Windows Mobile: “Unloved, Unappreciated, and Unlikely to Encourage Any Devotion”
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 1, 2009 at 12:01 AM PT
No wonder Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is so dismayed by the company’s Windows Mobile division: Most Windows Mobile users aren’t even aware their phones run it. In fact, according to the CFI Group, WinMo has such poor brand recognition that it was forced to group it in the “Other” category in its Smartphone Satisfaction Survey.
“Throughout this report we have focused on the main ‘branded’ smartphones like iPhone, Android, Pre, BlackBerry, and Treo,” the market researcher explained. “And yet there are many more smartphones in use today, manufactured by the likes of LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia, running either the Windows Mobile or Symbian operating system. What’s going on with these smartphones? For one thing, many users can’t identify their operating system. While Android users know they have a phone on the Android platform, most Windows Mobile or Symbian users have no idea what operating system is running their phone.”
That’s bad news for Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) because not only do these “other” smart phones tend to perform the most poorly in customer satisfaction, most of their owners would like to abandon them for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry or the Palm (PALM) Pre.
“The ‘generic’ smartphone is unloved, unappreciated, and unlikely to encourage any devotion among its users,” CFI concludes. “Its main role appears to be as a stepping stone to a ‘branded’ smartphone….Our data indicates there is little future for the ‘generic’ smartphone. Or, to be exact, the first generation of ‘generic’ smartphones. The iPhone has clearly raised the bar, but given the performance of the initial versions of the Pre and Android, the gap is narrowing. It’s clear from our data that the Android and Pre are worthy competitors to the iPhone, and more recent versions of the BlackBerry pose a bigger threat.”
PREVIOUSLY:
- Windows Mobile 6.5 “an Amazing Engineering Feat,” All Right…
- Perhaps if They Think of Their Win Mobile Devices as Broken iPhones…
- Ballmer on iPhone: Mr. Mojo Risin’
Comments
I don’t know what CFI is smoking, but the iPhone is set to get 40 percent of the smart phone market in the next year. And Blackberry is a distant third in smartphone buyer’s minds now. The lowly Pre is more mindshare than Blackberry now. And that doesn’t bode well for RIM. But that’s not surprising to me. I could not wait to dump my Blackberry after two years’ use. Its web browser was the singularly worst web browsing experience I ever had. (Other than being Rickrolled of course.)
Posted by Eric Welch at October 1st, 2009 at 8:40 amyet another microsoft official missed opportunity
yamomo
Posted by Sam Harrison at October 1st, 2009 at 7:13 pmballmer’s big on excuses, weak on ideas. Ive switched from HTC winmo6 to the IPhone and wont ever look back. I was so sick of rebooting my phone just to make a phone call, the battery wouldnt hold a charge, after playing movies or songs. Funny thing was I thought I would be able to view word/excel/ppt files on it, only to realize I hated viewing work files on a 3.x5″ screen. go figure
Posted by mike Diaz at October 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm