I feel like Microsoft has a string of devices which could have been good to great, and they keep just missing the mark somehow - windows phone, ms band, surface hub, heck even zune was as good as an ipod at a lower price point.
Not sure why they keep dropping the ball, lack of focus? Not willing to stay the course? I get dropping zune as the market had moved on, but band was getting good reviews when they dropped it and wearables are still growing. And for the life of me I don't understand why they don't have a motto of a hub in every college class - that device is so perfect for facilitating remote class attendance.
Zune HD really was a good player. I switched to it after 3 Ipod Nanos in a row had trouble holding a charge about five minutes after the warranty period expired. Cheaper price, longer battery life, better (imo) interface, just poor marketing and hard to beat the Itunes Juggernaut. If you subscribed to the $9.99 a month music service then downloading new music and syncing it to the device was smooth and fast and easy in a way that Itunes still hasn't managed. Like you said, no idea why Microsoft keep creating great products but then suck at selling and marketing them.
When I think of Microsoft, I think of "Windows", "Office" and "Enterprise". They essentially have a corporate image and beside a small group of people, the general public is not passionate about Microsoft. Satya Nadellla was right to focus the company on productivity.
So, in my opinion, they dropped the ball on those products because the market did not respond to them for the reasons I mentioned (perception). Xbox is the only exception because MS pumped billions into the division and attracted enough devs to make the product interesting to a significant number of people.
It's not that they were missing the mark, it's that they were WAY late to the game on all fronts. When you have stockpiles of cash, this isn't necessarily a horrible strategy (they ran xbox for 10 years in the red before making money). But in the phone ecosystem, they were crippled because developers wouldn't make apps for them and consumers weren't buying because of the lack of apps.
Similarly they made zune in a bubble. While Apple was innovating to make an iPod that also made phone calls.
The surface hub actually ended up being close to a billion dollar business for Microsoft, which I would say is pretty good for something that costs 5k+ and is out of reach for most consumers.
I was curious about WinPhone, in particular when they started touting the desktop dock functionality. But then i found that the only devices that would support it was way way outside my price range.
Not sure why they keep dropping the ball, lack of focus? Not willing to stay the course? I get dropping zune as the market had moved on, but band was getting good reviews when they dropped it and wearables are still growing. And for the life of me I don't understand why they don't have a motto of a hub in every college class - that device is so perfect for facilitating remote class attendance.