Moles say MS to tackle iPhone, Android separately
Can it really afford to wait for Windows Mobile 7?
How will Microsoft compete with Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS? By targeting a separate version of Windows Mobile at each of them, moles have claimed.
According to Taiwanese handset-manufacturer sources cited by DigiTimes, Microsoft won't withdraw Windows Mobile 6.5 - which is due to arrive in October - when version seven arrives in Q4 2010.
Instead, it will pitch WM 6.5 as an alternative to Android, they say, and WM 7.0 as an 'iPhone killer'.
We're not entirely convinced. Why wait more than a year to promote Windows Mobile against the surging iPhone? And why does Android require a lesser Windows Mobile rival than the Apple product does?
More likely, Microsoft won't make much of WM 6.5 but will play up the touchscreen-centric update it's expected to release in February 2010. That's still some way off, especially given the slump in the market share of Windows Mobile devices compared to both the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry series.
Market watcher Canalys yesterday said Windows Mobile's market share fell from 14.3 per cent in Q2 2008 to nine per cent in Q2 2009. Android's arrival, which took place between those two quarters, will only widen the decline spurred by BlackBerry and iPhone.
Microsoft needs to address that sooner rather than later. By Q4 2010, move advanced versions of both Android and the iPhone OS will be in devices on sale. ®
COMMENTS
I smell pokies being told
if a company takes a gamble and develops for one these proposed platforms will their apps run on the other one automatically ? Are the deliberately trying to fail ? This assumes we take the information at face value.
IMO either, the leaked information is wrong or its just marketing spin to keep their windows mobile OEMs on board until windows 7 arrives at which time they'll let 6.5 die off.
WinMob? they've lost it
I had win mob 5 and 6 ... 5 was about "ok", 6 was crap, the phone was underpowered, but then again the software should not have been on there in the first place!
M$ have to watch out on which hardware their partners ship which OS ... That is the main reason why Vista failed and why WinMob is failing ... the gear is simply underpowered.
The ui is hideous, but MS are famous for complete lack of taste anyway .... I think of a Jobs movie on the famous video site (really old from the 80's). Look @ XP, which was a reaction to Mac OS X .... I guess somebody told the ui designers the ui needed to look younger! The answer was Fisherprice!
AS for the article:
sed -i 's/move advanced/more advanced/' ms_strategy_for_iphone_android/*
The problem with WinMo
The problem with WinMo is that is just cant seem to shake off its old skool PDA roots - which it got before anyone really knew how a PDA should work.
The result is now that the interface is ugly, sluggish and has some really dumb bugs in it (like it's entire memory management system with apps staying open when you think you've closed them).
MS simply havent bothered with making it finger-friendly -which is really bizarre considering that pretty much all PDA's, even the really early ones, were touch-screen based.
They need to drop the entire thing, redesign it from scratch with todays hardware and user in mind, and then refine the UI before releasing a major version change. I'm looking forward to seeing what WinMo 7 can do, but for me, it's 2 years too late.
Here we go again!
Ye Gods!
You'd think that by now even the clown Ballmer would have realised that no-one is going to wait for the next Microsoft product just because it's Microsoft.
Microsoft got away with that crap for years with its various OS's and 'hints' of future software releases which never appeared. Now they have some real competition it shows just how much of an anchor they have always been.
So, Microsoft are going to release an 'iPhone Killer' are they?
Riiiiigggghhhtttt! And the Zune certainly clobbered that ol' iPod, didn't it?
The sooner they, and Wall St, realise they are ten years behind everyone else, and that 'innovation' has an entirely different meaning in Redmond, the better.
Microsoft has 'fought the long defeat'. Time to go.
