Wireless

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.

Consumer demand for smartphones seems to be unstoppable.

In the third quarter, vendors shipped a record 43.3 million devices, up 4.2 percent from last year's third quarter and up 3.2 percent from this year's second quarter, says a report released Thursday by market researcher IDC.

(Credit: IDC)

Among smartphone vendors, Nokia still enjoys the greatest market share, according to IDC, with a 37.9 percent slice for the third quarter. ... Read more

As Apple and Research In Motion have won a greater share in the Wi-Fi handset market over the past year, Nokia has lost share.

Though Nokia is still the leading vendor for dual-mode smartphones (Wi-Fi and cellular), its market share dropped to 35 percent in the second quarter, compared with 50 percent in the same period a year ago, according to a report released Monday from In-Stat.

The report "Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones: Dual Mode Becomes the In Thing" tracked the major Wi-Fi phone vendors, including Nokia, Apple, Research In Motion, HTC, and Samsung. Among those, Apple has enjoyed the greatest growth in market share, from 3 percent in the second quarter of 2008 to 20 percent in this year's second quarter.

Market share for both RIM and Samsung has also weakened the past few quarters, though less so than Nokia's. RIM's 15.7 percent chunk of the market for the second quarter of the year was down from its first-quarter high of 17.6 percent. Samsung's share has been relatively flat but usually dips a bit from the first to the second quarter, notes In-Stat.

In sheer unit volume, Nokia has done well the past few quarters, with 9.3 million Wi-Fi handsets shipped in the second quarter of the year compared with Apple's 5.2 million shipments. However, Nokia's shipments have dropped since the first quarter of 2008 when it saw 12 million units fly out the door. Over the same period, Apple, RIM, and HTC have seen their shipments grow.

As the No. 2 Wi-Fi handset vendor, Apple has also outsold third-place RIM in dual-mode phone shipments, says In-Stat. Though RIM still has a larger market presence, not all of its Blackberry devices include Wi-Fi. HTC and Samsung rounded out In-Stat's list as the fourth and fifth top Wi-Fi handset vendors, respectively.

(Credit: In-Stat)

The report also detailed the growth of the Wi-Fi smartphone market overall. The industry shipped 37 million handsets in 2007, and 103 million units in 2008. That rise is because of several factors, notes In-Stat, including greater functionality, lower prices, and carrier promotions. Initially targeted to the business market, smartphones are also now an entrenched hit with consumers, which In-Stat attributes to the success of the iPhone.

Wi-Fi handset shipments are expected to rise just 25 percent to 128.4 million units for 2009. That compares with a nearly 180 percent jump in 2008.

But In-Stat sees gains ahead. By 2010, the growth rate is likely to climb to 43 percent. Though that rate may not be sustainable, it should remain strong in the coming years. Wi-Fi will also become more prevalent in mobile phones. This year, 11.5 percent of handsets include Wi-Fi; by 2012, that figure will grow to 25 percent, predicts In-Stat.

To compile the report, In-Stat relied on its own data as well as interviews with Wi-Fi equipment vendors.

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.

Top smartphones across the world

(Credit: AdMob)

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.

The long-awaited BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac is finally at hand, Research In Motion announced Wednesday.

The new desktop software, designed specifically for Mac users, will be available as a free download on RIM's Mac page, starting at 10 a.m. PDT Friday.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac allows people to sync data with Mac apps for contacts, appointments, tasks, and notes. The software also allows people to schedule back-ups, encrypt files, and perhaps most importantly, install software updates for their BlackBerry devices.

RIM's new BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

(Credit: Research In Motion)

Apart from the business side of things, RIM said the software features BlackBerry Media Sync, allowing people to sync their iTunes music with their BlackBerry. According to the company, people can choose the playlists they want, and all the included tracks will be transferred to the smartphone.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager requires Macs to be running Mac OS X 10.5.5 or higher. Any stragglers still running Mac OS X Tiger or haven't updated their Leopard installations will be left out. The BlackBerry itself must be running BlackBerry OS 4.2 and higher.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac is one of the most anticipated releases from RIM in quite awhile. Unlike iPhone software, which works with both Mac and PCs, BlackBerry Desktop Manager has only been available for Windows users. Until now, a third-party tool has been needed for BlackBerry devices to sync with Macs.

Updated at 3:30 p.m. PDT with information from the conference call.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday said it sold fewer BlackBerry phones than analysts had expected and that the company's quarterly earnings were hurt by a legal settlement.

Even though RIM still saw strong sales of BlackBerrys, the news sent the company's stock price tumbling in after-market trading. Many are now wondering if RIM's disappointing sales are an indicator of a wider smartphone slowdown or if the news is an indication that the company is losing its edge in an increasingly competitive market.

RIM's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, said the company is still in very good shape.

"This stuff (smartphones and mobile applications) is going much more mainstream," he said during the conference call. "And we are teed up to go much more mainstream. If this crosses over, as I think we are doing, we are in a good position and a very prosperous position."

He told investors and analysts that they shouldn't look too deeply into the sales numbers for hidden indications of a market slowdown. And despite a lackluster forecast for the next quarter, he said sales are set to explode in the long term.

"I appreciate looking for trends," he said. "But I don't think you should extrapolate too much over a little bump here or there."

Balsillie said earnings fell 4 percent in the second fiscal quarter due in large part to charges associated with a legal settlement.

