RIM Surpasses Windows Mobile Marketshare

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/09/smartphone-mark.html' target='_blank'>http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/09/s...phone-mark.html</a><br /><br /></div><p>JKOnTheRun has an overview of the second quarter for 2008 marketshare numbers, and there is a new number two player. Previously, Windows Mobile held on to the number two slot behind the big kid on the block, Symbian. In the most recent numbers, RIM's Blackberry platform has pushed Windows Mobile into third place.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.ehansberry.com/ppct/2008/20080915-2q2008marketshare.jpg" border="0" /><br /></p>

[soho_1]

Next quarter's (Q3) consensus for Apple is 5 to 7 million units which matches consensus for RIM (6 million). Unless Microsoft sees substantial above-market growth, it could slip to fourth.

[whydidnt]

Let's hope Microsoft uses this as motivation to get the lead out, so to speak. This 2 year cycle for new releases doesn't cut it when the competition is seemingly releasing something new every 6 months. Let's be realistic, the UI improvements provided in the latest round of WM devices and tacking a 5 year old desktop browser on to the OS really isn't anything more than "lipstick on a pig". ;)

The funny thing is that all along we heard Microsoft say the real competition was Symbian and RIM, yet as soon as Palm effectively died off, innovation slowed to a crawl for Windows Mobile.

[Janak Parekh]

Let's hope Microsoft uses this as motivation to get the lead out, so to speak. This 2 year cycle for new releases doesn't cut it when the competition is seemingly releasing something new every 6 months. That's just part of it -- another major problem is that, since WM isn't tightly coupled to a particular OEM, that the OS release just means another 6-month wait before consumers can get a new device. Compare that to, say, RIM's Storm, which might hit Verizon tomorrow (http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/14/verizon-announcing-something-tomorrow-possibly-blackberry-storm/). In fact, if you look at all of the major competitors to WM, you've got Symbian (essentially Nokia), RIM (one vendor), Apple (one vendor), and Linux (generally hardware-vendor-driven) as the major competitors.

The HTC/Microsoft relationship is a start, but Microsoft needs to emphasize fast release and kick it into high gear to keep pace.

--janak

[dma1965]

Dealing with Microsoft Pocket PC is much like dealing with that one employee or co-worker that you simply end up ignoring because every time you give him and assignment, or tell him where he needs to improve, or are asked to work on a project with her inevitably fails to deliver. Eventually, you simply start looking at other options. The other options may not be better, overall, but the fact that the other options do not incessantly annoy you is a good enough reason to move on.

I was a Palm user, and eventually switched to Pocket PC due to the fact that I could multitask and that the development environment for Pocket PC was progressing. Over the years I dealt with annoyances that I was POSITIVELY SURE would get fixed. I started using Pocket PC in 2000, and 8 years later:

1. I still cannot save or open a Word (or any other) document on my device globally. This is so braindead it leaves me speechless. Whenever anyone asks me why they cannot do this my only answer is "Because Microsoft decided to do it that way." Why, after 8 years of this utter bullcrap I am still dealing with this is beyond me.

2. Windows Media Player is an utter mess. I thought it was better before the "update". The old version allowed you to drop music files in the My Music folder and then open the player and play them. Now you must either use Windows Media Player 11 on the desktop to properly update the library, or manually re-update the library. It also cannot remember playback positions or files last played when closed, and it takes too many button presses to do anything.

3. No native photo contact dialing support. For the love of God, Microsoft, you have photo contact support in the OS IF YOU DECIDE TO OPEN A CONTACT, why not add the ability to natively dial a contact by photo? I still need a third party application to do this.

4. Allowing OEM's to rape the system. I like Windows Live Messenger. It works well. I can have my Hotmail pushed to my device and I can use Windows Messenger IF MY CARRIER DECIDES TO LET ME. I can also find the Internet Sharing applet to tether IF MY CARRIER DECIDES TO LET ME FIND IT. I can even update the system IF MY OEM OR CARRIER DECIDES IT IS OKAY.

5. Inconsistent support for stylus-free use. Some applications allow you to do whatever you like without using a stylus. Others let you do some things without a stylus, and others need a stylus. Try sending an MMS to someone and browsing for a photo without a stylus. Not very easy to do. Some applications allow the easy use of a finger in place of a stylus, and others are nearly impossible.

6. Crappy reminder snooze time choices. I want to be able to decided when I am re-reminded of an event. I do not want to choose 5 minutes before, 1 day, etc. I want to be able to choose to set a custom time like remind me in 11 minutes, or Friday at 8:10 AM, as well as the "canned" reminder times.

7. I frankly do not want to rehash Pocket IE. Suffice it to say that the plethora of other browsers make it look utterly craptacular.

8. I should be able to uninstall anything I damn well want to uninstall. If I do not want Word, Excel, IE, or anything else let me choose to put something else in.

I could go on, but that is definitely enough for now. I have looked at the iPhone, and decided it is not ready for primetime yet. I have far too many needs that are not met by it. But I have to admit, I find it very sexy and long for it (even though I know it is not good for me). I have looked at Blackberry, but it leaves me wanting more in terms of applications and I still like having a touch screen.

