Summary: Microsoft on the rapid decline, especially in particular areas where Linux gains quickly

WINDOWS is unable to deliver on mobile devices, even with its very latest release. That leaves the door open to Apple and GNU/Linux. As this new post puts it:

If the iPhone didn't finish off Windows Mobile in the smartphone market, the Motorola Droid may.

Windows Mobile is losing the last vestiges of its mojo--if it really had any to begin with--as the Droid and other phones based on the Android 2.0 operating system push the buzz meter needle into the red zone. Many in the media--which can play a big role in steering users to one technology platform or another--sense that Windows Mobile has now been relegated resolutely to has-been status.

Here are some figures that we did not see or mention before.

But Microsoft, with its deep pockets, worked away at it and by last year, after first launching in 2002, Windows Mobile had a respectable 13.9 percent of worldwide smartphone market share, according to researchers at Canalys.

This year brought an abrupt backward slide. By the second quarter 2009, Windows Mobile had slipped to just 9 percent market share, its lowest since early 2006, Canalys said.

It is simple to measure market share on phones because brands (components) and operating systems do not change. Outside the desktop, it's an entirely different (and scary) world to Microsoft. ⬆

Edited in response to a similar figure with
inversed shares from Digg (click to enlarge)