One of the on-going debates, and one which creates a deal of heat, is the future of Microsoft in mobiles. While we don't hold any brief for Microsoft we've said many times that industry forces and strategy dictate that it is "common sense" that Microsoft will find their feet and play an important role in mobile operating systems and handsets.
Stating this inevitable fact usually draws a list of criticisms from Linux and Symbian supporters as to why it will not happen.
Nevertheless, Microsoft continues to make inroads despite all the reasons that will not succeed, with the latest announcement coming from China where Qiao Xing Universal Telephone (XING) announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to launch a new pocket PC mobile phone. Qiao Xing is one of China's largest manufacturers and distributors of telecommunications products with a retail distribution network of mroe than 5,000 stores.
The CECT P08 smartphone runs on the Windows Mobile 5.0 Operating System and supports Microsoft Word and Excel, and also provides subscribers with access to MSN messages and e-mail, as well as video conferencing.
The press release contained this line, although we're not quite sure what it actually means in detail: "The user interface is similar to that of a PC, with which most consumers are familiar".
Qiao Xing said its subsidiary CEC Telecom will develop the P08 and that it, along with other high-end mobile handsets, are expected to be released to the public in China by the end of 2005. XING has a 72% effective equity interest in CECT, which is XING's brand for the higher-end market.
Xing Vice Chairman Wu Zhi Yang said the P08 was the first product produced by CEC's relationship with Microsoft and one of a "series of significant moves in the implementation of CEC's Multimedia Mobile Phone Strategy."
Since China has about 45m out of its 400m cellular users who are active on WAP, high-end local handsets - such as the P08 - have a well defined market segment of considerable size and spending capacity at which to aim.
This announcement nicely fits our prediction of 10th October 2004:
[we] suspect that MS will try to finally capture ground in China where most of its previous battles have been fought and lost. This being the case it will have to announce an industry-shaping partnership with either Nokia, or Motorola or one of the dominant local handset makers.
Current "expert" projections are that Symbian, is expected to continue dominating the global market for smartphones, reaching 60% by 2009 from 55.9% last year, according to International Data Corp.
Windows Mobile, on the other hand is expected to increase its share to 17.3% from 12.7%, and Linux is projected to grow to nearly 17% from 11.3%. My own thoughts, without any "factual evidence" are that each of these vendors will share about equal portions of the market by 2009, with Symbian on a declining trend.
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!
Technorati Tags:
Taiwan internet Taiwan mobile mobile internet China mobile
Comments