|
SEATTLE
—
Microsoft
is rolling out a new version of its mobile-phone
software, Windows Mobile 6.5, on
Oct. 6
, in hopes of staying afloat in the competitive
marketplace for cellphones that e-mail, snap photos and
surf the Web.
While
analysts say Windows Mobile 6.5 is not yet the answer to
Apple's iPhone,
Microsoft
is starting to turn the marketing message away from the
focus on "Windows Mobile" software to the
brand "Windows Phone."
The
previous version of the operating system, Windows Mobile
6.1, came out in
January 2008
.
Windows
Mobile 6.5, aimed largely at mobile phones often
referred to as smartphones, offers incremental
improvement with touch-screen features, easier Web
browsing and a new Windows app store called
Windows Marketplace
for Mobile.
Like the
Apple iPhone
Apps Store
, the marketplace will be a place where any developer
can sell mobile-phone applications. It will also have
fewer restrictions on developers than the iPhone store,
according to
Greg Sullivan
, senior product manager for Windows Mobile.
Microsoft
is also now calling phones that use its software
"Windows phones," a name Entertainment and
Devices Division President
Robbie Bach
dropped at
Microsoft's
Financial Analysts Meeting at the end of July.
"You'll
see a push around this idea around a Windows phone that
helps tie together your world of information to really
deliver this end-to-end experience that we're
enabling," said Sullivan.
It will
not be an iPhone, Apple's popular mobile phone, which
Apple controls from hardware to software.
Microsoft
intends to stay focused on developing the software, with
multiple device manufacturers and wireless carriers
focusing on the services and the handsets.
In a news
release,
Microsoft
said U.S. carrier partners for the new Windows phones
include
AT&T
, Bell Mobility,
Sprint
and
Verizon Wireless
. Device makers include
Hewlett-Packard
, HTC, LG,
Samsung
and
Toshiba
.
Microsoft
has lost ground in the mobile-phone market, dropping
from 14 percent to 9 percent market share in the second
quarter of 2009 compared with the same period a year
ago, according to a report by Canalys.
Microsoft
is now trailing most of its competitors.
Symbian
has 50 percent of the market,
BlackBerry-maker Research
in Motion has 21 percent, and Apple has 14 percent.
Google
trails at 3 percent with its Android software.
Sullivan
said 50 million mobile phones now have Windows on them,
and he expects the market to grow into the hundreds of
millions.
"We
take a long-term view," Sullivan said of
Microsoft's
share. "We're at a relatively early stage of
smartphone adoption. The kind of growth the market will
see is very significant over the next few years."
Matt Rosoff
, an analyst at Directions on
Microsoft
, an independent research firm in
Kirkland
, calls the
Oct. 6
product a rest stop on the way to Windows Mobile 7.0.
"I
think it's a
Microsoft
-doesn't-want-to-lose-more-market-share release,"
rather than a substantive competitor to Apple's iPhone,
he said.
Rosoff
expects Windows Mobile 7.0 will integrate music-playing
features from
Microsoft's
portable music player Zune.
He does
think there is room for
Microsoft
to come back in the market because many people replace
their phones every two years.
The
frequent replacement leaves room for new companies to
make headway against established companies. Palm, for
instance, recently started selling the Pre to compete
with the iPhone.
Microsoft
declined to say when Windows Mobile 7.0 will come out.
Rosoff predicts a release in the second half of next
year.
|
