Shark Bait

Knowledge Centers

Operating Systems

Networking & Internet

Mobile & Wireless

Security

Storage

Business Intelligence

Servers & Data Center

Computerworld Reports

Industry

See your link here

Seth Weintraub

Apple versus Google

Gartner: Android closing in on Windows Mobile

4 comments

TAGS:Android, Apple, Google, iPhone Droid, Windows Mobile
IT TOPICS:Linux, Mobile & Wireless, Open Source, Personal Technology, VoIP, Windows & Microsoft

Microsoft's inability to ship Windows Mobile 7 is really doing damage to their Smartphone market share it seems. Even if Microsoft is able to ship Windows Mobile 7 soon, the damage might already be done.

The upstart Android OS, in its first year, is gaining on the decade old Windows Mobile (CE) platform according to new data provided by Gartner today.

Windows Mobile fell from 11.1 percent of the market in the third quarter of last year, to 7.9% this year. That's losing over 3% of the overall market and almost 30% of their market.

Meanwhile Android is just getting its legs, having signed up Microsoft Windows stalwarts including HTC which made 80% of Windows Mobile phones last year. This year, Gartner estimates that Android phones have made up 4% of the market this year.

Last year? 0%.

The T-Mobile G1, did not debut until October of that year. Not bad for the new guy.

Additionally for Android, Verizon just started selling their highly anticipated Droid phones this month, which will likely add more momentum for the platform in the future.

Gartner's report also showed Apple's iPhone gaining slightly on Blackberry, which both saw impressive gains.

The overall market share leader, Symbian, lost a significant amount of market share (5%) and has been a frequently-rumored purchaser of Palm to help stave off the exodus from Nokia's Symbian.

It looks like the Smartphone landscape is changing dramatically, with the old guys like Symbian and Windows Mobile making way for the new guys: Android, iPhone and Blackberry.

Email this

Digg this

What People Are Saying

Add new comment

Nokia's non-Pre Option

Submitted by ricegf on November 17, 2009 - 3:40 P.M.

The article mentions rumors that Nokia might buy Palm as an alternative to their dominate but unexciting Symbian smartphone platform.

Nokia has an alternate answer - Maemo, a high-end multi-tasking fourth generation system derived from Debian desktop Linux.

To help Symbian developers transition to Maemo, the QT graphics library that Nokia acquired from Trolltech is being actively ported to both environments.

Given this strategy, already well represented in the form of the N900 (Maemo) and N97 (Symbian), it's hard to give much credence to the idea of Nokia buying Palm for their WebOS.

Though stranger things have happened...

Reply | Report this comment

What people are doing!

Submitted by Anonymous on November 17, 2009 - 1:49 P.M.

My Windows Mobile 6.1 was dead when I got it last year. I could not get any support at all. I have a new Droid, very happy, and I have the ability to support it myself. My contract was not up, but I made the plunge only because of the phone I had the OS was obsolete.

People are looking to move to the Droid when their contract is up; I see a large pick up in the 1st quarter of next year. And I would not be surprised to see that Verizon does not pick up the iPhone when the contract expires, why carry another phone you have to support, when you have one that matches it, and in some cases beats it.

Reply | Report this comment

Windows Mobile to be discontinued

Submitted by Market Analyst on November 16, 2009 - 5:24 P.M.

Most analysts believe that the Windows Mobile phone platform will be axed sometime in 2010.

What happens to platforms when they're axed? Software developers stop writing new programs for that platform. But Windows Mobile may as well have been discontinued already, as the developers have already abandoned it, in favor of Android and iPhone. The Android and iPhone app stores keep expanding with software titles, whereas the Windows Mobile store is like a derelict ghost town, with very few new applications. For all intents and purposes, it is as if Windows Mobile has already been discontinued.

Windows Mobile was designed to be used with a stylus pen. That's why the operating system has tiny icons, for the user to hit with a stylus, not a finger. Handset maker HTC found a way around this, by making its HD2 phone with an enormous screen (to make those icons a bit bigger), but it doesn't get around the fact that Windows Mobile was designed for a stylus pen, and doesn't understand finger multi-touch at an OS level. The public wants multi-touch and finger gestures like iPhone or Android.

Microsoft is working on Windows Mobile 7, which apparently will be designed for multi-touch, but it is another year away from market. When it is released in Q4, 2010 (assuming its not late like all other Microsoft products), then it will bring Windows Mobile up to parity with what other platforms were in 2009. It will not save the platform. Windows Mobile store will still be derelict and devoid of new applications.

For those people about to buy a new smartphone, you have to choose between platforms such as Android or iPhone that have an active ecosystem of software development, or you can choose Windows Mobile that developers have already deserted. It's no wonder that sales of Windows Mobile phones are plummeting at the rate they are.

Reply | Report this comment

When I look at all the

Submitted by Anonymous on November 17, 2009 - 4:24 A.M.

When I look at all the devices that run windows mobile and I look at the others, I say yea, I like Ballmer's strategy. Customers want a physical keyboard, they want a removable battery, they want to pay good money for software and ringtones and skins, but not so much for hardware. They don't like to update the phone OS. They just want to buy a new one every year or so. They don't care so much about email and a full browser as they do about MMS and push to talk.

People want something that could challenge their technical abilities. Something that gives them lots of options that helps them exercise their brain. Microsoft doesn't insult their customers by making a phone that even a chimp could use.

Reply | Report this comment