Windows Mobile loses nearly a third of market share

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.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

Microsoft really has nothing when competing with other OSs for cell phone manufacturers. Android is the best choice for a cross-manufacturing os.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Yes, you're absolutely right. And does anyone find it a bit unusual that Microsoft is being very quiet about this? That they aren't pushing any products right now when in the past they were strongly working on Windows Mobile?

The silence is suspicious. What are they working on behind the scenes? They don't usually just lay back and let others rush ahead. It really suggests that they have something up their sleeves for the future on this one.

[Splashes]

That's the charitable explanation, Dan. One other possibility: Microsoft has no idea what they're doing. Two and a half years after the iPhone was introduced, the best Microsoft could ship was WinMob 6.5. Concurrently they're working on a completely different OS (WinMob 7) and a not-so-secret secret phone (Pink). These are not the actions of a company with a rudder.

Microsoft's usual strategy is buying market share. Unfortunately for Microsoft, both Apple and Google are too big to buy.

[mbenedict]

Microsoft is a company with very-long-term plans. According to iSupply, Windows Mobile is poised regain the #2 position by 2013, behind only Symbian and ahead of both Apple and Android.

From iSupply's report:

"Despite intensifying competition and the loss of some high-profile licensees, the usage of Microsoft Corp.?s Windows Mobile operating system in smart phones will nearly triple from 2009 to 2013, allowing it to reclaim the No.-2 position in the global market, according to iSuppli Corp."

"Windows Mobile is facing a host of challenges, including rising competition from free alternatives like Symbian and Android, the loss of some key licensees and some shortcomings in its user interface,? said Tina Teng, senior wireless communications analyst or iSuppli. ?However, Windows Mobile holds some major cards that will allow it to remain a competitive player in the market."

More from: See http://bit.ly/2IDV43

[gerrrg]

Q4-2009, Android will increase to 7%.

[lazycat202]

maybe they're working a good OS quietly. Who knows!

[Super2online]

I tend to believe Microsoft was completely caught off guard with the rapid rise of the iPhone, and that they were in denial for over a year that it would become as successful as it did. That allowed them to create a huge market with no competition. How can you explain the slow uptake for coming out with something competitive if they were not in denial.

However, if they can come out with something that is really special with Windows 7 it's not to late to turn things around. Many writers have said that we are still in the early stages of the smartphone revolution and there is still room for Microsoft to come back. I tend to believe that lots of people would still purchase a Windows phone but they just haven't had much to compete with. Not just the hardware and OS but also with no Microsoft app store. WinMo 6.5 is a baby step in the right direction, but they will need much more than that.

[wolivere]

Yes MS has bought market share from time to time. Thats what every industry does.

But to think they only got so big due to buying there way is very short sighting thinking. The main reason is they typically make a product that is affordable, and useable.

[Random_Walk]

"The silence is suspicious. What are they working on behind the scenes? They don't usually just lay back and let others rush ahead. It really suggests that they have something up their sleeves for the future on this one."

That's what Microsoft would have you believe, and has hinted at such (see also "Pink"). Problem is, they've laid back and let others rush ahead for at most a decade (RIM) or at least two years (iPhone). Their response has been, at best, scattered (buying Danger, pushing Windows Mobile 6.5, the Pink project, etc). There's nothing unified. At least with the (obviously dying) Zune, PlaysForSure was not much more than a diversion to knock competitors off-balance.

==

"Microsoft is a company with very-long-term plans. According to iSupply, Windows Mobile is poised regain the #2 position by 2013, behind only Symbian and ahead of both Apple and Android."

Analysts are all over the map at this point because they simply do not know. Android and the iPhone have disrupted the whole market enough that it's now a crap shoot. iSuppli's big hypothesis is that Microsoft has "ownership of a complete infrastructure essential for the success of a smart phone operating system." Funny, but last I checked, Microsoft does not have ownership of a cell carrier, and does not (yet) produce its own phone hardware. Nokia, RIM, and Apple have just as much (no, MORE) vertical integration, unless iSuppli is too enterprise-focused and thinks that Exchange Server is the end-all be-all (though world+dog can connect to that as well).

Their second hypothesis lay in the number of manufacturer licensees. The flip side of that is, HTC is slowly abandoning them for Android, LG is floundering in spite of having adverts all over the place, and the rest of the licensees apparently aren;t selling enough WinMo phones to matter.

