讲故事与叙事2017mondaynote.com
虚构：谁杀死了 Windows Phone？
Fiction: Who Killed Windows Phone?
导读
这篇出自 Monday Note 的“虚构”文章，用侦探小说的口吻追问“是谁杀了 Windows Phone”：凶手是微软自己、运营商、开发者，还是苹果和谷歌？对写作者来说，它示范了如何把一场商业失败写成悬疑叙事：先列出嫌疑人，再用可查证的事实逐条审问。评论区补充的一手细节也很有用，正好展示“架空设想”该如何与真实时间线对照。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把“某产品为何失败”写成侦探故事：开头先抛“凶手是谁”的悬念，再逐个审问嫌疑人，让读者跟着证据走。
- 02
写架空或反事实情节前，先核对史实和时间线；评论者指出“免费”这招微软 2014 年真用过，只是太晚。虚构的力量来自精确的现实。
- 03
用升级断档、内存门槛、机型定价这类具体硬事实做证据链，比“战略失误”之类的抽象判断更有说服力。
- 04
让情绪附着在具体物件上：读者记住的常是某个界面风格，而非成败结论，结尾可落在这样的细节上。
- 05
HN 评论精选
失败是内因：升级断档、测试不足、机型和定价策略一步步把用户推走。
凶手显然是微软自己。从 Windows Mobile 6.5 设备不能升级到 WP7，到 WP7 又不能升级到 WP8，微软在支持老用户上一直做得不好。WP8 在低配机上表现不错，吸引了不少只买最便宜机型的首次智能手机用户；应用确实缺很多，但那些应用在同等价位的安卓机上也跑得很糟，没有反而更好。WP8.1 加了不少好东西，却让主屏可以换成“加载中……”，从后台切回应用时的等待已经够糟了。后来 WP10 承诺给 WP8 设备升级，基本没兑现：多数机器内存不够不符合条件，其余也很少能通过更新系统拿到升级，得绕一堆弯路。这样也好，因为 WP10 第一年的版本像是没人在真机上测试过，直到 Creators Update 才算像样——除了 Edge，它比 IE 差得惊人，可微软又不让商店上别的浏览器。再加上出厂就装 WP10 的手机只有五款左右，其中三款是高端，低端的比能升级到 WP10 的 WP8 机型还贵、硬件最多也就持平。
toast0查看英文原文
Clearly, Microsoft killed windows phone. Between Windows mobile 6.5 devices not being able to upgrade to WP7, and then again from WP7 to WP8, they weren't doing well to support existing users. WP8 was pretty good on low spec phones though, so you got a lot of new to smart phone users buying the cheapest thing; yes, a lot of apps were missing, but a lot of those run so bad on similarly priced androids that it's almost better not to have them. WP8.1 added some good things, but also added the ability for the homescreen to swap out; loading... when starting a backgrounded app was bad enough. Anyway, there were new cheap options that were decent and shipped with WP8.1, so. Then came WP10 -- the promised upgrades for WP8 devices didn't really pan out, the majority of WP8 devices aren't eligible because they don't have enough ram, and very few of the rest were offered the upgrade through the update system, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops. That's really for the best because the first year of WP10 releases seem like nobody actually tested them on a phone, until Creators Update, which was actually pretty decent -- except for Edge, which is so much amazingly worse than IE, but Microsoft didn't want any other browsers on their store. It doesn't help that there's only about 5 phones available that ship with WP10, three of which are high end, and the low end ones are more expensive than the WP8 phones upgradable to WP10, and have at best, equivalent hardware. I'm not saying a good WP10 release would have somehow gotten windows phone into 2nd place (even worldwide, where Apple is way behind Android), but it would have kept them out of speculation for which platform would finally fail first -- Symbian, Blackberry, Blackberry 10, or Windows Phone. Edit to add -- each flavor of Windows Phone strongly encouraging developers to throw out the SDK and start again doesn't help either. There may never been more WP10 users than there are WP8 users right now, rewriting the app to better support WP10 is a waste of effort, and the proposed update to WP10 to stop supporting apps that can also run on WP8 is a great way to kill both platforms.
