Microsoft Eyes 40 Percent of Smartphone Market by 2012

Advertisement (Why?)

Microsoft is aiming to capture 40 percent of the smartphone market with Windows Mobile by the year 2012, an executive said Tuesday. The target is ambitious considering the company's relatively small share of the market for smartphone operating systems today and stiff competition from the likes of Symbian, Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry, and newcomers such as Google's Android platform.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS went into around 11 million handsets in the company's fiscal year 2007, and it says it will reach nearly 20 million devices in fiscal year 2008, which ends June 30, said Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft's OEM Embedded Devices in Asia, on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei. Handsets such as the new HTC Touch Diamond will help Microsoft achieve its goal, he added. High Tech Computer (HTC) is the world's largest maker of Microsoft-based mobile phones and has been for years due to an early partnership between the companies. The HTC Touch Diamond is a 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) update to the company's popular Touch handset launched last year, an iPhone-rival that sports a large touchscreen.

View: The full story @ PCWorld

#1 MightyJordan on 13 May 2008 - 11:23

I think they'll easily hit that target. HTC is making loads of different Windows phones, and the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 will be their first phone running on Windows Mobile, so SE might make a lot more WM phones in the future.

(3 replies) #2 ricknl on 13 May 2008 - 12:16

Iphone is a rival only in the US market. Although it is very popular in the US, in other countries people are not really crazy about it.

#2.1 Magallanes on 13 May 2008 - 13:10

It is not so popular in USA, iphone is still a elitist product focused on a minor market. Iphone was top on sales only a few months and nothing else.

#2.2 PsykX on 13 May 2008 - 14:22

Even though I find it perfect, I know there were a few issues with it. The price, for example, which dropped like 2 months after it's been commercialized made a lot of people angry.
Maybe the lack of space (memory...) did not help its case either.
Oh and the lack of 3G was really not clever from Apple... as well as the lack of Video Capture.

But I have seen OS X Mobile version 2.0 beta and some hardware features that the future iPhone is rumored to have and I think it'll be really popular now, they've really been listening to the critics I think, and they've been fixing a lot of flaws. It's going to be difficult to resist that thing, only the price will decide a lot of things.

#2.3 Unplugged on 14 May 2008 - 08:16

That's the problem.

If you want people to buy your product you have to make sure that it offers something better than everything on the market. Apple couldn't even get that right and there are many phones out there that just **** all over it and dont cost you £lol in a kak contract that leaves you ripped off.

Very nice ipod but as a phone....

(1 reply) #3 Blaxima on 13 May 2008 - 12:59

Ya see, this is exactly the problem with the corporate world. Trying to ge their hands in every cookie jar means that the consumer ends up with a ton of mediocre products rather than one excellent one, like an OS for example

#3.1 Joshie on 13 May 2008 - 17:17

Nah, for the businesses that use PDAs, the idea of having an OS on their handheld that matches the OS at their workstation is a big selling point. After all, even Apple can support both MacOS and the iPhone software, and nobody's accused them of thinning their work force by doing so. If you're going to pick anything to criticize in MS's corporate philosophy, this isn't the right one.

#4 sphbecker on 13 May 2008 - 13:21

I bet Apple eyes 40% OS market share. As I constantly have to remind my 4 year old boy, wanting something doesn’t mean it is going to happen.

#5 +Smigit on 13 May 2008 - 13:21

I think they need to make it alot more user friendly if they are to hit that target, which I'm unsure they will. It's ok for techy users but I'm unsure how inclined mum and dad are to want to use windows mobile as it is now. Next release or two are set to change that but we'll see. Probably will need some budget headsets some how if they are to aim that high.

#6 Melfster on 13 May 2008 - 13:21

A lot people seem to think Apple iphone is the end all be all of mobile phones. I tend to think not. This is really going to test the theory is it better to control the entire os plus hardware or microsofts model where u control the software and have mutiple hardware vendors. Windows mobile as it stands right now is horrible... But I think that might change once windows mobile 7 comes out.

#7 Galley on 13 May 2008 - 13:24

[Spongebob]"Yeah, good luck with that".[/Spongebob]

#8 neufuse on 13 May 2008 - 13:29

Do they technically even categorize the iPhone as a smart phone? I've seen many places say it's not one... yet it has most of the features of one... guess the market share depends on who you ask

(2 replies) #9 bobbba on 13 May 2008 - 13:49

I think they're dreaming considering the competition they are going to have to face. that is unless they can pull something really impressive out the bag with the next release of windows mobile.

#9.1 chisss on 13 May 2008 - 20:54

what competition are you talking about?

#9.2 +Smigit on 14 May 2008 - 10:05

(chisss said @ #9.1)

Well theres always the iPhone (I'd call it a smart phone and a competitor, especially for non business consumers). Theres also that little OS named Symbian which currently has I believe 60% of the market and it's not like development has stopped for that either. They're shooting for much of the touch functionality too in their next major release. Whenever these mobile threads pop up people seem to neglect the fact Symbian controls the market and by a huge margin too over apple or MS's mobile OS's.

#10 dl0711 on 13 May 2008 - 13:58

considering all iPhone updates come right from apple apple would be the winner..

i say this because i have an HTC SMT-5800 and i have to get the updates from my provider which still dont have the Windows Mobile 6.1 update and what was the point in making the 6.1 update?? its because its an update to 6.0 which is real buggy. so ya the iPhone will always be in first place to me.

#11 MorganX on 14 May 2008 - 00:27

With Sony in the game (Xperia) and the HTC Diamond, it could happen sooner.

Edit: Apps that sync with my PC are a plus too.

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net