08.07.11
Microsoft Has Lost the Mobile War to Linux, Stuck at Around 1% Market Share
Summary: While Android, which is based on Linux, becomes a dominant platform, Microsoft Windows continue to fall very rapidly
REPORTS from recent days help validate what we have been showing here for years, namely that Windows in mobile devices is a lost cause. One new data point suggests that WP7 only emancipated yet another drop — something that Microsoft has surely become accustomed to while Android becomes ever more victorious. To quote:
Microsoft’s share of the smartphone market is plummeting at an alarming rate–so much so that the company’s last ditch effort to make an impact in mobility, Windows Phone 7, may be irrelevant by the time it manages to ship the much-anticipated Mango update and realize its partnership with Nokia later this year.
Data released Thursday by comScore shows that Microsoft’s average share of the U.S. smartphone OS market over the three months ended in June came in at just 5.8%, down from 7.5% from the three months ended in March, and down from 8% for the three months ended in January.
To those who claim that the source is biased, well, it is. It is a Microsoft business partner, unlike Qualcomm which seems to be distancing itself from Microsoft commitment due to the poor performance of WP7:
CHIP VENDOR Qualcomm told The INQUIRER that it does not have an exclusive agreement to be the sole chip supplier for Windows Phone 7 (WP7) devices.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip was recently given a makeover by the firm in the hope that device makers, developers and users might be able to distinguish what Qualcomm chip is in their smartphone. Regardless of what model of Snapdragon is under the screen, the chip vendor has had considerable success and the Snapdragon is the reference chip for use in Microsoft’s WP7 devices.
Contrary to other reports, including earlier ones in particular, Microsoft remains incapable of sinking its teeth into the hardware channel. It will continue to try (forcing people to buy Windows is Microsoft’s modus operandi), but the influence it has declined considerably. Quoting the VAR Guy for instance:
The new Byte does a decent job rehashing what we already know: Windows sales are declining — though only by 1 percent or so in Microsoft’s most recent quarter. Byte goes on to cite unnamed sources who indicate that Microsoft is struggling to extend the Windows brand into the smart phone and tablet markets.
Microsoft will do whatever it can to tax Android, if not by copyright claims then by software patents and maybe hardware patents (against companies that do not stock WP7 phones). We mustn’t underestimate Microsoft’s malice given its actions in recent years. In the coming days we shall catch up with news about this subject. █
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NotZed said,
August 7, 2011 at 6:21 am
Well nokia hitched their wagon onto a real winner there didn’t they!
TemporalBeing Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Well, given Elop it was to be expected. However, expect that Nokia will deliver one or two phones just prior to Elops departure and then a full swing away from WP7 to Android or MeeGo – most likely MeeGo. There was nothing in that deal that bound Nokia to WP7, just Elop on that front – and he’s already announced he’ll be leaving after Nokia completes its move to WP7 sometime in 2012 – so everyone very well knows why he was at Nokia – to do that deal and get WP7 on some hardware.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Richard Belluzzo did the same thing.