Windows Mobile Outsells Windows Phone 7?

[Brad Wasson]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.businessinsider.com/remember-windows-mobile-its-still-outselling-windows-phone-7-2011-1' target='_blank'>http://www.businessinsider.com/reme...-phone-7-2011-1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Here's the latest bad news for Microsoft's mobile phone strategy: the decade-old Windows Mobile platform outsold the slick new Windows Phone 7 platform in the US last quarter, according to stats released by NPD today. Windows Phone 7, which launched halfway through the quarter, got 2% market share, compared with 4% for Windows Mobile."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1296692476.usr110171.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>The Business Insider website has posted a reference to data published by The NDP Group which suggests that in the U.S. consumer smartphone market Windows Phone 7, debuting for the first time in their statistics, has garnered 2% of the market. At the same time, Windows Mobile captured 4% of the market (although it dropped 3 points since the last time the data was collected). For debate is the question of just how significant this is? Looking carefully at the data, The NDP Group indicates that the data is based on "U.S. consumers, aged 18 and older, who reported purchasing a mobile phone. NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases". It seems to me that this may not be all that surprising, given that Windows Mobile still has a significant presence at many retailers, having been in the market for many years and with many handsets from various manufacturers using it. Windows Phone 7, in my estimation, still has a long way to go to develop its retail presence and mind share through advertising. It also wouldn't surprise me to see the Windows Phone 7 percentage remain lower for some time this year. Could there be another explanation? Let me know in the comments.</p>

[ClassicLvr]

Your points are interesting. However, I think you dismiss business users too easily. Many business users buy their phones at retailers; I did. It is not uncommon for companies to reimburse for phones versus buy them. It isn't uncommon for people to pay for their own phones which they also choose to use for work. Some of those 4% could just have come off contract and are replacing their old WM device with a new one at upgrade pricing.

I still use a Windows Mobile 6.5 device. I'd prefer to have a new one of them over a Windows Phone 7 device, especially if I could get one with more physical controls versus touch screen everything. I can use my phone more efficiently, especially one-handed, for many common functions like reading e-mail than on touch screen only devices. Add to that far better Exchange support, and being able to continue using other software I've been comfortable with for years. Why would I choose a new, immature, locked down device if I were going to replace my phone? Lock down has kept me away too. If I want a device that is heavily locked down and where the vendor works against opening it, I'd go ahead and buy an iPhone.

For now, I'm thinking about buying a spare of my old phone off eBay just as a backup. If I didn't mind going touch only I'd buy one of the latest WM 6.5 phones instead. Someday us WM 'dinosaurs' will have to move on. Perhaps by then WP7 will have matured, and at least be on par feature-wise with two year old WM devices. Until/unless that happens, Android looks more like the successor to WM every day.

[Richard76]

My take on this is twofold. First, I believe that Microsoft fell down when it came to investing the time, money and effort to properly market this new platform. When you look at the stronghold iOS had and how quickly Android was gaining market-share in this demographic, they should have tripled their marketing efforts.

Second, as ClassicLvr eluded to, I believe the non-enterprise business segment of the market (small business, companies and employees that purchase outside of big enterprise contracts) is completely underestimated by Microsoft in general. If this was not the case, then why on earth would they introduce a new platform that could not natively sync with Outlook (without an enterprise server environment)?

[Fritzly]

If MS does not start to push updates ASAP and clearly announces a roadmap for further ones and what they will take to the platform the situation will get worse not better.

[MadSci]

Gee! Why would an OS intended for children not be popular with WM Customers, most of whom are too busy with life to play XBox games on their phones?

Could it be because they can't get their email on it? Or they would have to wiat months, maybe years, maybe never to spend hundreds of bucks to replace their perfectly personalized suite of WM software?
Could it be because they are used to configuring their phone exactly as they like in order for it to be a highly efficient productivity tool and don't want to give this up in return for live updates of what their Grade School Chums had for breakfast today?
Could it be because they would like to continue to make use of their primary productivity tool - MSoft's own Outlook?
Could it be their life isn't stored on an Exchange Server?

Maybe?

And as for all those very important and influential 18-28 year olds, could they be uninterested in a phone that barely manages to handle their email, can't Tweet natively, and has about 0.0001% of the App selection of WM?

Maybe?

[BBF]

Yep, I agree with most of the other posters about the mistakes MS has made.

My additional 2 cents are:
- Deciding to launch GSM first, rather than CDMA in the states, so they were positioned DIRECTLY against the iPhone4, rather than stealing users who were waiting for the CDMA version of the iPhone... too late now to fix this problem... MS in their infinite wisdom will launch CDMA WP7 four MONTHS after the iPhone... way to win there MS.
- Launching without at least feature parity with iOS4. No copy and paste? No limited multitasking? Honestly it would take feature parity and MORE with iOS4 to even attempt to compete... look at the zuneHD, at launch it had more features than the iPod Touch, and was quite comparable hardware wise... that didn't do so well... so honestly what did MS expect when it launched WP7 without feature parity with iOS4?