Huge Slump in Smartphone Market Share - Can Microsoft Reinvent Itself?

When you take a close look at the smartphone market, you will notice something strange. Experts often talk about what is possibly the most popular smartphone available today – the Apple iPhone. They talk about how Google Android could give Apple a tough competition. They talk about Symbian and they talk about Blackberry. They even talk about recently released smartphones like Motorola Cliq and Droid. One name that is conspicuously missing from this list is Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

It is really surprising. After all, Microsoft entered the smartphone market long back – Pocket PC 2002, the predecessor of Windows Mobile OS, was released in 2002. Soon, Windows Mobile was released in 2003. What has Microsoft managed to achieve in the past six years? The answer is – nothing worthwhile.

Windows Mobile, as of now, is the fourth most used mobile operating system in the world. Nokia with its Symbian OS is the market leader – followed by Blackberry and the iPhone. Experts, however, predict that it might not be able to stay at that spot for long. When you take a good look at the numbers, you get the feeling that what they predict might actually come true.

In the first quarter of 2004, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile had an envious 23% share in the smartphone market. In the first quarter of 2005, there was a steady decline and its market share was somewhere around 18%. In the first quarter of 2006, it further slumped and remained with a market share of 12%. In 2008, its market share dropped to 14%. At the start of 2009, it slumped further and remained at 7.9%. If we go by the recent report from AdMob, Microsoft’s market share, as of now, is only somewhere around 4%.

It is quite a slide – from 23% market share to 4% market share in a span of just five years. In the mean time, Apple, Nokia, RIM, and even Google have made their presence felt in the market big time.

It is really hard to believe. After all, Microsoft has got everything - all the money in the world, some of the brightest minds in the world, and plenty of goodwill. Yet, it has not been able to conquer the mobile market like it conquered the PC market. While late entrants like Apple and Google have been able to generate a big buzz, Microsoft has not been able to do anything that is worth taking notice.

Apple iPhone continues to climb the ladder and even new entrants like Motorola Droid have managed to create a big buzz. With this being the case, Microsoft’s only bet is Windows Mobile 7 OS – which incorporates the elements of Windows Mobile 6.5 and Zune – which is slated for release in 2010.

The mobile phone industry, the smartphone market in particular, is expected to grow bigger by the day. Mobile advertising, as we all know, is set to grow big as well. The time is ripe and the competition is intense. The question is – can Microsoft pull it off?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Microsoft.

0 comments.

The Need for Mobile Websites - Will Big Brands Wake Up?

Here’s a news item that surprised me to say the least. Interbrand recently released its list of the top 100 brands for 2009 and nearly 1/3rd of the brands in that list do not have their own mobile website.

If your reaction to this news is ‘dude, what’s the big deal?’ – let me tell you something. According to statistics, the number of people who use smart phones (read iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc) keeps increasing every year. In North America alone, nearly 26% of mobile users use the mobile web facility on their phone regularly. In other words, they use their mobile phone to browse the web. With more and more people buying internet enabled high end phones, it is only logical to assume that this percentage will grow significantly in the near future. So, you’d assume that big brands would have woken up to reality long time back and created their own mobile websites, right? Well; it turns out it is not the case.

Remember – I am not talking about small, lesser known brands here. Big, famous brands like Coca Cola and GE do not have a mobile website. To say that this is surprising is a huge understatement.

I have talked about the importance of big brands having a good mobile presence and how important it is to have a decent mobile website. I firmly believe that a well designed, easy to access mobile website is of paramount importance for any brand, leave alone huge brands like Coca Cola and GE.

Some could argue that iPhone and certain other mobile phones offer a full browser experience and so there is no need for a mobile website. Guess what? Not everyone in the U.S. uses an iPhone. There are other phones whose mobile browsers are not nearly as good as the iPhone mobile browser. What about the people who use these phones? What are they supposed to do?

Contrary to what most people think, browsing the web using a mobile phone is not easy. The screen is small, the keypad is small, and it is certainly not as easy as browsing the web on your PC or laptop. This is why you need to have a customized mobile website which loads quickly and easy to navigate. It is not hard to do. Facebook has a very good mobile site, Toyota has one, MySpace has one, Microsoft has one, and a number of other famous brands have one too. So, the only explanation is that some brands have not yet realized the potential of mobile internet and are reluctant to reach out to their users through their most personal device – the mobile phone.

I hope it does not stay this way. The future is mobile and let us hope – for the sake of all mobile users in the world – these brands realize this sooner than later.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

2 comments.

Motorola’s First Android based Mobile Phone - Cliq

Motorola has come up with its first Android powered mobile phone called Cliq. The phone comes with a responsive touch screen, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a 5 megapixel camera, and a built-in video and audio player. The USP of the phone is its social networking software called MotoBlur.

What MotoBlur does is simple – it makes mobile social networking a lot easier. All you need to do is enter all your information – email accounts and social networking accounts. MotoBlur syncs everything into a stream and gives you constant updates from various social networking sites. Whenever any of your contacts post a message or send you a mail, it will let you know immediately.