For the quarter that ended August 29, the company said it earned $475.6 million, or 83 cents a share, compared to profits of $495.5 million, or 86 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

What really hurt the company's profits was a charge of $112.8 million related to the settlement of a patent dispute with Visto. Excluding this charge, RIM said it would have earned $588.4 million, or $1.03 per share for the quarter.

Revenue rose to $3.53 billion from $2.58 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of $1 a share on revenue of $3.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

RIM also reported that it shipped slightly fewer devices than what analysts had expected. The company said it shipped about 8.3 million BlackBerry devices during the quarter, adding about 3.8 million new subscribers. Analysts had expected the company to add about 4 million new subscribers on shipments between 8.5 million and 8.6 million.

RIM said it expects revenue of between $3.6 billion and $3.85 billion for the third fiscal quarter that ends November 28. And it expects earnings per share to be between $1 and $1.08.

These forecasts are slightly lower than analysts' third-quarter revenue of about $3.9 billion. And they wanted to see RIM add 4.3 million new subscribers instead of the 4 million to 4.3 million new subscribers the company predicts.

Although Wall Street was disappointed in RIM's results, the fact remains that the company is still growing handset sales. In fact, sales are up about 40 percent compared to a year ago. But because RIM has been known to have even higher growth rate, some analysts are disappointed with these figures and are punishing the company's stock, which had been up earlier on Thursday in anticipation of the company's earnings news. After the market closed, shares were down 10 percent or more.

So the big question remains: what do RIM's results mean for the rest of the industry?

RIM leads the market in smartphone sales in the United States. But the company has many competitors nipping at its heels. Apple has reported strong growth of the iPhone, especially its new iPhone 3GS, introduced in June. And there are new Google Android phones from HTC and Motorola coming to market soon.

Even the Palm Pre did relatively well during the second quarter, despite the fact that it was being exclusively sold on Sprint Nextel, the third-largest wireless operator in the country, which happens to continue losing subscribers every quarter.

So it's quite likely that sales of smartphones will continue to climb, as Balsillie predicts. But he admitted during the call that the challenge the company faces is in executing its strategy. This means making sure that RIM's latest products get out the door on time.

"I really like our strategy," Balsillie said. "I know we are doing all the right things. But we have a lot of execution risk...And who knows what's going to happen."

For his part, Basillie says the company is well-positioned for the upcoming holiday season with new phones such as the BlackBerry Tour and the latest BlackBerry Curve, which were introduced this summer. Analysts also expect RIM to launch the next version of its touch-screen BlackBerry Storm on Verizon Wireless before the end of the year.

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.

Sixty-seven percent of 2009's venture-backed mobile-application start-ups are developing their app to work on multiple platforms--namely, the top six mobile operating systems: iPhone, Palm, RIM, Android, Symbian, and Windows, according to new data from research firm Chubby Brain, 67.

Of the 33 percent that are developing platform-specific applications, development for the iPhone dominates all other platforms with slightly less than half of the investment dollars. This makes sense for a number of reasons, primarily the fact that the App Store is the easiest and clearest path to monetizing said applications.

Mobile OS

(Credit: Chubby Brain)

What's interesting about this data is that developers are actively supporting six different platforms for different reasons. For example, you need to support Symbian to reach a broad group of users, and you need to support Android to try to reach what could be the next big swath of mobile devices. But managing development efforts for all of those platforms will eventually become a major headache.

I suspect that we'll see a further shift to devices supporting Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and Google's Android operating systems over time, as smartphone functionality becomes more important on a global scale.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

(Credit: Meraki)

Meraki, a known mesh network provider, released Tuesday its first Wireless Census for North America and the results, though dramatic, seem nothing of a surprise. Basically, there has been a huge increase in the number of wireless-capable devices, among which Apple's handheld devices had the biggest jump.

The Meraki Wireless Census surveyed 10,000 randomly selected Meraki access points deployed in North America for two 24-hour periods: June 2, 2008, and June 1, 2009. The study measured the number of distinct client devices that sent probe requests in each 24-hour period. The purpose of the survey was to identify macro-level traffic and end-user device trends.

In details, the number of mobile devices including laptops and handheld devices grew from some 149,000 in 2008 to more than 211,000 in 2009, a 41 percent increase.

Apple's devices played a huge role in this increase. The company's Internet-enabled devices now account for 32 percent of all devices, represented in the survey, in 2009, compared with only 14 percent in 2008. The survey also showed that the popularity of Apple laptops, iPhones and iPods increase an impressive 221 percent just in one year.

Other than Apple's products, there have been an increasing amount of Wi-Fi-enabled handheld devices from other well-known vendors. According to the Meraki's census, the number of Research In Motion (RIM) devices, best known for the BlackBerry smartphones, observed in North America grew by 419 percent from 2008 to 2009, while Nokia devices grew by 114 percent.

In 2008, RIM devices represented just two percent of all devices observed, but grew dramatically to 8 percent for 2009. In 2008 and 2009, Nokia represented one percent and two percent of all devices, respectively.

These shifts in types and numbers of wireless devices are to be expected. In the past few years, more and more highly Internet-capable smartphones have been introduced and more and more Web services are tailored for mobile users.

Personally, while I wish the survey was done in larger than 24-hour periods, the trends seem right and definitely represent the way I access the Internet. Apart from sitting at work writing on my desktop, when on the go, my almost exclusive way to access the Internet is via my iPhone.

How about you? How often do you access the Internet via your phone? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.