Kill Windows Phone or risk dying, analyst tells Microsoft

As part of an agreement he struck with his former employer, Sinofsky -- who led Windows 7 and Windows 8 development -- was barred from working for Apple, Google, AmazonAmazon, EMC, FacebookFacebook, OracleOracle or VMware. Last month he signed up as an advisor to Box, a cloud storage vendor that has aggressively courted enterprise clients, the same customers Microsoft's after for its cloud-based services like SkyDrive and SharePoint Online. Alles zu Amazon auf CIO.de Alles zu Facebook auf CIO.de Alles zu Oracle auf CIO.de

Thompson obliquely blamed Microsoft's culture and history for what he saw as its shortsightedness. "The OS layer was a great place to be [because] it has high prices and high margins, but that layer doesn't exist in mobile. It's been eliminated in mobile, where things are much lower-cost [than PCs].

"From a cultural perspective, I don't think Microsoft has really processed the fact that owning the OS layer, and profiting from it, is no longer an option," Thompson continued.

Most analysts, however, have taken a much more conventional view of the Nokia acquisition.

"Ballmer said Microsoft would become a device and services business. And buying Nokia is the most logical way to get into the mobile device business quickly," said Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates, in an email.