Even iSuppli hinges its whole assertion on the hopes that Microsoft can remove head from backside and produce an OS that is compelling enough to distract attention from RIM, Google, and Apple. So far, nobody's really holding their breath in anticipation, if the universal panning of WinMo 6.5 is any indication.

Windows Mobile 7 is due out at this time next year. By then, handset makers may well have abandoned Microsoft entirely, as they cement their own in-house dev teams (for Symbian and/or Android) and decide that maybe they don't feel like buying licenses for their OSes anymore.

Microsoft's only real hope lay in "Pink", but all indications of in-house fighting show that even Pink may end up a non-starter.

[mbenedict]

@Random_Walk:

Sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about. Citing that Apple provides more "vertical integration" than Microsoft is mind-boggling, since Apple doesn't even HAVE a systems offering.

What iSupply means by integration is that Microsoft is able to provide end-to-end integrated services to OEMs wanting to license Windows Mobile. That means not just the base OS, but compilers, debuggers, test suites, plus other tooling and professional services _throughout_ the stack. This includes native tooling (embedded c/c++) at the systems level, as well as native and managed code for the application and server levels (embedded VB, SQL Server Mobile Edition, .NET compact framework, etc) plus any glue layers (such as ActiveSync).

Compare that to Symbian where an OEM has to license different tools from different companies (often incompatible with each other). Even the UI SDK is fragmented (UIQ, S60, etc). And forget Android at this point a lot of components just don't even exist yet so manufacturers have had to write things from scratch (an example would be Chinese IME).

Apple gives any OEM wanting to license iPhone OS the middle finger. I don't think that's exactly "vertical integration".

Hence according to iSupply:

"[Windows Mobile] recently gained another key licensee: LG, the world?s No-3 mobile-phone OEM. LG has pledged to produce 50 Windows Mobile handset models. Even after the loss of Palm and Motorola, Windows Mobile still boasts the largest number of OEM licensees among all smart-phone operating systems, at 14. Symbian is in second place, at 10."

[Random_Walk]

"Sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about. Citing that Apple provides more "vertical integration" than Microsoft is mind-boggling, since Apple doesn't even HAVE a systems offering."

*sigh*...

Tell me- how many handsets does Microsoft manufacture at this time? That's correct - zero. Microsoft currently relies on folks like Samsung, HTC, LG, etc to provide hardware platforms, putting them at a greater mercy from outside interests than Apple and/or RIM (remember, I mentioned RIM as well).

So, let's see:

Apple: hardware, software/OS, app store, MobileMe (cloud-based), with a bit of iTunes on the side.
RIM: hardware, software/OS, app store, BES (as service or server).
Microsoft: software/OS, app store, Exchange/ActiveSync.

Notice who comes up short here? Only Android (OS, app store - of sorts) comes up shorter, but Google has shown itself to not really care.

You claim development environments and languages, but those are also included w/ Apple's offering (XTools, ObjC), and Android leverages existing open-source dev environments and tools. The sheer size and popularity of Apple's app store is evidence enough that they aren't hurting in the dev environment/language department.

Next up, ActiveSync (didn't I mention that already when I mentioned Exchange up there?) RIM got around it with BES. Apple just licenses it, but otherwise doesn't need it, and the market didn't really care (as evidenced by their massive growth pre-3G, when ActiveSync wasn't even a consideration for them).

This leaves us with something Apple has that Microsoft also has, but doesn't use - iTunes (vs. Microsoft's Zune-thingy... is it still called "The Social"?) Microsoft could add this kind of functionality (which would be highly important among consumers), but to date they have not, and there are few indications (outside of the promises found in "Pink") that they will.

"Compare that to Symbian where an OEM has to license different tools from different companies (often incompatible with each other)."

Symbian is open-source now, and handset makers can do whatever they like with it these days, without a license. (Nokia announced the shift back in 2006). Nokia is also toying with something called Maemo Linux ...or did you not know this? Would you like a cite? Here you go: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=symbian+licensing (3rd link down).

Two postscripts:

1) I already mentioned LG (or did you not read that)?
2) It's spelled "iSuppli". Check the cites you supplied if you don't believe me.
To sum: If you're going to say that someone doesn't know what they're talking about, it would help if you actually read what you're decrying, and to spell the name of the company you;re citing correctly. Once or twice, okay, a typo... but you do it consistently. Just sayin' is all...

Reg'ds,

[javonyc]

THEY NEED WINDOWS MOBILE 7 NOW!!!