Nonetheless, much like that one employee who I decide to ignore, I wait for the chance to give the job to someone else and fire him in all his annoying glory. Sure, the new guy or gal may have their own problems, but at least I will have a chance to dump the old annoyances for the new.

Change can be annoying too, but sometimes a change is as good as a vacation.

[deanhatescoffee]

I'm surprised that Symbian is so popular - I don't know anyone who uses it. I live in the US, though, and I'm sure this must've been a worldwide survey.

[whydidnt]

That's just part of it -- another major problem is that, since WM isn't tightly coupled to a particular OEM, that the OS release just means another 6-month wait before consumers can get a new device.
--janak

We all recognize this as an issue. Why hasn't Microsoft? It's time to decouple the OS, UI, and related functionality from the hardware and device drivers - like we see in desktop OS's. That would enable end-users and Microsoft to upgrade without the OEM/carrier obstruction. The issue with the current environment is that there is little to no financial incentive for the OEM or carrier to upgrade the software after initial delivery.

Short of this suggestion, then it would seem Microsoft should place EVEN more emphasis on shortening the development cycle. If you know your partners are going to take 6 months to deliver your software, you can't have a 2 year long upgrade cycle, it needs to be 6 months, so your partners can deliver new device/features at least annually.

I'm quite confident there are talented people on the WM team that could address several of our concerns. However, I have serious doubts that Microsoft invested as many resources as they could or should have over the last ten years to truly advance this platform. They are now paying for that decision and if they want to stay relevant in this space they're going to have do more than they have, and soon.

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm surprised that Symbian is so popular - I don't know anyone who uses it. I live in the US, though, and I'm sure this must've been a worldwide survey.

Symbian is on virtually every Nokia phone out there, even though most of its users don't use it past basic things, like contacts and SMS.

[Janak Parekh]

We all recognize this as an issue. Why hasn't Microsoft? Excellent question. My guess? Entrenched mindset. The WM platform has been around for 15-ish years now, and they've been working with this model all along. It's worked "well enough" for them. It's clearly not good enough now, but it's difficult to reengineer this, from contractual to cooperation to development models.

(In some sense, many MS platforms are suffering from this traditional mindset -- witness how long Vista took to come to market compared to its competitors.)

--janak

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I'm surprised that Symbian is so popular - I don't know anyone who uses it. I live in the US, though, and I'm sure this must've been a worldwide survey.

You know those funky (and fairly popular) N series phones? N7x, n8x, n9x? They use Symbian. Those E series phones? Symbian too. I'd say at least 50% of phones sold by Nokia in developed nations have Symbian.

[saru83]

Even though i'm not a WM user anymore, i didn't enjoy hearing this news.. i would love to give WM another chance, but they at least need to get the OS to do the basic tasks right, my iPhone might not do every single thing my previous WM's did, but what it does it does right, smooth with NO hassle & that was enough for me to switch..

[Frankie1]

Well, I bet if you change that to "Smart Phone" Market share the numbers change drastically.
Symbian would probably be 4th and WM would be 2nd or 1st.

[stevew]

We all recognize this as an issue. Why hasn't Microsoft? .

Windows Mobile has never been a priority with Microsoft and it shows.

[Jonathan1]

Not to sound like an emerging fanboi but don't count Google out of this. Yes. Considering they don't even HAVE a handset out on the market yet its a little to early too make assumptions on their place in the market, however what they are doing looks promising. Damn promising. Unless Microsoft radically alters their course and does so quickly I think Google and Apple are going to start seriously eating into WM's market share.
I'll bet someone a Frap from Starbuck's that Google will have Android 2.0 out before the end of '09 and that the maturity rate of that OS is going to move staggeringly fast in the next 6 months. Meanwhile Microsoft MAY have WM 7 out by Spring. However I really question if this is going to feel like a rush job or not. Is it just me or is anyone else getting the impression that the iPhone and Android really caught Microsoft flat footed? I mean all the buzz around WM7 really started after the iHype started to gain momentum.
I just wonder if when its all said and done if the feature set of WM7 is going to feel tacked on like the Tablet feature in XP vs. Vista?

[Pony99CA]

JKOnTheRun has an overview of the second quarter for 2008 marketshare numbers, and there is a new number two player. Previously, Windows Mobile held on to the number two slot behind the big kid on the block, Symbian. In the most recent numbers, RIM's Blackberry platform has pushed Windows Mobile into third place.
I've seen this article cited a lot, but what I don't seem to see much is that Windows Mobile actually gained marketshare (from 11.5% to 12%). RIM gained 8.5% percent, but Symbian lost 8.5%, so you could argue that all of RIM's gain was from Symbian.

Yes, I'd like WM to gain more, but it's not as bleak as some make it sound.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

1. I still cannot save or open a Word (or any other) document on my device globally.
I'm confused by what you mean by "globally". If you mean that the Open and Save dialogs only work in a few directories (like \My Documents on the device), that's true. I assume it was done because the \My Documents folder hierarchy is the only one that syncs.

