Windows Mobile lost 28 percent of its smartphone market share between last year's third quarter and this year's third quarter, according to market researcher Gartner.
Figures released Thursday by Gartner show that Microsoft's mobile OS had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in Q3 2008. A year later, it had 7.9 percent. Meanwhile, the iPhone's share rose from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and Research In Motion's share jumped from 16 percent to 20.8 percent.
Symbian's share fell from 49.7 percent to 44.6 percent over the same period--a 10 percent drop.
Read more of "Windows Mobile loses nearly a third of market share" at ZDNet UK.
One App Store to rule them all?
(Credit: Apple)Apple has an app store, of course. So does Microsoft. Google has two, one for Android and now one for Wave. In fact, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't have an app store these days.
We're swimming in app stores. Or drowning.
I'm serious. At the Symbian conference in London on Tuesday, I attended a panel that was overrun with app stores. Nokia, Symbian, GetJar, Sony Ericsson, Handmark, and Handango were all promoting their respective app stores, each talking about how great theirs is.
They're probably right. They probably are all great. But how am I, as a lay consumer, going to figure out which one to use?
More particularly, how will developers decide which platforms to target?
After all, everyone wants to be a platform these days. Does that mean that no one is?
Developers may be spoiled for choice, but "choice" in this case may not be what they want. Developers need to feed their families and will follow the money. Money is more easily made when choice is manageable (which is a euphemism for "limited").
This means we'll see plenty of application developers remain with Apple (though it's debatable whether the iPhone is the land of milk and honey for anyone but Apple), but we'll also continue to see a stampede to Google Android.
At present, every other mobile platform is playing for third place, but this could change: Symbian, as a foundation, is in a good position to launch an effective challenge to both Apple and Google if it can get its marketing and execution right.
Outside of mobile, it's unclear what role app stores will play. It's nice that Google Wave is getting an app store, but it's just one more "forge" among many. Every vendor (my employer, included) seems to feel an irresistible urge to create a forge/app store where third-party developers can "add value" to their "platforms."
Do we really need these? Or do we need more general repositories like Google Code and SourceForge?
I wish I had a definitive answer. I'm just not sure that these competing app stores do anything more than appeal to vendor vanity, and they could end up causing customer confusion.
As a consumer, I don't want to have to think about sorting among competing app stores. I just want applications.
Presumably, if I use a Sony Ericsson phone, I'll automatically find myself within its app store (unless my wireless provider doesn't slot me into its app store first, that is). But if that's the case, what's the point of making a big deal over a glorified catalog of applications that work with my given device/software/etc.?
It strikes me that app stores, like the cloud, are simply a way to dress up old ideas. If they help to organize potential buyers and sellers of software, great. But I still think I'd prefer meta-repositories of applications, similar to SourceForge, than individual application repositories for every single device or piece of software that I happen to buy.
How about you?
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Love and Microsoft are entities that, at times, have had a fractious relationship.
However, take one glance at the new TV ad for Windows Phone and you will see just how much progress has been made to bring a little healing to that Microsoft feeling.
A man, who looks suspiciously moody and French, is leaving his apartment.
His lover is pleading with him to stay. But wait he has more than one lover. He has, well, five, six, seven of them. Well, he is French, right?
There's something strange about these lovers too. It's not that they seem tired after a night of passionate application to the art of lovemaking. No, these are simply passionate applications.
They are Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, and, good Lord, is that Twitter twitching like, well, a technically troubled teenager?
How can this man, this louche, sleepy-eyed Frenchman, leave these sweet, tempting applications behind in his apartment while he goes off gallivanting with, who knows, a Snow Leopard?
But wait, this is not like those French movies where the ugly guy gets the girl, then gets the girls, and is still eternally unsatisfied with his existential lot.
No, this Frenchman has a sense of humor.
Just when you are about to burst into tears at his callous, Gallic behavior, he turns back toward his applications and waves his cell phone to show them that, yes, he loves them and, no, there is no second family of applications in Marseilles.
The applications, filled with love and iconic commitment, gaily skip down the steps of his apartment building and begin to bundle themselves into his car. Love is the journey, not the destination.
And, in a final gesture of untrammeled human humility, the Twitter icon knows its rightful place in this menage-a-many: the back end.
As it slides into the trunk, my heart hops, skips, jumps, and almost flies through my T-shirt as I whisper to myself: "Microsoft. It's a love thing."
It will take time to get used to the concept, but I know that, as in all relationships that start out with good intentions, everything is possible.
