[OP/ED]- Microsoft to ditch Mobile OS?
An interesting article has been posted by the UK's newspaper The Guardian hypothesizes that Microsoft could abandon their Mobile OS platform, Windows Mobile, all together and call it quits. They cite that the 3.1 percent drop of their share of the Mobile OS Pie (down from 11 to 7.9%), the increasing support for Android from previous WM-heavy players (HTC, Motorola), and the increasing competition that Android poises (0 to 3.9% market share in 1 year).
I call shenanigans on this happening. Here's why-
1) Windows Mobile 7
The OS that Microsoft should have released instead of WM 6.5 looks very promising and will come with enhanced touchscreen support. The days of needing a stylus to click on some miniature icon will be gone, instead replaced by a Zune-influenced interface that looks to be equal to or even surpass the iPhone and Android. Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars on creating a new mobile OS and then ditch it a year later?
2) HTC and hardware partners
Yes, 7.9% is but a small sliver of the overall market. However, when that sliver includes millions of devices being sold, then it is a lot. There are 14 OEM licensees of Windows Mobile compared to the second place Symbian operating system at 10. Why would HTC spend millions developing the Sense UI if they were not committed to the Windows Mobile platform for the conceivable future?
3) 3 Screens and a Cloud
3 Screens (PC, the television, and the mobile phone ) and a Cloud. This is the basic strategy behind what Microsoft envisions as the future of computing. The Mobile phone is one of the key tenets in their plan. Ditching their own Mobile OS does not mesh well with this strategy.
The company plans to deliver a set of services that are common across devices, PCs and TVs. One example is the Zune Video service that will work across Zune HD players, Xbox consoles, Windows PCs and Windows Phones. If they are to follow their own self-envisioned plan for the future, why would Microsoft ditch their own Mobile OS?¹
¹Idea comes from this article by Mary Jo Foley.
© 2009, BigDiesel07. All rights reserved.
http://msftkitchen.com/2009/12/windows-mobile-7-silverlight-applications-ie-mobile-7-and-more.html
More proof that MS isn’t giving in.
A meeting we had with some Microsoft reps also hinted at the potential of dropping the Windows Mobile platform if WM7 flops. From what we had heard, the execs at MS were not happy with what 6.5 brought to the table.
My advice to MS, if you want better adoption of the WM platform:
a) Get your own online services working with it. It’s ridiculous that ActiveSync (an MS product) doesn’t work with Live (another MS product). Or that basic functions like Calendar and Tasks cannot be synced. For crying out loud, GMail can use ActiveSync! Come on MS, get your act together!
b) Speed up the UI. WM has been historically slow and clunky at task starting, ending, switching, etc. When matched up to other devices they just appear not to perform well even though the hardware “specs” are better.
c) Give developers a reason to use the WM Marketplace. I’m not sure if it’s free to developers, but if it’s not you better make it otherwise it will never be used. It’s an excellent opportunity to connect users to developers and applications.
d) Face it MS, you’re behind on the application delivery capability that the iPhone has (Apps Store). So to get people using it *give* away useful applications. Maybe even go so far as to sponsor developers so they’re apps are freely available to consumers but they at least get paid from MS for them?
e) Include an Exchange ActiveSync CAL with the phone. This would be a huge business benefit in that it’s one more license that they don’t have to worry about and could spur a better adoption in businesses (especially versus RIM).
f) Speaking of business functionality, the remote tools suck for WM when linking to a corporate Exchange environment. Seriously, make better tools for managing the WM devices in a corporate environment.
g) Don’t depend on the carriers to release OS updates. They rarely do. But there are a lot of good developers here that do!
WHEW! Okay, rant over.
they wont give up, they need to get off their ass to make 7 be all it can be as apposed to what 6.5 could have been
Will WM7 ONLY work on capacitive devices?
ummm, ok. this is all relative to the success of windows7??? maybe it’s me, but it seems win7 is one of Microsoft’s better o/s launches.
they actually did wide-spread beta testing and tweaking based on users input. sounds like a recipe for success to me. now they need to start bring in the rest of the herd.
7 windows to rule them all, 7 windows to find them,
7 windows to bring them all and in the network bind them.
lol