However, you can certainly open any file you want anywhere on the device. Just use File Explorer to go there and double tap it.

2. Windows Media Player is an utter mess.
Maybe I don't play media enough on my device, but it works fine for me. My biggest complaint was removing the ability to edit playlists in WM 10 (I think).

I'd also like the ability to install your own codecs.

3. No native photo contact dialing support. For the love of God, Microsoft, you have photo contact support in the OS IF YOU DECIDE TO OPEN A CONTACT, why not add the ability to natively dial a contact by photo? I still need a third party application to do this.
Personally, I've never seen a reason to include photos in my Contacts. I know people by their names, so I dial by name. When a call comes in, the picture doesn't tell me anything that the name doesn't.

I do accept that some people do use that, of course, but I'd rather Microsoft fix something else, like adding category synchronization back to ActiveSync/WMDC. Why did they even take it away?

6. Crappy reminder snooze time choices. I want to be able to decided when I am re-reminded of an event. I do not want to choose 5 minutes before, 1 day, etc. I want to be able to choose to set a custom time like remind me in 11 minutes, or Friday at 8:10 AM, as well as the "canned" reminder times.
This is one of my hot buttons, too. On the Handheld PC (if I recall correctly), reminders had a combo box with some default choices, but you could type pretty much anything in. Why not allow that on Windows Mobile?

At least add more options to the Snooze menu, perhaps by using cascading Minutes, Hours and Days menus.

7. I frankly do not want to rehash Pocket IE. Suffice it to say that the plethora of other browsers make it look utterly craptacular.
That may be true now, but before the iPhone, what mobile browser was better? (And, with programs like MultiIE that added tabbed browsing and a lot more, Pocket IE wasn't that bad.)

Anyway, MS is supposed to be adding an IE 6 level browser soon, so I hope that fixes the issue.

8. I should be able to uninstall anything I damn well want to uninstall. If I do not want Word, Excel, IE, or anything else let me choose to put something else in.
I disagree. Those are in ROM and don't take up user space, so why bother? If the icons in the Start or Programs menu bother you, you can delete them.

Can you delete IE or WMP on Windows Vista? And those take up hard disk space that I could really use.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Meanwhile Microsoft MAY have WM 7 out by Spring. However I really question if this is going to feel like a rush job or not. Is it just me or is anyone else getting the impression that the iPhone and Android really caught Microsoft flat footed? I mean all the buzz around WM7 really started after the iHype started to gain momentum.
I don't think it's rushed at all. I recall WM 7 (Photon) being discussed back in WM 5 days (before WM 6 was even out). WM 6 was considered a refresh with WM 7 bringing major changes. Like Janak said, the WM group needs to improve their cycle time.

However, you're also right about the iPhone. That's when we started hearing about WM 7 being its competition. In fact, I wonder if Microsoft reworked the planned Photon user interface in light of the iPhone. Even so, they've still had well over a year to get things right, but if anything will be rushed, I suspect the UI will be the problem.

The real rush might have been WM 6.1. I don't recall hearing anything about it until after the iPhone came out. I wonder if Microsoft added that in to address some of the issues with WM 5/WM 6 because WM 7 was taking so long.

Steve

[Menneisyys]

I'm confused by what you mean by "globally". If you mean that the Open and Save dialogs only work in a few directories (like \My Documents on the device), that's true. I assume it was done because the \My Documents folder hierarchy is the only one that syncs.

However, you can certainly open any file you want anywhere on the device. Just use File Explorer to go there and double tap it.


Or, alternatively, install Mad Programmer's File Dialog Changer (free).


Maybe I don't play media enough on my device, but it works fine for me. My biggest complaint was removing the ability to edit playlists in WM 10 (I think).

You can edit playlists in current WMP versions.

[goofy166]

[rant on] You read it here - Android is not going to be any kind of angelic solution to the smartphone market. Google is becoming just as lumbering and controlling as Microsoft. I just finished developing a WM app that took two years and I feel like sh*t entering the market with a product that runs on a platform that has not seen any major innovation for 8 years. I am porting the app to the iPhone as fast as I can and have no hope or expectations that Google Android will bring anything to the table that is good for developers - look at there browser chrome - its clearly headed down a path that will tie you into Google products, it will run great with gmail and crummy with anything thing else. If you think Android will be a great platform I have some water front property to sell you in the Africa desert. If I could sell naked shorts on Windows Mobile I would do it. I am so pissed at the opportunity that Msft let slip away and I have no allusions they can recover - I mean look at Zune - its got zero market share. Maybe that commercial about Bill Gates playing a robot is really a Freudian prediction. [rant off]

[Pony99CA]

You can edit playlists in current WMP versions.
Which version is that? The one in WM 6.1? I can't edit playlists in WMP on my Motorola Q9m running WM 6.0. (I got PlaylistSP, though.)

Steve