Does Microsoft Have a Mobile Future?
Monday, October 6th, 2008Two 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.
