Microsoft's Mobile Strategy In 2009: Wait for Mobile 7 in 2010
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Microsoft didn't throw its Hail Mary pass in the mobile space 2009, but it has its arm cocked back to throw. In October, Microsoft rolled out Windows Mobile 6.5, its latest smartphone operating system. Comments from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives have indicated that Mobile 6.5 (which includes more robust touch-screen functionality among its new widgets) is a sort of placeholder, designed to keep Redmond's smartphone operating system market share from degrading further before it can release Mobile 7, supposedly a major upgrade, sometime in 2010. By the second quarter of 2009, according to research firm Gartner, Microsoft's share of the mobile operating system market had declined to around 9 percent. During Microsoft's Open House event in New York on Oct. 6, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices (E&D) Division, suggested to the media that Mobile 6.5 would be running on 30 new smartphones by the end of 2009. Carrierwise, those devices would come from the usual suspects such as HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics. In the months leading up to the release, Microsoft encouraged developers to create applications for Windows Marketplace, which the company envisioned as a competitor to mobile application stores from Apple, RIM, Palm and others. While Microsoft publicly hoped that the Marketplace would launch with 600 apps in place, it ended up with 246 on Oct. 6. Microsoft faces substantial challenges in the mobile market come 2010. The first is the rise of the Google Android OS. A number of the Android-equipped devices, including the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris, have proved to be solid sellers. That represents a direct challenge to Windows Mobile, which is also ported onto multiple devices offered by multiple carriers and manufacturers. The second comes from the perception that Windows Mobile is in trouble. Many commenters on eWEEK and Microsoft Watch have reinforced that notion, and some pundits have also come forward to declare Mobile all but dead and buried. "It's time to declare Microsoft a loser in phones. Just get out of Dodge," Mark Anderson of the Strategic News Service told The New York Times on Dec. 10, in comments widely circulated. "Phones are consumer items, and Microsoft doesn't have consumer DNA." Would you want to buy a product whose expiration date seemed imminent? Didn't think so. But that's exactly what Microsoft is facing in this particular uphill battle. Unless Windows Mobile 7 does something so impressive it immediately leapfrogs not only Android but also the next version of the iPhone OS, then Mobile could indeed be doomed. But until details about Mobile 7 start to leak in a more substantial way, it's pure conjecture to guess what features it'll include. But right now I'm more interested in what you think--if you were Steve Ballmer for a year, what would you do to revive Windows Mobile? |
Comments (5)
I agree with the article: Why would anyone want to buy a product such as Windows Phone whose expiration date seemed imminent?
I can answer that question. Back in September, 2009, the CFI Group did a survey of Windows Mobile phone users. The survey concluded that most WinMo users did not know what OS their phone was running. They had a Windows Mobile phone, but didn't know it. It also said their satisfaction was lower than with other phone platforms.
So it pays to check what phone operating system a handset is running, before you buy it, to make sure it's not a platform that's decreasing in market share and on the way out.
In the CFI Group survey, users of Apple iPhone and Google's Android phones were the happiest with their handsets.
Windows Mobile's market share has plummeted to 7.9% (Gartner, Q32009) and still falling rapidly. Of that 7.9%, it is used mostly by people who's IT department dictated what they had to use (in other words, the phone user had no say in which phone they would use), and people who simply had no idea which phone they were using.
Posted by Penny Howard | December 15, 2009 10:24 PM
Well , I would do this,
1. Inject new smart people in windows mobile team with consumer oriented background and make new manager
2. Join Zune HD team to windows mobile , make its managers have strong hand in the WM team , not second level staff , they already proved they can produce something very attractive , interface , IE , multitouch , …
3. Stress on leveraging .NET , Mobile office 2010 , Silverlight 4 , Zune IE , better integration with Exchange and Sharepoint than anyone else as key technologies differentiating factors in the platform compared to other platforms
4. Make partnerships with ISVs to bring quality applications to Marketplace , make very attractive conditions for them to ignite the motivation , make better rules than what Apple force developers to do , somehow make it easy to transfer current PC applications on .NET to WM , offer state of the art tools in VS2010 (Maybe with a later service pack) with WM7 development , templates , samples , videos in channel 9 for the subject , learning resources , etc , this is so important
5. This is very important : Make the user interface beautiful , MS already has the talent , Windows 7 is so beautiful , WM7 also should be , every icon , dialog , background window interface should be revised to be beautiful look , look to the iPhone , it’s so dam beautiful in all aspects
6. After launch make an excellent web site to show how WM7 is capable in all aspects , don’t ignore details , look how Apple is wonderfully demonstrating its iPhone features in its site with all the feature grouped in the left and detailed descriptions per category in the right with pictures , videos , text nicely separated , this is very important for consumers to follow on the product and have confidence on it , best example here :
http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/
I don’t know why , but no other company in the phone industry is demonstrating its mobile capabilities like this , it’s easily generating the WAW factor for anyone navigating the site
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All this can be done , just needs management dedication and will , they have all the resources already in all aspects , talent , money , market power , ISVs , partnerships , they can do it , I would have !
Posted by Bassam | December 16, 2009 4:57 AM
yes microsoft has released windows mobile 6.5, however there are very few devices that have it availible take example the htc touch pro 2 not going to see 6.5 until maybe jan 2010 when it was released in october. This has been a long problem with the windows mobile the users never see the updates until much later or if even at all. same with win mobile 7 every one will have to get a new device to get it as with the iphone that have released updates and made them availible for all users and all iphones this would have and still would help windows. Stop putting the control with updates to os in the oems and cell providers.
Posted by Jason B. | December 16, 2009 10:24 AM
"if you were Steve Ballmer for a year, what would you do to revive Windows Mobile?"
Quit, and take Robbie Back with me.
Posted by Paul | December 16, 2009 12:06 PM
What should MS do? Give up. Windows Mobile is now pointless.
There's nothing to be won for Microsfot anymore - the once monolithic world of Operating Systems has been destroyed by the open protocols needed for internet communications and dispersed applications, exactly the services phones will use.
Microsoft was only interested in a mobile operating system as part of their effrot to own peoples I.T infrastructure. They've lost that battle and they're never going to profit from the mobile market itself.
The future of clever phones is probably Apple and Android. Poor old Palm made a brave effrot with the Pre but they'll never win the battle for developers attention - developers have a clear choice.
Apple for the market of people who don't give a damn just make it work and Android for the open source culture. The future has little room for other options.
Posted by Fentex | January 24, 2010 12:01 AM