Symbian has the market share; Apple's iPhone has the mind share. The future of mobile, however, will be owned by the company or project that best appeals to developers, especially open-source developers. Microsoft, with its long-standing interest in developers, also needs to reach out to open-source developers, if it wants to succeed.
Part of this reason is cost. As IBM's Savio Rodrigues suggests, Research In Motion could reduce its cost and improve the reach of its platform through open source:
RIM should be utilizing R&D investments more effectively by leveraging existing open-source projects. RIM could have built (its software development kit) for a lower investment by starting with PhoneGap or an equivalent open-source framework...This was absolutely a missed opportunity for RIM to compete versus Apple, Palm, and others using open source.
No, I'm not going to suggest that RIM open-source the BlackBerry Enterprise Server; that would be silly. Rather, I believe RIM could have saved R&D costs, increased the value of its BlackBerry platform, and influenced developers building for the iPhone, if RIM had built the Widget SDK on top of (an) open-source project like PhoneGap.
Symbian is taking this road, as Michael Mace points out, putting developers, and not itself, at the center of attention. The more money third-party developers can make with Symbian, the better off Symbian will be.
Palm, too, is trying to appeal to open-source developers by making it cheap and lucrative to develop for Palm devices.
Apple's world, by contrast, comes with a hugely sexy device, optimized distribution...and low return on investment for its developers, according to Newsweek. In Apple's world, developers add value to Apple, but not necessarily to themselves.
Microsoft is different. Although the company has not committed its mobile strategy to open source, it is a company that has a serious romance with developers. With 97 percent of its sales coming through its channel, Microsoft depends upon third-party development and distribution partners.
Windows Mobile 6.5
(Credit: Microsoft)Now Microsoft is launching Windows Mobile 6.5, a light upgrade to previous versions that has failed to catch the media's attention. Today, the company has few--246, to be exact--applications available for version 6.5 in its Windows Marketplace for Mobile, but it has more than 20,000 designed for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1.
The question, however, is whether it can attract new developers to the seemingly moribund Windows Mobile, which declined in market share to just 9 percent of handsets shipped in the second quarter of 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal. An open-source complement strategy, similar to what it's using for SharePoint and its CRM product, could help.
It must, as Google is calling.
Microsoft has no choice but at least dabble in open source, regardless of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's publicly sanguine stance on Google. Open-source Google Android is starting to make waves, even if its momentum can be overhyped. Verizon has jumped on the Android bandwagon, citing the "unmatched openness and flexibility of the Android platform."
Open source isn't an afterthought for Google. It's a core business strategy. And it's winning converts.
Ballmer pooh-poohs Android and further discards "free as a business model," but he acknowledges that Android represents open source, with significant financial resources behind it.
There's more to it than this. Free is a great business model, one that Microsoft has used to tremendous effect, as Internet Explorer, SharePoint, Bing, and other Microsoft successes demonstrate and as Techdirt highlights.
Microsoft needs to integrate open source into its mobile strategy. It needs developer attention. As CNET's Ina Fried reports, a recent Windows Mobile 6.5 session at Code Camp attracted just six developers. You don't win with numbers like that, and you don't get developers without open source, anymore.
Microsoft could attempt to replicate Apple's model of mobile success, but its DNA is more Google than Apple. Microsoft rightly recognized early on that building products soup-to-nuts, as Apple does, was not the best model to achieve ubiquity (even if some suggest that this model has broken the PC industry). That model works great, early in the formation of a market, as Clayton Christensen theorizes, but it loses its efficacy in mature markets.
Mobile doesn't yet count as "mature," but it's getting there fast.
An enabling strategy similar to what Microsoft did on the "desktop" would succeed in mobile, too, but it's going to require a Googlesque open-source approach for Microsoft--not the Apple approach.
This isn't to suggest that Microsoft should open-source everything. As I learned from my own open-source mobile days at Lineo, to build a successful business in mobile (or elsewhere), you've got to own something.
Google is interested in owning the advertising that results from greater mobile Web browsing and other mobile services. For Microsoft, it could match this, and extend it with ties to its server and personal computer businesses, like SharePoint. It probably can't afford, however, to try to build a big per-unit licensing business--not with Google undermining that model with its free Android.
Microsoft simply needs to find the right "format" in which to deliver its open-source mobile strategy. The software giant has 90,000-plus employees. Surely, one of them can figure this out.
