Microsoft Plans to Ship 20 million Windows Mobile Licenses in 2008

[Pete Paxton]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3803' target='_blank'>http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3803</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires today, Microsoft's Senior Vice President for Mobile Communications Pieter Knook said that the company expects to double the amount of phone devices using Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to 20 million worldwide in the fiscal year 2008, starting July 1. Microsoft said it is gaining market share in the mobile phone software market and expects that, as the handset market advances, computer applications and Internet services will become more important for both business users and consumers. "This will be the fourth year that we have doubled our size and we are significantly outgrowing the market and also our competition. RIM and Symbian aren't doing this and we're gaining share and growing our portfolio," said Knook. Beside HTC, which makes most of today's Windows Mobile devices, Microsoft also expects to expand on the 40 other handset manufacturers that currently use Windows Mobile and said that it hopes Motorola and Samsung will become more significant users of the technology."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/paxton-20070501-windowsmobile.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Arne Hess has an article about the future of Windows Mobile devices. Well, if you think about it, Palm finally realized that the Windows Mobile OS is worth switching to. I have to admit that I've had a Palm device, a Symbian device, and a Rim device and I find the Windows Mobile OS far superior. I wouldn't trade my Dash for all three of the other devices combined. So how about your opinion. Why is the Windows Mobile OS market growing so fast and what makes it the best mobile platform?

[Stinger]

I'd hate to rain on the Microsoft hype machine, but 20 million really isn't that many phones.

The entire market is about 1 billion phones a year. 20 million is 2% of the market. Even Apple's share on the desktop market is bigger than that. :D

If Microsoft ever wants to be a major player then it needs to stop focusing solely on the enterprise market and go after the consumer market. They need Motorola and Samsung to start producing more regular shaped Smartphones, with decent cameras and good industrial designs.

[subzerohf]

...If Microsoft ever wants to be a major player then it needs to stop focusing solely on the enterprise market and go after the consumer market. They need Motorola and Samsung to start producing more regular shaped Smartphones, with decent cameras and good industrial designs.

Yeah, why not? Every phone needs an OS to operate. Why not put Windows Mobile on every phone? Is there any hardware constraints?

Nokia is selling tons of phones running on Symbian. Many users do not even realize that they are "smart" phones. That is how Nokia gets to the number one spot - selling smart phones to people who don't need it.

[Mark Larson]

It seems Microsoft has committed to staying at the top end of the market - smartphones aren't very cheap, even when subsidized by the carrier.

However, when the first WM phones came out, they were way ahead of their time, with mp3 playback, mp3 ringtones and video playback at a time when most phones had small screens and barely any audio/video capabilities.

I don't think the WM market has grown a lot since then - I thought there was barely an upgrade from my Audiovox SMT-5600's WM2003 SE to my T-Mobile SDA's WM5, and even less of an upgrade from my SDA to my Q. Yay, now I don't have to deal with the SDA's horrible keys anymore.

On the other hand, I lost use of the intent midlet manager, so now to install Gmail and other J2ME software I have to first download a Java manager and then download the software I need to use.

Microsoft needs to put more time into making their phones work well as phones. When I don't even have an easy to access alarm clock, no shortcuts on the home screen and need a third party program to do anything, the charm of the smartphone is lost.

And of course, MS is more busy removing features than adding new ones into Activesync.

[Stinger]

It seems Microsoft has committed to staying at the top end of the market - smartphones aren't very cheap, even when subsidized by the carrier.

I don't think that price is a barrier, especially not in Europe (where the smartphone market is six times that of North America).

The new Orange SPV E650 is free on virtually any contract. It's the same price, if not cheaper, than the best selling phones at the moment like the Nokia N95 (which costs £600 SIM free!) and the LG Prada.

Certainly in Europe, it's features and aesthetics that are holding Smartphones back. Thankfully, it sounds like the next version of the LG Prada will be using Windows Mobile. :)