[Random_Walk]

I suspect that if they released Windows 7 now, in its current incomplete state, Windows Mobile would end up DOA, draining marketshare to zilch.

They're simply going to have to wait and do what they can until it is ready... dunno where that will land them by then, but that's what they stuck themselves with.

Microsoft had an entire decade to do something dominating with Windows Mobile, and formulate a sufficiently attractive answer to the Blackberry. They've had two years to formulate an answer to the iPhone. They've had the money, time, and ready access to the talent (they'd even bought Danger FFS...) yet they did nothing of note, and assumed that they would simply dominate as they had with Windows and Office - that, given enough time, they would simply out-last their competitors. Partially, they had a source from which to divine this - the slow crumbling of Symbian and Palm. However, they apparently guessed wrong on how much time they had.

Sorry, but unless Windows 7 is all that and a bag of chips (and is licensed for, well, $0.00), they're screwed. Android costs nothing for a phone maker to license and develop on. Apple and RIM perfectly happy to compete as a vertically integrated cell phone maker, and pay no on a license fee for their respective mobile OSes.

Where does this leave Microsoft? Up a creek minus a paddle, truth be told.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Random_Walk:

Or they could be working on something internally whcih would blow your entire comment out of the water.

I keep wondering if they aren't looking at doing a stripped down / locked version of the Windows 7 desktop OS for a smart phone. Look at today's smartphones. The power there is getting close to and in some case higher than a netbook which runs Win7 quite well. Lock it down for security to the hardware and you can eliminate most security issues there.

Imagine if they released a smartphone that at the time of release, could run Windows apps. Instead of coming out with a new phone that might have an apps store with a few hundred thousand apps, they could simply say- install whatever you want from the millions of apps already released in the last 20 years. Need a special app to open Word docs? Nope- just run Word. No emulators, no limitations beyond screen size. Give it some sort of mini USB connection and suddenly you can run scanners, cameras, barcode scanners, printers- all without any new specialized drivers because they already exist. Instant portability on the spot.

But I don't think this would happen. I do think this is where smartphones and home computers are going to eventually though. You just carry around the core and plug in external components as needed.

[jpoirier587]

@vegaman_dan

how exactly would the interface work for full windows 7 on a phone? a phone requires an interface built primarily for one handed and sometimes two handed use that has to be simple enough to pick up and quickly make a call. go remote desktop and tell me whether or not you would like to use that on a devise 24/7.

[Super2online]

@Vegaman_Dan - I tend to agree that Microsoft is taking the time neccessary to get this right. They know there is still time, but not much. I read an article yesterday that they are pouring lots of resources into this and expect to have a great system by the end of next year. Apple got it right on this when they created a stripped down version of the OS that developers could create visually attractive apps that have the ability to do one or two things really well. The key though was the visual attraction. If Microsoft can take that idea not one but two steps beyond, they can come out with something that is very competitive and commericially viable. If I were running things. I would have had the Zune team mesh with the right phone team members and had this out with the Zune HD. That was there biggest failing.

[Random_Walk]

"Or they could be working on something internally whcih would blow your entire comment out of the water. "

It's called "Pink", and it's currently flopping around and getting nowhere fast. Unless Roz Ho can stop showboating and buckle down, that project will likely die a slow, horrible death.

"I keep wondering if they aren't looking at doing a stripped down / locked version of the Windows 7 desktop OS for a smart phone."

1) no one makes a mass-produced x86-based smartphone (yet), IIRC
2) no mobile processor currently available can get up the horsepower to run it, even if the OS were stripped

"Imagine if they released a smartphone that at the time of release, could run Windows apps."

See #2 up there... Windows 7, by all reports, has a hard enough time running on a low-end netbook, even stripped. Now imagine it trying to run on a smartphone's even smaller specs.

