News

MS: 40 Percent of Smartphone Market by 2012

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 12:35 PM - by

A Microsoft executive said the company is aiming to capture 40 percent of the smartphone market by 2012, according to Infoworld.

The target is considered "ambitious," wrote Dan Nystedt. Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS was used in about 11 million handsets in FY2007, and the company is projecting 20 million in 2008, according to Eddie Wu, Microsoft's director of OEM Embedded Devices.

Mr. Wu added that handsets like the HTC touch will assist with that goal.

Mr. Nystedt noted that of the approximately one billion total mobile phones sold each year, about 118M are smartphones. The Symbian OS has 67 percent of that market. Microsoft currently has 13 percent of that market, and RIM has 10 percent.

Current analyst predictions for Apple's iPhone are 11 million units in 2008 and 17-25 million units in 2009. While the rate of growth for Windows Mobile OS was not cited, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has predicted that Apple's iPhone sales will double for the next few years, making it likely that Apple has a realistic expectation of also reaching the 40 percent goal.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 268 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 14, 2008 12:49 pm

If MS is to reach their goal, and Apple achieves the same (rather conservative) number of 40% by 2012 (i.e. in almost four years), that would mean they would have to do it at the expense of Symbian and RIM, which would need to drop from nearly 70% down to 20% combined. I'm sure Apple will be taking some market share away from both of those, but definitely not MS.

Good luck with that, Mr. Wu (not Shaw, but Eddie); HTC touch can only get you so far with your Windows Mobile. Not sure how much you plan to innovate over the next few years. I do know that you can count on Apple delivering on every single expectation the hype has already built into the new products.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 14, 2008 10:49 pm

This is the sign that Severe Longhorn Over-promissory Syndrome or SLOS in short had been embedded deeply inside MS culture. i am very doubt that MS will be repeat itself in PC market. there is no IBM who just hand over software development and hardware clone. Nokia still have plenty of opportunities in Linux-embedded devices, aged Symbian OS is keeping up to date. HTC is relatively no man in the global market except Chinese. If Apple push iPhone into Chinese market at right price, Chinese consumer will probably make a switch to iPhone. MS may asked HTC to create Zune Phone to fully clone Apple business model. it is not difficult to guess the outcome.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu May 15, 2008 9:37 am

hahahahahahahaha, very amusing!

What will they use to do that? Zune Phone using WIndows Mobile? The same 12 years old mobile operating system which was smashed to dust by the iphone, a system with less then one year? What will they do? copy Apple's ideas? My prediction is: by 2012 the iPhone will be number one with 40% of market, followed by symbiam and rim and others. M$ will be at 5th position with 13%. They had their chance 12 years without serious competition and did nothing.

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