After taking 2 years to update the Windows operating system for mobile devices, this is Microsoft’s last ditch effort to bale out their sinking mobile strategy.
4 key thoughts;
- Only GSM phone support until sometime next year – Translate that as only having phones for AT&T and T-Mobile. NO Verizon or Sprint support until mid 2011… if you’re lucky. If the iPhone does come out on Verizon, Microsoft will be done.
- Launching with 50 apps from third party developers – WOW. That’s not much support in the aftermarket. They hope to get to 500 apps in the next several months, but anything developed for WinMo 6 or 6.5 has to be completely rebuilt. Sad that Microsoft couldn’t muster more support, but it tells you developers are going where the money – Android and iPhone apps.
- Microsoft is an ever shrinking market share: In the past 12 months they have dropped from over 18% to 12% of the market, with most of those people moving to Android or iPhone devices.
- Back in May Skype dropped support for Windows phone 7 citing the operating system had a “lack of user optimisation and partner support.” They also recently dropped support for the older Windows Mobile OS’s too.
Find out more at:http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft/whats-wrong-with-windows-phone-7.asp