When you do a search on an Android phone, the Search goes through Google. While Microsoft has not implemented Bing as the standard search system in the OS, they are committed to Online Search. Sandeep Aggarwal at Collins Stewart states that “mobile advertising will be a $4 billion revenue opportunity by 2012-2013.” Having a Mobile OS helps funnel users to using Bing, and those who use Bing bring in advertising money for Microsoft. Would Microsoft really want to lose out on those billions?
5) Marketplace for Mobile
With the launch of Marketplace for Mobile, along with support for WM 6.1 & 6.0, Microsoft has started competing with Apple, Google, and Palm with an App Store of its own. Yes, the iPhone App Store has thousands more applications then what Marketplace may offer, but the total amount of apps developed for the WM platform is in the hundred of thousands.
6) Past History of Microsoft
When has Microsoft ever given up on anything software related? Here are (some of) the facts:
- Released first Windows (desktop) OS in 1985 and they are still moving forward with development (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 both released this year).
- Released first Windows Mobile OS in 1996 and WM development is still going strong (Windows Mobile 7 to be released in 2010).
- Released the first Zune OS in 2006 and in just three years, they have released version 4 (and version 5 has already been discussed publically).
- Released first version of Office products in 1991 and development continues (BETA version of Office 2010 available now).
- Released first version of Exchange mail server in 1996 and is still going strong in the marketplace (the RC2 version of Exchange 2010 was just released publically for testing).
- Released first version of SQL database server near the end of 1989 and is still being developed (SQL 2008 R2 was just released at the begining of this year).
While this is my own humble opinion, I would love to hear what you, the reader, think. Will Microsoft give up on the Mobile OS if Windows Mobile 7 fails or does not live up to the ‘hype’?