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.

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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.

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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.

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Motorola to split in two - Mobile devices and mobility solutions

You are not doing good business, you’ve posted losses for four consecutive quarters, and your investors are not happy – what do you do? You split your company in two. That pretty much sums up what Motorola has decided to do.

Motorola, as I already mentioned, is suffering heavy losses recently and there was a talk that it could sell its mobile phone division. But in a press release today, Motorola has confirmed that it will be splitting the company in two – mobile devices and mobility solutions.

Greg Brown, the CEO, will take care of the broadband and mobility business and the company is in search of a person to take care of the mobile devices division.

Motorola has said that this will help the management focus better on the business and might also help its shareholders.

So, Motorola has made a quick decision and put an end to all the speculations. This move, I think, will help them concentrate better on both divisions – mobile devices and mobility solutions – properly and might also give them some time to regroup and come up with an idea to revive their handset business.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Motorola - the road ahead

The story of Motorola is something that has always amazed me. I mean, a profit of over $340 million in one year and a loss of over $380 million the next year is something I cannot understand.

The mobile phone giant has posted monumental losses for four quarters in a row now, which has made its investors think twice about its future. A lot of investors are pushing Motorola to sell its mobile phone manufacturing unit, as they consider it a liability. The mobile phone biz alone, if sold, could fetch a sum of around $20 billion, according to sources.

Some big names, especially some companies from Asia, are interested in buying Motorola’s mobile phone unit. However, it’s not just about mobile phone companies. People who watch the market closely say that even a company like Google might consider Motorola a good option. Google, instead of asking other companies to incorporate its platform, can come up with its own range of Android based mobile phones if it decides to buy Motorola. However, I have to say it’s a far fetched idea, as Google may not have any such idea, at least in the near future. Google doesn’t like to identify itself as a mobile phone company, as its core revenue is based on advertising - which is the primary reason why it came up with Android, a mobile phone platform, instead of Google phone, unlike what most of us had predicted.

One thing’s for sure. Motorola is struggling. Whether it will reinvent itself with a stunning model like RAZR to reestablish its position in the market or sell its mobile phone biz to someone is something we’ll have to wait and watch.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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