Microsoft’s Robbie Bach was once again quizzed about the future of Windows Mobile and Zune (along with Xbox) this time by the FinancialPost.

Here’s Bach talking about the new Windows Mobile 7 chassis we’ve all heard about:

Q Windows Mobile phones look nice, but you don’t have much control or influence over the hardware. Isn’t one of the reasons the iPhone is so successful is that Apple controls both the ecosystem and the hardware?

A You have a dichotomy: choice versus control. When you go out and look at the wall of PCs, part of what makes that wall of PCs is that the [manufacturers] have the freedom to create what they want to create and that choice is tremendously valuable to consumers. The reason it works in the PC space is because early on we did choose to exercise some management of what makes a PC, and there are standards that were developed – largely by us – but with some other people, and so Windows 7 works great on lots of devices. I will tell you if there’s a place where we haven’t done as good work is in the mobile space. We’ve been, in a way, too focused on how many devices we could have and not focused enough on making sure that the base quality of those devices is very strong. So one of the things we are working on with our [manufacturing] partners is ensuring that those experiences are consistent and work great and that the base line that you start with is always rock solid.

Continue reading Robbie Bach talks Zune services and Windows Mobile →