When you switch on the phone, you will see four widgets, or word bubbles as they are usually referred to, on your screen – Happenings, Status, Direct, and Weather. Happenings widget shows you all the posts made by your contacts, Status widget allows you to update your personal status simultaneously on various social networking sites, Direct widget brings you all the private messages, emails, and text messages your contacts send you, and Weather widget gives you weather updates throughout the day.

One of the interesting features of Cliq is that whenever you take a picture or shoot a video with the mobile camera, a small ‘share’ icon appears on the screen. One click and you can share the photo or the video with all your friends on various social networking sites.

In a sense, Cliq is a make or break product for Motorola. The company, as some of you might know, has been going through a rough phase of late and it badly needs to make something happen. Since the success of Razr, the company has not come up with anything worthy enough to be called its successor. Now, after eight long years, Motorola has unveiled what could be the worthy successor of Razr – Cliq. As of now, Cliq is only available through T-Mobile USA. A lot of experts, however, feel that Motorola should join hands with other carriers to make this product a success.

A lot of people also feel that Google sees Cliq as its chance to make its presence felt on a market which is completely dominated by Apple iPhone and Blackberry. If you remember, Google released Android in 2007 and it still has not been able to make its presence felt on the market. As of now, there are only four phone models that run with Android software. So, in my opinion, Google has a lot riding on this phone too. Let us see how it turns out for everyone involved with it.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

1 comment.

Facebook Mobile Reaches a New Milestone - 65 Million Active Users

Facebook Mobile has reached a new milestone folks. It now has over 65 million active users from different parts of the world, making it one of the most popular mobile social networking sites in the world today. What makes this news even more incredible is that it has happened in an incredibly short span of time. About eight months back, the number of active users was only around 20 million. Now, it is well over 65 million. In other words, the site has attracted more than 40 million new users in a span of eight months – eight months. Incredible is the only word that comes to my mind.

Let us dissect this achievement a little. There are a number of mobile social networking sites available today. What makes Facebook Mobile so popular among mobile users? From what I have seen so far, I can think of the following reasons.

• It is available in a number of different languages. So, no matter what language you speak, you are likely to find a version of Facebook Mobile in that language.

• There are a large number of Facebook Mobile applications available for different types of handsets including iPhone, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, HTC, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. So, no matter what handset you use, you can access it easily.

• It has come up with innovative features like Facebook SMS which lets you set your status, receive notifications, and send and receive messages via SMS. It is very convenient for people who are not able to log into the mobile site all the time.

• It is available in two formats – an ordinary version which works on any mobile phone and a special version which is meant only for touch screen phones.

Not hard to understand why the website has attracted so many people, isn’t it? In fact, experts say that the site will have more than 100 million users in 2010. Considering its growth in the past few months, it is not hard to believe.

Finally, here’s something for the hardcore Facebook users among you. People on Facebook Blog have announced that Facebook Connect, starting from today, will be available on a number of mobile sites and applications. Well; you knew they had something up their sleeve, didn’t you?

PS: To know more about mobile social networking, you can check out this post.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

0 comments.

Steve Ballmer takes a dig at Google Android

You’ve got to give it to Steve Ballmer. He has the knack to say something which makes the whole world sit up and take notice. Speaking at the Telstra annual investor briefing in Sydney yesterday, Ballmer said that Google is not a major mobile competitor for Microsoft at all.

Ballmer said that Google is not very high on the list of Microsoft’s mobile competitors and it will not pose a threat to Microsoft’s dominance in the mobile market anywhere in the near future. Speaking of Google’s mobile division, he had these exact words to say – “They’ve got some smart guys and hire a lot of people — blah-di-blah-di-blah.”

Ballmer said that since Google has made Android free for everyone, they will not invest a lot to improve the product. He also stated that he couldn’t see how Google plans to make money from Android, since the product has no viable revenue model at all.

While I cannot disagree with most of the things he has said about Google, I have to disagree with one thing – the revenue model. Let me explain why.

Google never planned to make money from Android by charging people to use it. It was, is, and always will remain a free mobile platform. What Google thought of was a stronghold in the mobile OS market through Android, which I don’t think will be unachievable if Google continues to improve its product. Though it will not be possible in the near future thanks to the immense competition from Symbian, Blackberry, and Apple, you cannot rule out that possibility.

Most importantly, Google is not a mobile OS manufacturer. Its strength is advertising and by pushing more and more people around the world to use Android, Google can easily show a lot more ads and generate a lot of revenue – a fact that Ballmer seems to have forgotten.

As someone who has always wanted to ‘bury’ Google, Ballmer has made his intentions clear. Though he clearly said “I’m not giving them a hard time”, it is exactly what he has tried to do. It will be interesting to see Google’s response, if at all Larry and Sergey bother to respond. What do you think?

Categories: Google, Microsoft.

0 comments.

Older »