The mobile industry is a multi-billion dollar business that consist of hardware and software, and many other things in between.
Microsoft is the tech giant, old enough to experience tremendous success in the world before the internet. And when the mobile industry started to flourish, it unceremoniously flopped out of the mobile ecosystem wars in late 2019 with the death of Windows Mobile. The company tried to make a return, but failed again.
It didn't take long until mobile industry chose Apple and Google as its two most compelling choices.
And Microsoft isn't particularly fond about this at all.
This is why it's planning to make another return.
But unlike its previous attempt, this time, Microsoft is prepared.
In the mobile industry, not only that Apple and Google control the operating systems, because the two also control the app stores, the online search, shopping, payment, and lots more.
Knowing that its two competitors are both experienced in conquering the mobile market, Microsoft is using a strategy that has been proven an extreme success in Asia.
According to reports, Microsoft has considered plans to build a "super app" that would push Microsoft's Bing brand to the forefront. The rest of the app would encompass other products and services, including Teams and Outlook for productivity as well as more consumer-focused services.
This super app concept is popular in China, with businesses like Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent (WeChat) and KakaoTalk. Other apps in Asia that use the same approach, include Gojek and Grab, Tokopedia, Shopee and more.
These apps allow users to use their accounts to buy goods, including food for delivery, pay for bills, send messages to contacts, play games, and more.
Many of these apps handle payments using their own products, or by partnering with third parties.
These super apps have seen massive popularity and usage across their respective societies and, thus, earn massive profit.
Microsoft wants to use this same approach.
Microsoft wants its super app to combine things like shopping, messaging, web search, newsfeeds, and more into a single app for iPhone and Android.
By creating a one-stop smartphone app, Microsoft is showing its ambitious move in its attempt to expand further into consumer services, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
After all, CEO Satya Nadella has previously noted his expectations for increased revenue at Bing.
Nadella has been showing a particular interest in "pushing the Bing search engine to work better with other Microsoft mobile products."
Both Apple and Google would certainly welcome Microsoft as their new competitor, but whether or not Microsoft is able to push this Bing-powered super app to the market, depends on how far it is able to penetrate the market that is already ruled by the two major gatekeepers.
At this time, Microsoft is still considering the plan internally.