Updated at 8:05 am PDT with a slideshow and some first impressions of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store, at 4:25 pm PT with a correction about Marketplace reviews, and at 12:10 am PT on 10/7/09 with an update about the availability of Marketplace on other Windows Mobile platforms, and details on the My Phone service.
On Tuesday morning, as Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 phones hit the market, two of its mobile services are officially launching.
Brand new to 6.5 phones are Windows Marketplace for Mobile--an application storefront like that found on iPhone, BlackBerry, and every other major mobile OS--and a Web-based backup and sharing service called My Phone.
We've heard plenty about both services in the days and months leading up to this release. The much-anticipated Windows Marketplace for Mobile has a well-thought out model that will eventually include both a Web and on-phone storefront, and a flexible billing system that lets you purchase apps using either a credit card or your monthly phone bill (depending on the carrier). According to Microsoft, the PC catalog isn't available now but is planned to be released before the year's end.
There's also a self-service return policy that gives you a full refund from unwanted apps within a 24-hour period. There's a caveat, of course. You'll be limited to one refund per month to avoid abusing the system. The app store launches in 29 countries on Tuesday.
In our pre-release demo, we found the app store to be a little visually boring, though serviceable. Following a proven app store model, Windows Marketplace for Mobile has a search bar, a featured apps showcase, and a list of browseable categories. In them, you'll only see applications that work on your phone model and in your country. There's also an personalized screen that helps you manage the apps you have. As with iPhones and BlackBerrys, if you switch devices, you can easily re-download the apps you installed through the Marketplace. You'll sign on with your Windows Live ID. We heard before the launch that you won't be able to create your own reviews until the second phase, but in truth, rating and reviews are fully functional today.
Microsoft didn't tell us how many apps were expected in the app store Tuesday morning, but with 82 games ready to download, there are at least 100 apps altogether. We already see Facebook, Netflix Mobile, Zagat to Go, Windows Live, and the Midomi music app. Most app prices range so far from free to about $10, though the most expensive one we spotted so far is a $25 golf calculator. We saw quite a few $20 games as well.
... Read more |
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HTC Pure
(Credit: HTC)With the launch of the first round of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices just a day away, AT&T threw its hat into the ring and announced two of its own Windows phones, the HTC Pure and the HTC Tilt2.
The Pure is a rebranded version of the HTC Touch Diamond2, which we took a look at earlier this year, and sports some design changes and, of course, the new features of Windows Mobile 6.5. This includes the Microsoft's MyPhone backup service, an improved Internet Explore Mobile browser that offers Flash Lite support and better navigation tools, and support for Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which will launch later this year.
In addition, the mobile OS offers a more touch-friendly user interface with a new Today screen, Start menu, and Lock screen. As part of the HTC Touch series, however, you can choose to stick with the company's TouchFlo 3D interface.
Designed to have both consumer and business appeal, the HTC Pure features a slick design and offers a 3.2-inch WVGA touch screen with both a gravity and light sensor. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G support are all onboard as well as a 5-megapixel camera and a music player. The Pure is available now for $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
HTC Tilt2
(Credit: HTC)Meanwhile for AT&T's power business customers, they'll finally get their turn at their own version of the HTC Touch Pro2 in the coming weeks. Dubbed the HTC Tilt2 (and obviously the successor to the AT&T Tilt), the smartphone has a leg up on T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon's version of the smartphone by shipping with Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the box.
The rest of the features are similar to the other models, which include a 3.6-inch WVGA tilting touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and HTC's Straight Talk Technology for improved speakerphone quality. The HTC Tilt2 is expected to be available in the coming weeks and will cost $299.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
On Sale Now: $299.99
View the latest prices for HTC Tilt2 (AT&T)
Apple's iPhone and Android-based smartphones have both seen solid growth throughout the world this year, says a report released Wednesday by AdMob.
The iPhone's worldwide market share jumped from 33 percent to 40 percent over February to August, according to AdMob's "August Mobile Metrics Report," which tracked smartphone usage for that six-month period. AdMob, which serves ads for mobile Web sites and apps, bases its numbers on data from ad requests, impressions, and clicks.
Phones running Google's Android OS picked up a 7 percent market share by August versus only 2 percent in February, thanks to rapid gains in North America and Western Europe, said AdMob. Since its debut this summer, T-Mobile's Android-powered MyTouch has been a top seller in both of those regions.
(Credit:
AdMob)
With the launch of the Pre, Palm's WebOS has also taken off, grabbing a 4 percent slice of the smartphone market in August.
On the downside, older smartphone systems have witnessed a drop in market share, according to AdMob.
