I they really are trying to understand the customer and so our challenge has always been making sure they understand how to qualify a customer into a windows phone and and what a windows phone can do for customers and educate them on that that opportunity so they can just find the right fit it doesn't so much of going over at the top or anything like that yeah but it's why announcements like 18t nouncement are so important to us because they own that connection with a customer in a way that's the last mile and it's where most of the sales are exiting there have been some reports that we saw about people being incentivized 22 pitch windows phones I mean is that it happens throughout the industry I think every phone manufacturer and partner actually do that and so in some cases the mobile operator has strategies in momentum right hunt you do then sir I mean but you guys will be doing that I mean you're gonna we're motivated go compete at retail and like this you won't be able to tell be able to get the phone yeah I mean but at the same time I don't think anyone has a desire to sell a windows phone to someone that's not gonna be happy you know like so much of this you know any increased sales momentum is going to come from a satisfied base and so right it's not worth artificially selling a phone to someone simply satisfied so that's kind of great product win a retail really focused and the third thing I would say is marketing execution you still have this huge opportunity in terms of the windows brand itself in kind of the direction it's going what it means for people and making it relevant to the phone purchase and driving awareness that there is an opportunity to actually buy a Windows device when you're making a phone choice and those are kind of the three big pieces I mean there's a lot of other timing by the marketing has to obviously you guys haven't been you've been doing some marketing variaty centric marketing I think we've been very partner centric in the Marathi you know we worked really closely with OEMs and mobile operators don't continue to look for opportunity are you to start telling a story about just windows phone in general in terms of marketing I think we're evaluating you know I don't know if we've made any decisions in terms of how we're going to go to marketing I think what's clear to us is we have to translate the brand awareness of windows and the Infinity that people have for windows and make that relevant to our product inside this category right and that's an effort and I don't think anyone feels accountability for that other than Microsoft right and so that that doesn't necessarily mean a specific marketing spend in terms of hey we're going to give this person money or that campaigner yeah but it does mean we have a very specific set of objectives that are going to lead to I think not too short term but long-term success ok so I know you have to get out of here but I have a Mexican I help I know yeah yeah it's so warm we've got to do say to the temperature in the rupee up but I have a question for you it's a personal question yeah so we have a forum on the verge it's called curling club Mike reserves right it's named after a douglas coupland book yeah now Microsoft or a great book cheese under a door thigh highs a big fan of the book I'm first read it but we're changing the name yeah people don't like it because it suggests it has some negative because it's basically a de- turb but you know playful uh suggestions for what to the internally there's a lot of this Microsoft D kind of Microsoft Office website is I personally have a preference for like Aaron's playground or something I don't know if that was playground I don't know if that's going to kind of sounds like it would be like a weird it just feels like I think people would have this instant affinity that would be really positive Mike would like women's playground is that big fat okay so so you're putting in for Aaron yes Aaron's playground woman's legs obvious like there's some opportunities are very selfish talk to my brother very selfless modest proposal every patient Aaron thanks so glad they are you appreciate it