MS Senior VP Addresses Value Proposition of Windows Mobile vs Blackberry

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/msft/speech/FY05/KnookFAM2005.mspx' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/msft/speec...ookFAM2005.mspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"...of course this audience, particularly from a personal usage standpoint, is a challenging one for us. It's the one that uses a lot of BlackBerry products, and I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about how we're going to compete for mobile information workers, such as many of you sitting in this room. And there are many elements to that competition, the first of which is a focus on how do we do as a business and how our business model works."</i><br /><br />Continuing on the Windows Mobile vs Blackberry theme, this is a pretty lengthy transcription from Pieter Knook, Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Mobile / Embedded Devices Division &amp; Communications Sector. There is an accompanying PowerPoint presentation and an actual webcast of the speech made during the July 28th financial analysts meeting. Pieter touches on a number of sub-topics but pays some extra attention to the business model variance between Microsoft and RIM. Take a look and give us your thoughts. I can tell you from a corporate standpoint that the upcoming showdown between these two is HIGHLY anticipated!

[MG]

2 million BB users, 130 million Outlook users. If M$ does not fumble the ball and RIM does not innovate, it's all over. BB's will be extinct in 5 years.

We will know shortly.

Mark

[bdegroodt]

2 million BB users, 130 million Outlook users. If M$ does not fumble the ball and RIM does not innovate, it's all over. BB's will be extinct in 5 years.

We will know shortly.

Mark

BB has those very same 130 million Outlook users (and then some on other platforms) already. This equals advantage (slightly) RIM.

"M$" not fumbling the ball=a big "if." MS is learning some hard lessons over the last 5 years and this is certainly one of them.

RIM not innovating? Already done more with a fraction of the capital and talent than MS has in over 4 generations of CE/PPC/Mobile.

RIM is far (far) from extinct. Acquired, possibly, but certainly not dead.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

RIM is far (far) from extinct. Acquired, possibly, but certainly not dead.
Even in the best case scenario for Microsoft, I agree that RIM will still be around for a little while. The folks who use and enjoy RIM services are very adamant about keeping it in place. However, there's no question that the threat from Microsoft is very real. I have spoken to a number of different account managers from a number of vendors (HP and Verizon to name a couple)... and they all tell me that a large number of their clients are eagerly waiting to see what comes of the release of Exchange2k3 SP2 with the WM5 devices. So it certainly appears that a significant amount of market share will be Microsoft's to lose.