架空设定要核对史实与时间点：“免费”这招真用过，但用得太晚。
文中那个架空现实里，微软只要一个标题就能轻松干掉安卓：“Windows Phone 现在免费”。值得一提的是，微软 2014 年真的这么做了——对 9 英寸及以下的设备免收 Windows 授权费（附链接）。只不过这已经是 2010 年 Windows Phone 7 首发很久之后的事了。
seltzered_查看英文原文
"In this alternate reality, Microsoft easily kills Android with one simple headline: Windows Phone Now Free" It's worth noting that Microsoft did actually do this in 2014 - they made windows free for devices sized 9 inches or less: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-officially-makes-windows-free-for-devices-under-9-inches Granted, this is long after Windows Phone 7's initial release back in 2010.
内部的架构选择才是长期伏笔，写失败故事要给“远因”留位置。
Windows CE（Windows Phone 8 之前的基础）被基本终结时，我在这个圈子里待过一阵；很悲哀地看着微软员工的博客慢慢荒芜，评论区全是不知所措的开发者，因为微软不断挪动奶酪。我把责任归给 Experiment 19（附链接）：这个原型证明在相同硬件上，Windows NT 和 CLR 能比 Windows CE 和 .NET Compact Framework 表现更好。Experiment 19 完成后几个月内，微软就启动了后来成为 Windows Phone 8 和面向 ARM 平板的 Windows RT 的项目。
j_s查看英文原文
I was in the Windows CE space (the basis for Windows Phone 'til appx. Windows Phone 8) a bit when Windows CE was mostly killed; so sad to see the MS employee blogs withering on the vine filled with comments from helpless developers as Microsoft kept moving the cheese. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/obloch/2010/05/03/windows-ce-is-not-dead/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2012/11/16/introducing-netcf-3-9-in-windows-embedded-compact-2013-a-faster-leaner-and-multi-core-runtime/ https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/595712/no-support-for-windows-ce-and-compact-framework-development-in-vs2010 -- I blame Experiment 19: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/experiment-19/ The prototype proved that Windows NT and the CLR could deliver better performance than Windows CE and the .NET Compact Framework on identical hardware. Within months of the completion of Experiment 19, Microsoft launched efforts to build what would become Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT for ARM tablets.
读者记住的往往是具体的美学细节，而不是产品成败的结论。
我个人只是怀念 Metro UI，WP7 和 Zune HD 那一版。此后没有哪个界面那么好看。
Ezhik查看英文原文
Well, I personally still just miss Metro UI, the Windows Phone 7 and Zune HD iterations of it. No UI quite looked as pretty since.
同类还值得读
Pixar in a Box：可汗学院的皮克斯讲故事课
Pixar in a Box – Khan Academy
这篇是 Khan Academy 与 Pixar 合作的“Pixar in a Box”项目介绍，用计算机图形和动画制作来讲解数学概念。
讲故事与叙事2015 · 753 分 · 65 评4 条写作要点编辑精选皮克斯的讲故事法则
Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)
这是皮克斯动画工作室流传甚广的 22 条讲故事法则清单，从“从前有个___，每天___，有一天___”的骨架，到如何重写自己讨厌的作品。
讲故事与叙事2018 · 513 分 · 74 评4 条写作要点编辑精选皮克斯通过可汗学院提供免费在线讲故事课程
Pixar offers free online lessons in storytelling via Khan Academy
这篇报道介绍皮克斯与可汗学院合作的免费在线课程《讲故事的艺术》，把皮克斯内部的故事创作方法公开给普通学习者。
讲故事与叙事2017 · 503 分 · 93 评4 条写作要点编辑精选用皮克斯的故事公式说服投资人
Use Pixar's story formula to win over investors
这篇文章借用皮克斯的故事公式（以《海底总动员》为例）来示范如何给投资人讲创业路演故事：先讲目标、再讲障碍、最后讲改变。
讲故事与叙事2021 · 439 分 · 188 评4 条写作要点编辑精选贝索斯如何把叙事变成亚马逊的竞争优势
Jeff Bezos Turned Narrative into Amazon's Competitive Advantage
这篇讲杰夫·贝索斯如何把“六页叙事备忘录”变成亚马逊的管理与竞争优势：用可独立阅读的叙述性文档替代口头汇报和 PowerPoint。
讲故事与叙事2019 · 435 分 · 181 评4 条写作要点编辑精选