[Synthmeister]

Microsoft actually has much bigger problems than getting WinMo 7 out the door or getting their Pink/WinMo/Zune divisions from fighting, or unifying the code base between Win7, WinMo7, Zune, X-box and Danger. After 10 years, they still haven't figured out how to make money on the mobile space or help others make money on the mobile space. MS make only $8 to $15 per phone license, that's less $300 million per year. Meanwhile Apple is making over $600 per phone. On top of that, Apple makes money off of every aspect of the mobile space: the hardware, the apps, the "made-for-iphone" peripherals, the music/movie/TV show downloads and even an extra cut from their Apple retail stores that would otherwise go to other brick and mortar stores! Apple is also helping gobs of third parties make money off the iPhone, EA, ID, Google, not to mention, tens of thousands of garage devs. For examply, Ebay reported that they are making $500 million off the app store--through PayPal--income that did not exist two years ago. That kind of money drives developers, peripheral makers and mindshare to the iPhone. MS doesn't have anything like it. And then the iPod effectively doubles their mobile market to teenagers and all those people who can't or don't want to mess with AT&T or simply don't want to pay an extra $40 a month for subscription fees.

Meanwhile, MS can't raise fees or they'll just drive more OEMS to Android

[Steve__S]

@Vegaman_Dan,

Don't hold your breath on that blowing everyone out of the water thing. That sort of thing is very rare and very few innovative companies are capable of such a thing. Microsoft has never produced such a device. They are generally good at playing the "me too" game, but not on real innovation.

Regarding the notion of running Windows apps, that's exactly what got them in trouble in the first place. Microsoft assumed people wanted to use a Windows style interface on a mobile device because that's what they're familiar with. Apple has demonstrated that you need to break the mold and create an interface that suits the device, not create the device and force a desktop metaphor on it. You sound like someone right out of the Microsoft design team. ;-) Also, Intel isn't competing with low power devices like ARM, so it's unlikely you'd get any x86 apps to run, except under emulation (on a slower processor to begin with). Even if this were in any way possible to pull off, I don't see it as a good solution anyway.

At the end of the day, the phone with the most features isn't what wins anyway. It's the phone that is the most pleasant to use for common tasks. That's why everyone, including Microsoft, is scrambling just to copy what Apple did a couple years ago.

[jpoirier587]

all the OS's have their positives and negatives. even Microsoft mobile. problem for microsoft is that what their phones are good at doing doesn't appeal to the average consumer. personally i like it, not love it mind you but i certainly enjoy my tilt 2 a hell of a lot more than i did my iphone. most people don't feel the way i do though lol. im almost scared that windows mobile 7 will take away a lot of the functionality that i enjoy right now for the sake of ease of use. i think a lot of the people who have had bad experiances with windows mobile should try one of the newer devices that use htc's touchflo 3d. extremely easy to use on the surface for your everyday use like texting, internet, weather and whatnot while feature packed windows mobile sits right under the hood to run a vast amount of apps and customization options.

[ballmerisanape]

I don't know... today I got through my work Cisco VPN (natively) and used Win Admin to RDP into my computer at work from my iPhone.... Win mo has little to offer nowadays.

[jpoirier587]

see the problem i have with the iphone is that apple gives you the most easy to use device that can barley do anything. ya there are some apps out there like you said that bring some functionality to the device but not enough. there will never be native flash on the iphones we have today, there will never be multiple apps running at the same time, and when apple finally does come out with a device that does these things everyone will jerk them off for giving them what all the other os's already had. the more features you add the more complex the phone becomes which is exactly what apple doesn't want. smartphones are complex, people get freaked out by that. apple changed the game when they introduced the iphone because it was simple enough for a lab rat to operate which is exactly what is needed to sell such an expensive device to huge amounts of people. if you start complicating the phone with features like winmo has everyone will jump ship. that's how i know apple will never give you what you want from them. EVER. seriously their marketing is genious!

STEVE JOBS: "hey our phone is perfectly capable of receiving FM radio but lets wait a couple months and THEN allow everyone to use it and they will lick our boot heels for giving them what they already had!"

[Random_Walk]

Some questions:

* what exactly do you need Flash for? You can boil Flash's usage down to exactly four things: games, ads,poorly-designed websites, and YouTube. The iPhone can already do nearly all of YouTube's content w/o Flash, it already has games, the crappy overly-reliant-on-flash websites only eat bandwidth and data charges, and who wants/needs adverts?

* You do know that the iPhone can run more than one app at a time, right? After all, you can take a call and not lose your web connection (something Verizon cannot claim, incidentally), and multitasking is there and working just fine. Thing is, you only interact with one app at a time.

* The only time I want to bother with FM radio is when I'm driving (because it's illegal to wear headphones while driving, and changing CD's is occasionally a PITA when driving a stick shift). Up here in PDX, there's only one FM radio station that isn't 55 minutes of lame jokes, adverts, and blather every hour... and I can get that one via the station's website stream.

