Earlier this week I posted that Windows Mobile has Terminal Cancer. I made this “prediction” based on my observations of the Mobile OS market, in particular with the addition of Palm’s webOS to the mix. The mobile market has now gotten crowded and intensely competitive with each of the 4 major carriers in the US now having a major cell phone brand behind it.
- T-Mobile = Google’s Android
- Sprint = Palm webOS
- AT&T = Apple iPhone
- Verizon = Research In Motion aka Blackberry
There are only these 4 major providers in the US and that leaves 2 big players without a home, Nokia and Microsoft. While yes they will still have a place with some carriers but not enough to even remotely be in “The game”.
Other websites/blogs are also noticing this problem with Windows Mobile and Nokia. Scobleizer even calls out the fact Nokia made it to the party too late.
“But, sorry, Nokia, Palm caught the last train out of town. They made it to the station 30 seconds before the doors closed.” - Scobleizer
For Microsoft the big manufactures that sell their OS are Motorola, Samsung and HTC however things are not looking good for at least one of them. This week Motorola announced they are cutting 3,000 (about 50% of their workforce) jobs in their mobile division alone and expects to ship 50% less devices than the year before.
HTC is feeling this move away from Windows Mobile as well and is releasing several Android based phone’s in 2009. This is a very smart move on the part of HTC so they don’t have all their egg’s in one basket.
One area that Microsoft may still have a chance is the international market in area’s where they don’t have the iPhone, Android or Palm Pre. Essentially this limits some of the competition for them but in no way gives them the customer base that they need to be competitive in the smartphone market.
Check It Out> Scobleizer, Gigaoam, Bloomberg News
[...] This past week Apple announced their sales figures for Q4 with 4.4 million iPhones sold. While that is a very large number somehow Windows Mobile was able to sell over 5 million units. Microsoft is still a large player in the smartphone market but this next year it will be much more difficult for them. [...]