20 Million WM Handsets To Be Shipped In 2008

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20070627PD216.html' target='_blank'>http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a2...70627PD216.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"An additional 20 Microsoft Windows Mobile 6-based handsets will be launched before the end of 2007 and global shipments of Windows Mobile-based devices are expected to top 20 million units in 2008, according to sources at Microsoft Taiwan. With the recently launched Windows Mobile 6 platform, Microsoft's share in the global mobile devices market is expected to double to 20% in 2008 from the current level of 10%, said Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft ODM embedded devices, Asia. Wu made the remarks as the software giant officially launched its Windows Mobile 6 OS on June 26 in Taiwan."</i><br /><br />While this sounds like an awful lot of devices, it's still small fry compared with a global market that swallowed a billion phones in 2006 alone. I'm also a bit dubious about the 20% market share claim (what the h-ll is the global mobile devices market?). Nonetheless, the number of devices are increasing, and so is market acceptance - something to keep in mind as we enter the "iPhone era". :roll:

[dommasters]

I can easily believe that now that I have an HTC S710. It is possibly the best mobile device I have ever owned and ... I wouldn't even swap it for an iPhone!

[SteveHoward999]

I can easily believe that now that I have an HTC S710. It is possibly the best mobile device I have ever owned and ... I wouldn't even swap it for an iPhone!


Ahhhh the iPhone ... that thing that does what everything else has done for years. but with more pizzaz and a much more massive media campaign ...

:-)

[Deslock]

I can easily believe that now that I have an HTC S710. It is possibly the best mobile device I have ever owned and ... I wouldn't even swap it for an iPhone!


Ahhhh the iPhone ... that thing that does what everything else has done for years. but with more pizzaz and a much more massive media campaign ...

:-)
Have you actually used one? I did last night and the first phrase to come to mind is:

Holy. Crap.

It's very lightweight, small, thin, and ergonomic (the curves make it even more comfortable and pocketable than the dimensions indicate). The interface effectively uses the available pixels (lower than VGA, but noticeably higher and sharper than the QVGA or the 240x240 found on most WM-based smart phones).

The capacitance touch-screen works better than any other I've used (I've owned 14 touch-screen PDAs over the years). Multi-touch is as slick and useful as the ads make it look. So is multimedia playback. Safari lacks flash and full java support, but it still blows away all the other PDA browsers I've tried (ajax support is there and google docs works, BTW).

The applications are intuitive and the OS is responsive. As in, there is no lag. At all. For anything. That last one is the real kicker... frankly I'm sick of waiting for things to happen on my WM5 iPAQ.

I'm no Apple fanboi and I'm not trying to bash WM. Like every device, the iPhone has deficiencies: While the EDGE network can be reasonably quick, it's often excruciatingly slow. There is no voice recorder, video recorder, GPS, installable apps, expandable memory, or swappable battery (though its life is excellent). Push email options are limited. There are still questions about how it'll work with Exchange.

So clearly the iPhone isn't a suitable tool for a lot of users. But does a hell of a lot of things better than any other PDA/smartphone I've used and its feature-set is actually fine for most people. Hate Apple and Steve Jobs all you want, but give them credit for this one... the iPhone lives up to its hype.

Of course, it's only one device and given the price I don't see it selling anywhere near 20 million by 2008 like WM will.

[SteveHoward999]

Guess you missed my point. Windows Mobile has been here for years. most folk have never heard of it. Most folk have no idea what can be done with a Windows Mobile Device. Most have no idea what features and functionality they are missing if they buy an iPhone.

But **everyone** knows what an iPhone does.

So why is Microsoft so ashamed of WM?

[Deslock]

Guess you missed my point. Windows Mobile has been here for years. most folk have never heard of it. Most folk have no idea what can be done with a Windows Mobile Device. Most have no idea what features and functionality they are missing if they buy an iPhone.
Indeed. In the context of your response to dommasters, your point appeared to be to dismiss the iPhone as something that does what previous devices have been doing for years, but with better marketing. The iPhone is certainly more than that (this is the first product with a capacitance-based, multi-touch interface and arguably the first smartphone with both an effective interface and decent multimedia options).