PS: Not a fanboy here; I use a Crackberry - much cheaper, mostly because my employer pays for it. :)

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Random_Walk:

Some answers here:

Flash- I don't need it. I don't want it on any platform. I dislike it wherever it is. I think it was just a crutch for bad / lazy programming. I also don't like being tied in/locked to one OEM like that.


SOME apps let you multitask at once, but only those apps that Apple has permitted to do so. Primarily it's Apple apps running while you use the phone. Even then, web apps suffer greatly due to bandwidth issues obviously. It's not a good balance currently. I find that my phone calls tend to get dropped if I try to use Safari too much during a call. So I've learned that it's best to only do one thing at a time while using the iPhone if I want to have reliability. That's based on experience.

FM radio lost all its charm when I stopped being a teenager. I grew up and don't really care to listen to non-stop fart jokes or other imbecilic behavior. It's pretty much shock jocks or NPR and NPR's gotten very political of late- too much to be really independant news reportage anymore. I actually prefer AM talk shows these days. Talk to me about home improvement, auto repair, etc. Much more interesting.

Blackberry for you? Why don't you have an iPhone? JOIN THE COLLECTIVE. BE ONE OF US.

[jpoirier587]

1. i need flash because like it or not the web has a lot of flash and if you want to view the WHOLE internet the way it is meant to be viewed you need it. simple as that.

2. OMG, not losing your internet connection when you receive a phone call is hardly multi-tasking. what planet are you from?

3. i dont care about your ****** radio station. i was using that as an example of apple's marketing. need other exampels? how about video recording, mms, copy/paste. these all should have been there from the beginning but apple keeps throwing out scraps of meat one at a time to keep the hungry dogs interested.

[jakeZ2]

@Vegaman_Dan
I agree with jpoirier587. I tried out a Driod the other night, which also does not support flash, and it's amazing how much content isn't available. I'll be waiting for the N900. It's ridiculous to not have a fully enabled web browser/device considering the cost of the higher end phones.

[Random_Walk]

"1. i need flash because like it or not the web has a lot of flash and if you want to view the WHOLE internet the way it is meant to be viewed you need it. simple as that."

Translation: You can't get your porn fix on the thing, huh?

"2. OMG, not losing your internet connection when you receive a phone call is hardly multi-tasking."

That was an example - and something you cannot do with a Droid at this time for some odd reason. You keep using the term "multitasking", but I think you do not know what it means, or even what context you are trying to present it in.

"need other exampels? how about video recording, mms, copy/paste."

copy/paste work there - the news was all over it when that was added. mms and video recording I have no idea about (I don't own an iPhone, and don't use my own phone to do either one).

[Seaspray0]

@random walk. Only you would interpret "viewing the WHOLE internet" as porn sites alone. Not only are you voilating the cnet terms of service with remarks like that, you owe someone an appology. You really need to back off your sarchasm. It's all you do anymore.

[missingxtension2]

"That was an example - and something you cannot do with a Droid at this time for some odd reason. You keep using the term "multitasking", but I think you do not know what it means, or even what context you are trying to present it in."

Then how about running pandora while surfing the net?
or maybe maybe there is a winrar for iphone?
can you zip and surf the net at the same time?
No i dont think apple wants you to work out their processor to 100%
Your idea of a "vertical integration" is also a sham, if we've learned something about the nix (and x86) community is that things should not be so centralized (monolithic) . But if thats what you want, then wmplayer syncs fine with even sdcards. Thats the only thing i had trouble replacing in the *nix side of things, listen seemed good and so did songbird, but wmplayer is just to darn good.Since when have you considered itunes a good media player? if you mean its the only real chioce in mac os 10 then i understand it.

Even winmo 5 can act as a remote control for windows, then there is also built in tethering, Plus of course look up winmo programs and you can see that the selection is way bigger than any app store can ever give you a chance of finding. Heck even in winmo 2003 i could do a remote desktop to a win2k server, there is even a vnc winmo. That was when the ipaq was the first out, there are just too many things you don't do on your phone. Thats why you would want a crippled phone, thats the only way you could use it to its full potential.

[Random_Walk]

"Only you would interpret "viewing the WHOLE internet" as porn sites alone"

Entirely untrue. It was the only real class of Flash usage I had earlier left out, so it was Hobson's Choice.

"Not only are you voilating the cnet terms of service with remarks like that, you owe someone an appology. You really need to back off your sarchasm. It's all you do anymore."

