John Gruber: “Not only was he wrong about the iPhone, but he was even more wrong about Windows Mobile. Three years ago Ballmer was talking about 60, 70, 80 percent market share. This week, Gartner reported that Windows Mobile has dropped to 6.8 percent market share in worldwide smartphone sales, down dramatically from 10.2 percent a year ago. (The same report puts iPhone OS at 15.2 percent, and Android at 9.6.)”
Microsoft has really dropped the ball on mobile computing. They had a huge lead with Windows Mobile, managed to sit on it, and now Apple, Google and RIM have taken them to the woodshed for a good old fashioned butt whoppin. But, and yes, there’s always a but, never count them out of the game. Kin may be a complete bust at the moment, but they’ll learn from that mistake, and who knows, maybe they’ll open source their mobile effort just to try and stick it to Google?
Stranger things have happened, right?
I think Microsoft needs to take a long hard look at their mobile platform and make some tough decisions. They appear to dabble in various varieties of their mobile computing UI without creating an identity; it’s neither enterprise nor consumer.
Dummy down the OS, make is a seamless extension of the desktop and then maybe they can jump back in the game. Just my two cents.
I think the new Windows Phone Mobile Zune Series Windows Seven of Nine Phone Thing looks very interesting and the level of developer interest seems to be high enough to get some good apps cranked pretty quickly. My guess is that, by this time next year (or the year after) it’ll be a fun horse race to watch between Android and WinThing chasing iPhone.
@Jerry – They’ve been working hard behind the scenes on Mobile 7. I think they’ll get some attention with it, but how much given Apple, RIM, and Google’s offerings.
@Steven – I know a lot of .NET developers that are really excited about Mobile 7. Just wait, it’ll explode.
Mobile computing is on the rise these days. Maybe we will get a dual core powered cellphones in the future..-,