As I wrote before, the iPhone is missing a lot of features, but it handles most key consumer needs. And the point is that what it does, it does very well. Most users will give up their (crappy) cell-phone video in exchange for an interface and web browser that aren't frustrating.

But **everyone** knows what an iPhone does.

So why is Microsoft so ashamed of WM?
Had Microsoft announced the iPhone with an equally jaw-dropping interface, it would also get a lot of hype. Possibly not quite as much as Apple's iPhone because Apple is "hip" (though Xbox 360 has been a boon for Microsoft here), but it would still be huge.

Case in point, Microsoft's Surface got a lot of mainstream press and attention because it's a very slick product. Despite it not being announced as a consumer level product (and despite it being similar to a demo (http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/) shown last year), there was a lot of hype. If the average user could get a Surface computer, it'd be the next big thing, even without having the benefit of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field :mrgreen:

As far as WM goes, Microsoft doesn't make the hardware themselves and they don't advertise the same way Apple does. And let's be honest... WM isn't a stellar product. It's feature-rich, but plagued by a mediocre interface and many frustrating problems that Microsoft has not addressed.

On the plus side, if the iPhone does well, maybe it'll prompt Microsoft to fix WM's issues. Anyway, this has gotten off topic.

[Zex_Suik]

please please PLEASE do not ever refer to our time as the iphone era again

On the other hand someone should put together a viral marketing campaign for windows mobile. Something along the lines of what Steve is saying "Windows Mobile, we've been doing it for years"

or "iphone = old hat"

or "iphone, shinin' up turds since 2007"

i: "I'm an iPhone"

p: "and I'm a Pocket PC"

i: "What are you doing there?"

p: "Playing COD"

i: "?!? how the..."

p: "What are you doing?"

i: "Checking stocks and directions"

p: "*yawn*...."

[SteveHoward999]

Indeed. In the context of your response to dommasters, your point appeared to be to dismiss the iPhone as something that does what previous devices have been doing for years, but with better marketing. The iPhone is certainly more than that (this is the first product with a capacitance-based, multi-touch interface and arguably the first smartphone with both an effective interface and decent multimedia options).

I was in a hurry. I had better things to do with my time on a Saturday than spend 15 minutes crafting an extended reply.

Now I've finished with the busy part of the day and have a beer in my hand:-

"that thing that does what everything else has done for years."

There are no features in the iPod that have not been seen elsewhere in some mobile device or other ...

"but with more pizzaz"

OK the inteface is cool. I think we all get that. But it's not the brand new revolutionary thing the wet dreamers make it out to be. It's a bit like saying what was first, Windows or Mac visual interface? ...

Er, actually, try Xerox ;-)

"and a much more massive media campaign ... "

The media campaign is a massive thing for a few reasons, but only one is the money Apple spent. The trend-driven media drool over anything Apple. Apple might have spent 10 million (or twenty or fifty or who knows what) but the media frenzy has been worth many many more times whatever Apple spent.

Those who have not seen or used a smart phone or PDA (and there's many more than anyone here wants to believe) have probably been introduced to the dea of a 'smart' phone by the iPhone - well, after creaming over their Razrs for the last 3 years. Everyone here knows that (leaving aside the interface and the multitouch screen) PocketPC, Symbian and even Palm have been doing most of what the iPhone is showing off for years. But when did you ever see Microsoft or Palm or Nokia or whoever blitzing the media, or winning over tv anchormen with their shiny trendy toys in such scale?

I'm not saying the iPhone is bad. I'm just saying there has never been the same effort to get across the cool features of any other preceding device. And the physical designs of most have been (ralatively) bland and businesslike in comparisson. But that's because someone told the PDA/smartphone marketing focus group that these are toys only businessmen and geeks want.

Apple knows different.

So do we!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But the wet dreamers are only going to say that I hate the iPhone and should stop being so horrid to it. But that's coz they don't want to take the time to understand that I am ambivalent towards the iPhone, and just would like to have seen better "spreading the word" efforts, and better designs for PocketPC over the last 5 years.

[Yata]

20 million doesn't sound very optimistic when the total market is already over 1 billion a year. That's only 2% of the market. Can't the world's most profitable company do better?