Wow... just, wow. Okay, let me be kind for a moment here. The young gent really didn't know what he was wandering into, and quite frankly, I only bite when I get growled at. ;)

[Naveed Hingora]

Microsoft should go open source on the Windows OS...more than anything, it will be a big image booster for the Gates Empire...

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

Microsoft and open source don't go together.

[jpoirier587]

neither does apple

[Yelonde]

"neither does apple"

Actually, Apple's open-sourced Webkit rendering engine is the base of nearly every google-based product, including chrome, and it's android OS. Apple, I assure you, has opened their arms to open source more than Microsoft ever has.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

@jpoirer
really?
http://www.apple.com/opensource/
BSD kernel?

[Seaspray0]

@goldstormmac. Apple did not give the BSD kernel to the open source world, they took it from the open source world and used it in their proprietary software. That's not what I call "supporting" open source.

[Steve__S]

@Seaspray0,

Really, your comments are over the top. First, Random_Walk does not owe an apology based on his comments. Actually, he comes of as being more courteous than most. In fact, he's shown more courtesy than you have in this thread.

Second, regarding Apple and open source, you are way off base. Gold_Storm_Mac suggested that Microsoft and Open source do not go together. Well, aside from the issue where Microsoft was caught with BSD based network code in older NT releases, what other association does Microsoft have with open source? None? Okay, then you have nothing to say. As to giving to open source, it is a give an take proposal. You build off of what others have done and share what you can. That's what Apple has done. Obviously WebKit has already been mentioned. That alone invalidates any point you're trying to make here. In addition to that, have you heard of launchd?? How about cups? How about Quicktime streaming server?? Do we need to continue?

[orbital_bruiser]

@ jpoirier587

Have you ever heard of Darwin?
Have you ever heard of WebKit?
Have you ever heard of GCC (Apple is a HUGE supporter/contributor) ?
Have you ever heard of apache (Apple is a HUGE supporter/contributor)?

You really need to get off you high horse and learn a bit about things before you open your mouth and keep inserting our foot. For a list of OpenSource projects Apple uses and contributes to:

http://www.apple.com/opensource/

[ElementalMac]

Apple doesn't do open source? What do call Webkit and Darwin?

[cvaldes1831]

In the context of mobile phone operating systems, Apple does not do open source.

That's what this article's primary focus is.

[jpoirier587]

thank you for explaining it to him. i was going to be mean

[Random_Walk]

You must be joking.

Either of you two care to explain this, perhaps? : http://www.opensource.apple.com/release/iphone-312/

[jpoirier587]

were talking OS not apps

[dhavleak]

@ jpoirier587

Facts don't matter to Random_Walk. For example, he doesn't acknowledge that most of these are projects where Apple is on the receiving side. Unless he wants to claim that Apple created gcc or gdb and then gave it to the community.

[Splashes]

Hey, you never know -- even though Microsoft is currently doing a good impression of a stumbling, bumbling behemoth, they might pull a rabbit out their hat before Apple takes over the mobile world.

And monkeys might fly out of my . . . um, you know.

[Seaspray0]

but, but, but, Monkeys don't fly. Was I close enough?

[kyle_74]

wouldn't that be a hoot if Microsoft bought Palm and adopted a reskinned WebOS as WinMo 7? Why not? Palm isn't doing anything with it.....

[t8]

A person offered me his Windows Smartphone for free as he said he wanted to go back to using a Blackberry and he didn't like the Windows interface much. I didn't accept for 2 reasons. One because it was an expensive Windows phone and 2, I think their OS on phones is crap.

[mbenedict]

That's dumb. You could have tried it and if you didn't like it just put on eBay for a lot of money if it's "an expensive Windows phone" as you say.

More likely, you're just making up BS to troll.

[t8]

If he offered me an Android device or a iPhone I would have accepted but an expensive Windows phone no thanks.
It's not about making money, but accepting that which is useful to you.
I will let him put it on eBay and make some money. Would be rude for me to do that.

[Seaspray0]

I once had this guy offer me his corvette for free. He said he was tired of the bad gas millage and how the cops kept targeting him. I didn't accept it, either. It had no trunk space for when I go grocery shopping.

[jpoirier587]

@seaspray
lmfao dude

[t8]

Corvette and Windows smartphone? No comparison.
iPhone and corvette maybe.

