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.

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.