Microsoft really wasn’t kidding when they announced their intention to bring Windows Mobile to the top of the smartphone market. The Redmond-based company has announced that it expects its mobile phone platform to grow by a remarkable 50% per year in 2008 and 2009 – fueled by a fast-growing smartphone market. Smartphone shipments grew by 52.5% to reach 12 million units shipped during the last year, and the smartphone market is expected to keep growing at a double-digit pace.
“Fifty percent growth is the minimum,” says Eddie Wu, Microsoft’s managing director of OEM embedded devices Asia.
Reuters is reporting that Microsoft expects to ship 20 million Windows Mobile units in the current fiscal year ending in June 2008. The 50% growth projection is in line with the previous fiscal year’s sales figures of 11 million units, so the projection is grounded in real-life sales.
The Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Brazilian, Russian and Indian regions are the fastest-growing smartphone markets, but Europe and the US are still getting positive growth. “We’re actually still seeing very good growth (for our mobile software) in markets like Europe and the United States,” said Wu.
If Microsoft expects to pull it off, they’re going to need some seriously hard-hitting partnerships to help push the Windows Mobile platform. Microsoft is already in good with Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and Asustek – so they have the manufacturer partnerships lined up.
But, more importantly, Microsoft is going to need to seriously revamp their Windows Mobile platform to compete with the intuitive and eye-catching UI’s that we’re seeing in other mobile platforms. The overhauled Windows Mobile Internet Explorer is the first step in taking Windows Mobile 6.1 to new heights, but Windows Mobile 7 is the OS that will make or break Microsoft’s projections.
Only time will tell if Microsoft succeeds in pushing their smartphone OS to the top of the smartphone game. If they manage to make their offerings more intuitive and consumer-friendly, while keeping true to Windows Mobile’s super-customizable and powerful roots, I can see it happening.
[Via: MocoNews]