[jpoirier587]

@t8

no an iphone is more like a ford taurus. simple and marketed for the masses

[SkydiveGuy]

I love how they fudge the numbers in the headline and we don't even notice it.

28% is 3% away from 25% which is 1/4 but it is 5.3% away from 33% which is 1/3.

so the article should really say "Windows Mobile loses over a quarter of market share".

...but I guess that doesn't get us to read the article as much does it? How to lie with statistics.

[frozenjello]

I totally agree. Also, I wish they had made some kind of plot or chart to go along with the text.

[t8]

I think you will find that by the time the article is published and read by you that indeed the share is 1/3.

[FF2009]

LOL, what a great News. Now lets hope when Google ChromeOS hits the market takes off like a NASA rocket and shrinks Windowz to where they should be at .000

:D

[t8]

I agree. Good news. The less we need to rely on Windows the better.

[yourseek]

Well i can honestly tell you I hate my windows mobile phone, have a T-Mobile shadow, with wifi, the phone freezes up, doesn't have enough memory to open up the calender even with a 1 gig sim card in it to keep all files off of the main memory. Wifi is shotty on it, freezing up the phone sometimes when it connects, or simply acting like it's working just fine, but not receive any messages at all or calls, and when you reboot it, they all come in. Could just be the phone itself sucks just as bad as windows mobile, but either way, I won't ever get a windows mobile phone again. Just not worth the headache and frustration.

[boy444]

....to the iphone.

[loki_racer]

I used the Samsung Blackjack for 2 years. I now use the HTC Fuze with WinMo 6.5. Oddly enough, it does everything I need. Sure it's slow sometimes, but generally only when I have 8 or 9 applications running at the same time.

For iPhone coolaid drinkers, I have one word for you: tethering. Call me when Apple/AT&T stops removing functionality. And no, jailbreaking doesn't count for getting tethering functionality. Also, give me a call when you can use the storage on your iPhone however you want. Having to run a specific application to access the iPhone is a joke.

[Random_Walk]

"I have one word for you: tethering. Call me when Apple/AT&T stops removing functionality."

Verizon removes it too - it'll cost you an additional fee if you want it back.

[dm66]

Hi Loki, what's your number I'll give you a call...Tethering is now available on all carriers in Australia with the iPhone though some want a fee to use it...it's a carrier restriction and it does suck that your carriers have their head somewhere it shouldn't be, not sure it's Apple's problem tho...

[Ed0719]

I currently run Windows Mobile 6.5 on my old HTC Excaliber (T-Mobile DASH). It is very stable and reliable. It does all the necessary things, syncs with Outlook and even remotely syncs with gmail and Google calendar. It takes decent pics, plays music well, runs Facebook and YouTube, I have a choice of several web browsers, even one that will show full flash (Skyfire). All this on a relatively ancient phone. But when it comes down to it, the problem with Windows Mobile, including this latest 6.5 version, is: it is boring. Yes, it can do all the right things very well, but it is a tool, not a toy. The iPhone has the "Oh Wow" factor, Android is also coming along in that regard. WinMo just hums along doing what a phone should do and not much more. Is that really a bad thing?

[davesmall1]

There are three battlefields in this war: Hardware, Operating System, and Apps.

Apps are the key to functionality and that's where the war will be won. He who has the best stable of developers and App selection will win this war. That's why I'm an Apple investor.

Microsoft has fallen much too far behind to catch up. They're already dead and burial is at hand.

The only other variable that could sway customers would be connectivity cost. If one of the players can find a way to offer unlimited data, unlimited voice, and unlimited messaging with free worldwide unlimited data roaming all for about $50 per month they'll have found the key. The point is that these touch screen smartphones with many apps are rapidly evolving into wonderful devices but the connectivity options still suck especially for world travelers.

[Random_Walk]

Cricket has most of that - you really don't want to use the service, though.

[kyle_74]

would have to disagree with your statement that Apple will wil the developer war.

Apple has, historically, pissed on developers to the detriment of their Macintosh. they are currently pissing off the developers now with the iPhone and the App approval/rejection process.

If, and this is a big "if", MS delivers on it's WinMo 7 like it did on Windows 7, you will see a resurgence in development in very short order.

Steve Jobs and Apple are their own worst enemy.

