Today’s mobile tech quiz question: How much does it cost to license a closed mobile OS? According to sources at Microsoft, it costs OEMs $15/device to use their new Windows Mobile 7 OS. This person does his/her best to explain that $15/device is much cheaper than Android open source model, but it sounds a little desperate. The bigger question is why publish this info. There are only a limited number of phone manufactures in the world. Why not talk directly to them about it? What is the point of sharing this info with the tech world? Strange marketing indeed! 

I received an offer to publish ads through a tourist agency. Nothing unusual there, but they did have a new service that I had never seen offered before. Below is a quote from the agencies marketing literature. (I am not going to mention the agency’s name to protect the non-technical in their marketing department.)

Mobile Tag

Half and Full Page advertisers: link your ad to a mobile tag and instantly interact with our readers! Use this platform to transform and promote your unique offer, incentive or feature.

What is a Mobile Tag?

Microsoft Mobile Tags are small, colorful codes that connect your print ad to the digital world. Users with Internet-enabled camera phones can simply snap the Tag on your ad and instantly receive additional information about your product. Reporting is available 24/7 to track the number of scans your tag is receiving!

Microsoft has done it again. Despite dozens of different organizations coming together to create an open source and/or free option with QR codes, Microsoft ignores the standards and creates their own version that is free-for-now but exclusively owned by them. Travelers to Asia and Europe are already familiar with “mobile tags”, better known to geeks as QR codes. These codes are being heavily pushed by Google with the Android OS.

As Allen Stern points out, the biggest problems with Microsoft’s Mobile Tags, besides ignoring what the rest of the industry is already doing, is that it transforms the 2D QR-code-like grid into a colorful mess of triangles. While the QR code can be easily printed in black and white, the red, yellow and green triangles of Microsoft’s mess will require 4-color printing. This is no small deal for companies since it represents an increase in cost.

Windows Mobile used to be one of the most important mobile platforms. But that was long before Apple transformed the mobile scene. Windows Mobile still has many apps, mainly because developers have been writting for it for years and years. But mobile developers are aware that it has been ages since the software was updated, and it seems to be delayed more and more, much like Vista.

One more sign that Windows Mobile might be losing its mojo is a release from Handango that Blackberries are now the most popular device downloading apps from their store. Handango is one of the oldest and largest multiplatform app distributors. Since they have such a wide selection of softtware across so many platforms, they are able to a close eye on what the average mobile users consider their favorite devices. With this latest news suggesting that Microsoft might have a bigger battle on their hands then they originally planned, it brigns up some interesting questions:

• Will Microsoft throw more money and engineers at their old Windows Mobile platform to get the upgraded version out sooner?
• Can Microsoft compete with their legacy software against the newest OS specifically built for high-bandwidth, computationally expensive software like Apple iPhone?
• How much of their OS with they open to developers to compete with completely open source platforms like Google’s Android?
• How will Microsoft compete against mobile OS that are free for phone manufacturers like Android, and where will they make back their money? After all, Google plans to make their cash on mobile ads. What is Microsoft’s vision?

The Mobile OS landscape is in flux. But the question is who will be the winners going forward. My guess is that the older operating systems will just not provide the experience that user will grow to prefer. They will still have their niches, but they will be squeezed out of new applications.

The two newest operating systems are the Apple iPhone and the Google Android. Google has had a slow start out of the gate than Apple, but the software will appeal more to developers and possibly users as Google uses its knowledge and money to port the Google applications to the Android platform.

Apple strength is that it keeps tight control over its platform and its applications. That is also its potential weakness. This rigid platform provided users who were unfamiliar with the mobile web and mobile devices in general a pretty and safe place to learn and experiment with their new devices. But more technical users are already chaffing to hack the iPhone.

By its very nature, Google is going to be as hands off as possible. This is not due to good will on its part. Google is interested in making money on ads, not being a type of mobile police officer. It is even ignoring the small amounts of cash that it could make from cut in app download revenues. Google is interested in preserving its cash cow and can be generous on every other aspect of its operating system and app store. What is really interesting is how older companies like Microsoft approach the new mobile market with the same outlook as before. Someone at Microsoft should really sit down with Ballmer and explain the rational in giving away software. They might want to start by showing how much money Google could make with mobile ads if it can corner the market the way that it did on the regular Internet.

Two years ago, the question of Microsoft having a mobile future would have been a joke in itself. Of course, they had a future. They were the future. Their mobile operating system powered more handsets than any other.

Fast forward two years: Microsoft can’t give away Vista and cannot retire XP because people still need it. No one really thinks that Vista has anything really worth upgrading to. Then the latest news on the mobile front that the Microsoft Mobile 7 has been delayed. From early 2009 to late 2009. Given how things have been a Microsoft lately, I would not be surprised to hear that it will not be release until 2010 or later.

The real question is, does anyone in the mobile industry really care? Sales of Windows based smart phones has been dropping like a rock from 23% in Q1 2004 to 12% in Q1 2006. Apple is already at 7% with just one device. WinMo has been shipping for years and has 18K applications. Apple opened the iTines App store 2 months ago and has over 3k apps.

Microsoft had better start paying the engineers overtime. This is one market that they really need for the company’s future, whatever that may be.