The global share for Nokia's Symbian OS fell from 43 percent in February to 34 percent in August. However, Nokia smartphones remain hot sellers, accounting for 12 of the top 20 smartphones tracked by AdMob. Nokia's N97 and 5800 XpressMusic units were the fourth and fifth most popular smartphones in the U.K. for August.
Research In Motion's slice of the market dropped slightly from 10 percent in February to 8 percent in August. Still, RIM's Blackberry devices accounted for three of the top 20 smartphones around the world. The Palm OS, running on older units such as the Centro, declined in share from 3 percent in February to 1 percent in August.
Finally, Microsoft's Windows Mobile also lost share, falling from 7 percent in February to 4 percent in August, according to the report.
AdMob sells and tracks ads on mobile Web pages and applications to more than 7,000 publishers. The company compiled the data for this report based on its analysis of more than 10 billion monthly ad requests from over 160 different countries.
(Credit:
F)
On Friday, Mozilla released Fennec Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile, the latest in Mozilla's effort to put its Firefox browser on a mobile phone. As with Fennec 1.0 beta 3 for the Maemo platform found on some Nokia Internet Tablets, Fennec for Windows Mobile makes changes to the mobile browser's theme, and its scrolling and panning performance.
In particular, it's using what's called a tile cache rendering system to hold onto the part of the screen that has already been rendered. As you scroll and pan around, it should take less time to refresh the screen, since Fennec won't be downloading the same content afresh. This is the same type of technology used in Google Maps.
In addition, Mozilla says it has increased Fennec's start-up time, though you'll need to reboot the Windows Mobile phone for the difference to take effect. Swiping along the edge of the directional pad on the HTC Touch Pro now controls zooming. In the meantime, Fennec now supports more screen resolutions for any other Windows Mobile phone, so it could potentially look better on your device.
While Mozilla has no hard date set for completing Fennec 1.0 for Windows Mobile (which in all probability, could be called Firefox for Windows Mobile when it's done) it has set a target time for releasing Fennec on the Maemo platform in Q4, which brings us to before the end of December. This fits the timeline of Mozilla's open design competition for the company's Firefox for Mobile campaign, which will cut off voting on October 7, 2009.
Fennec Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile is ready to try for your Windows Mobile phone and can be downloaded from this CAB file. Remember that as an unstable alpha release, you may encounter bugs and other issues. For more details about what's new, you can find Mozilla's release notes here.
Related story: Firefox Mobile' updates for Windows Mobile
HTC's Touch Pro2 is among the new phones expected to ship with Windows Mobile 6.5.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft is hoping that a new crop of phones this fall will help the company in its quest to stay relevant in the cell phone market.
The software maker said on Tuesday that the first phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 will launch worldwide on October 6 and will include phones running on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.
The new crop of phones will also be the first that Microsoft will sell under the "Windows Phone" brand, an effort to tap into the marketing power of its flagship desktop operating system.
With Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft is hoping to convince users that its phones are not just good for doing work. Much of Microsoft's phone focus in recent times has been on improving the operating system's consumer features in an effort to regain ground lost to rivals.
"We know people want a phone for their whole life," said Stephanie Ferguson, general manager in the Windows Mobile unit. "They just frankly want to do more. That's why we've shifted."
Although it includes features such as improved Web browsing and conversation threaded e-mail, as well as a new Windows Marketplace app store, Windows Mobile 6.5 is seen largely as an interim upgrade of the operating system.
Microsoft has come under criticism for the rather slow pace at which its software has evolved in the face of competition from the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre.
AT&T, which is one of Microsoft's oldest partners in the cell phone business, said that it is supporting Windows Mobile 6.5, although the carrier acknowledged that Apple and others in the market have grown faster.
Even in large corporations, Windows Mobile has not maintained the position it once seemed poised to inherit.
"Microsoft probably didn't get the share of the enterprise space that we all would have expected three or four years ago," said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices for AT&T. "I think Research In Motion did even a better than expected job of gaining that share."
AT&T didn't say which of its phones will support Windows Mobile 6.5, but it will likely be a mix of new phones and current models that can be upgraded to the new OS. The company is looking to close one gap between Windows Mobile and its rivals. Starting next month, customers will be able to more easily use their Windows Mobile phones on AT&T's Wi-Fi network, matching a feature already available to its BlackBerry and iPhone users.
As for Android, AT&T has yet to commit publicly to shipping an Android phone, but Bradley said the company is actively studying whether to do so.