[jpoirier587]

i agree with kyle_74 whole heartedly. apple is its own enemy and a truer statement i havn't heard in a while.

a company with the talent and the resources of microsoft should NEVER be counted out of the game. even if they did abandon the mobile market right now they might show back up in 3-4 years with a product that will make everyone's head spin.

microsoft didnt make a penny on the xbox360 for YEARS. they put a lot of work and money into it and took losses for a few years but what they got was the dominant gaming platform on the market. no reason they couldnt do the same with a mobile OS

[FormerPCwonk]

Ed0719:

Swing-and-a-miss. Even if we assume that WinMo "can do all the right things very well," which has yet to be demonstrated it's not really a question of whether this is "a bad thing." Why? Simple: the market doesn't care. For Microsoft (and for any business, for that matter) t's not about whether what you do things well, it' about whether you do them well to SELL PRODUCT. At this point, what WinMo is doing isn't selling, hence the cratering market share, and the need to rush out the stop gap WinMo 6.5 while 7 is finished.

But seriously, if you honestly believe that the problem with WInMo is that it's "boring," wow, open your eyes. What is really "exciting" about the iPhone is its simplicity, and the fact that you don't need an IT background to figure the thing out. In that regard, WinMo isn't there yet, and based on MS' history, it probably never will be. But hey, enjoy your WinMo phone!

[Seaspray0]

I agree with you. Winmo is not as intuitive as it should be. It should be a phone first above all things, and it doesn't provide navigation to that effect. To me, the navigation was designed as a PDA with phone features.

[jpoirier587]

this will change with mobile 7. microsoft may be slow but they have acknowledged their mistakes and that's the first step on the road to recovery.

[Synthmeister]

@FormerPCwonk

Agreed, even if WinMo7 is perfect, MS has much bigger problems. It hasn't figured out how to make money on the mobile space. Right now, MS makes $8 to $15 per phone license which comes out to less than $300 million per year. Now compare that to the Apple iPhone ecosystem, where Ebay just reported that they made $500 million off the App store alone through PayPal! Apple was already making billions in two years by monetizing every aspect of the mobile space--the hardware, the software, the peripherals, the media downloads and even a bigger cut of the retail sales from Apple retail and internet sales. Plus they are allowing thirds party devs to make money on the mobile space like never before.

[windooor7]

Time is the master, My precious microsoft, can always come back,window 7 is a living prove. However its time they realise that, A phone is not a computer. it can only what it can. WINDOW 7 os tiesd with a FEW seclect phones can change the image ,change the time,change the users, change the phones.. They need a good phone template in VS to "open up the limit"

[Random_Walk]

Windows 7 has only managed to (so far) replace older versions of Windows. If the best WinMo7 can do is cannibalize their existing overall marketshare, they're not going to get very far (esp. if it shrinks too much more before the new OS comes out...)

[Seaspray0]

@Random Walk. "If". Yes, if. But if not, then what? You never cover that part, do you?

[jpoirier587]

@randomwalk

microsoft owns %90 of the market so of course they can only cannabalize their own market share.... seriously man stop polluting cnet with your foolishness

[Random_Walk]

@jpoirier: Windows' marketshare is still shrinking, and that shrinkage is accelerating. That fact alone changes the whole story now, doesn't it? ;)

==

"Yes, if. But if not, then what? You never cover that part, do you?"

Even on the flip side, Windows Mobile is still stuck with whatever marketshare they have left. So what's to cover again?

I've had the iPhone, I tried out one of the new Sprint Moments running Andriod, I went back to a HTC Touch Pro II. The Outlook intrigration is the selling point. I don't need the full web, I need instant access to my e-mail, contacts, etc. The Moment was close...but no cigar.
I'll stick with WinMo as long as I use Exchange. Not to mention, even with the WiFi and GPS turned off, the Moment battery life was horrid. 1/2 a day and it was dead. The TP2 is holding strong @ 80%.
The OS might not be the newest/latest/greatest but the TP2 is inline for the 6.5 upgrade, the hardware is solid, and HTC makes damn good phones. I'll stick W/ the TP2 untl the HD2 hits the US on Sprint

[jpoirier587]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=479

they have 6.5 ready to flash onto your touch pro 2 if you don't want to wait for your carrier :)

[Tod Smith]

Thats what MS gets with no new updates and not refreshing the OS.

[dougmcnerd]

I really don't understand how MS's market share is even as high as 3.9%. Who are these people that are buying that OS!? I'm floored by the irrationality of it!!!

[t8]

Microsoft employees and their families probably get them at a serious enough discount to warrant having one.