[SteveHoward999]

20 million doesn't sound very optimistic when the total market is already over 1 billion a year. That's only 2% of the market. Can't the world's most profitable company do better?

They survived on about that in the personal computer market for years, so why not?

[Yata]

It just doesn't very ambitious to me. If they were serious, they would dump their partners and start manufacturing their own phones. It's worked well for the Xbox and to a lesser extent the Zune too.

2% market share after 6-7 years of Windows Mobile (phone edition) isn't particularly impressive.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

please please PLEASE do not ever refer to our time as the iphone era again

In case you missed it, I was being sarcastic - that phrase cropped up in a couple of news reports over the weekend :roll:. I'm suffering from hype overload :(

[Docwiz]

Guess you missed my point. Windows Mobile has been here for years. most folk have never heard of it. Most folk have no idea what can be done with a Windows Mobile Device. Most have no idea what features and functionality they are missing if they buy an iPhone.
Indeed. In the context of your response to dommasters, your point appeared to be to dismiss the iPhone as something that does what previous devices have been doing for years, but with better marketing. The iPhone is certainly more than that (this is the first product with a capacitance-based, multi-touch interface and arguably the first smartphone with both an effective interface and decent multimedia options).

As I wrote before, the iPhone is missing a lot of features, but it handles most key consumer needs. And the point is that what it does, it does very well. Most users will give up their (crappy) cell-phone video in exchange for an interface and web browser that aren't frustrating.

But **everyone** knows what an iPhone does.

So why is Microsoft so ashamed of WM?
Had Microsoft announced the iPhone with an equally jaw-dropping interface, it would also get a lot of hype. Possibly not quite as much as Apple's iPhone because Apple is "hip" (though Xbox 360 has been a boon for Microsoft here), but it would still be huge.

Case in point, Microsoft's Surface got a lot of mainstream press and attention because it's a very slick product. Despite it not being announced as a consumer level product (and despite it being similar to a demo (http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/) shown last year), there was a lot of hype. If the average user could get a Surface computer, it'd be the next big thing, even without having the benefit of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field :mrgreen:

As far as WM goes, Microsoft doesn't make the hardware themselves and they don't advertise the same way Apple does. And let's be honest... WM isn't a stellar product. It's feature-rich, but plagued by a mediocre interface and many frustrating problems that Microsoft has not addressed.

On the plus side, if the iPhone does well, maybe it'll prompt Microsoft to fix WM's issues. Anyway, this has gotten off topic.

I have looked at the iphone, you can do the same exact things on Windows Mobile.

The Windows Mobile Pocket PC's touch screens can do the same thing that the iphone can do and with the same interface/touch that iphone does. There are you tube videos with the proof of this.

You can even go further with this and check out Ppod. (Like an iPod Simulator just using the touch screen).

DeepFish does the same thing Safari does but on Windows Mobile.

I really don't see the big deal. They just packaged those things into a single phone and give you a ton less flexibility with it.

Apple is a company that reminds me of how shallow people are. Some people will vote for a canidate for the president of the United States on how handsome they look. Sad really.

[zetsurin]

Windows Mobile IS clunky. It IS unsuitable for the average consumer. The average consumer is not going to geek out over the functionality we find interesting, nor will they ever, nor should we expect them to. Some of the pro-WM crowd would be well advised to look at the way some Linux advocates assume that people should learn fiddly settings in the OS rather than the OS be modified to meet the criteria necessary for the average joe to get it. They end up looking like asses, which is what you guys are doing in the same way.

WM will never appeal to anything more than IT geeks in it's present and past forms. The iPhone (as much as I hate the device based on hype and the fact that you can't write or install your own apps) is a solution that will cater for and easily overtake the WM market share. Get used to it.

And besides, without Palm as a viable force to copy (the only way Microsoft 'innovates') it has stagnated, as Microsoft always does once they dispose of their 'threat'. Rest assured, the iPhone will suddenly give Microsoft new inspiration as now it has a superior target to copy. That's my cynical (yet I would also argue accurate) way of telling you guys that the iPhone is good for us as we are going to get better products soon rather than this cookie cutter crap we have been getting for years now.

It's all in the execution, and what the iPhone does, it does better than any WM device can and has ever done.