"We are going to do what's right for customers," Bradley said. "It's an important development in the industry and one that we are watching real carefully to make sure that our customers have choice and the best service."
For her part, Ferguson said she believes that Windows Mobile 6.5 is a significant step forward, although she declined to predict whether Microsoft will gain share in the wake of its release.
"These are going to be fabulous phones that meet the customers' needs for their whole life," Ferguson said. "In the end, that's how I judge us."
The October 6 launch ties in with a "consumer open house" event that Microsoft Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach is hosting that day in New York City.
One of the big pushes with the new release is the Windows Marketplace app store. Although Microsoft has long offered tens of thousands of applications, they have been hard to find and download, something Marketplace is designed to address. While the Marketplace will launch with Windows Mobile 6.5, Ferguson declined to say how many programs have been submitted or approved thus far.
Ferguson did say that among the programs will be Netflix, Facebook, and a variety of games.
"We need enough apps that customers can have some great choice," Ferguson said. As for the Netflix app, I checked and it lets users manage their queue or watch previews, but not actually watch movies form their queue. (That would have been a compelling feature, I reckon.)
Microsoft will also formally launch its free My Phone service, which has been in beta. In addition to backing up contacts, calendar, text messages, photos, and other data, the service will also have a "Find My Phone" feature, similar to a paid iPhone service that helps users locate a lost iPhone.
In a July interview, Todd Brix said that the Find My Phone can be used to remotely send a message to a phone and cause it to ring, even if it is set to vibrate. If that still doesn't locate it, users can look up on a map where the phone last synchronized to the service. Users can also remotely lock the phone and send a message to it urging whoever has it to call a specific number. If that doesn't work, users can also remotely wipe the device.
The software maker has said little of its plans for Windows Mobile beyond the current release, although the software maker has been working for more than two years now on a more substantial overhaul of the operating system as well as a collection of new consumer-oriented mobile services. The operating system upgrade, Windows Mobile 7, was originally expected early this year and has hit several delays. It's now not expected until sometime next year.
Microsoft is expected to work closely with a smaller number of hardware makers, who will be among the first to adopt the new products when they debut next year.
AT&T's Bradley declined to talk about Microsoft's roadmap for the future, but said he has seen some encouraging signs that the company will make devices with more consumer appeal.
"I have every reason to think they are going to make that happen," Bradley said. "That's frankly an imperative."
Microsoft's efforts to regain lost ground in the mobile phone business will see the company offering two different versions of its operating system next year.
The company will continue to broadly sell Windows Mobile 6.5 to a large variety of handset makers, while working more closely with several handset makers to sell phones built on a new version of Windows Mobile that has been several years in the making, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.
While Windows Mobile 6.5 is a fairly interim update to the mobile operating system that Microsoft has been selling, Microsoft has also been working on more radical efforts to overhaul the operating system. Both its plans for Windows Mobile 7 and its long-running "Pink" project aim to match the kinds of experiences seen on the iPhone and Android, using more advanced voice and touch interfaces and higher-end hardware.
Microsoft demonstrated Windows Mobile 6.5 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. That interim update to Windows Mobile will start arriving on phones this fall, while a more radical overhaul of Redmond's cell phone OS is due next year.
(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET News)A Digitimes report this week called the effort a "dual-platform" strategy, although I'm not sure I'd use that term to describe two versions of Windows Mobile being sold at the same time.
What is clear is that Microsoft needs to do something serious if it hopes to live up to its mobile ambitions. For years now, the company has made rather modest updates to the Windows Mobile operating system, which dates back to the days of code powered PDAs and other organizers that were neither phones nor, in some cases, even connected to the Internet.
In that same time, Palm has gone back to the drawing board and reinvented itself with the WebOS-based Pre, while the iPhone and Android have entered the market and even Research In Motion has arguably done more to capture consumer interest than has Microsoft.
Internally, Redmond has shifted a number of its people into the mobile unit. In addition to former server executive Andy Lees, who now runs the phone business, former Mac Business unit chief Roz Ho has been leading a top secret "premium mobile experiences" team responsible for some of the "Pink" work. The company purchased Danger, known for creating the teen-centered T-Mobile Sidekick, and Ho heads that unit as well.
The software maker has also tapped folks from its Tellme unit to help bring improved voice recognition capability into Windows Mobile.
Call waiting
Microsoft has been working on Windows Mobile 7 for what now seems like an eternity, especially in the mobile world. The product was supposed to be in phone makers' hands by early this year, but has suffered a number of delays.
