PCFormat Forum Archive

MyBroadband wrote:When Windows Mobile was first launched in 2000 it was known as Pocket PC 2000. A couple of years later, and a name change to Windows Mobile, and Microsoft's mobile platform was on track to success, racking up as much as 14% market share by 2002 depending on which statistics you look at. Fourteen percent doesn't sound like a lot but in a market already brimming with contenders, and after just two years, it was a significant achievement, although not entirely surprising considering Microsoft's financial muscle.

Today, however, Windows Mobile is in decline and faces a new, and potentially lethal, onslaught from a cluster of new mobile OS makers. And already that onslaught is beginning to takes its toll with analysts putting Windows Mobile's market share at just 9% at the middle of 2009. Again, not a huge slide but a big enough one to suggest the WinMo decline is gathering momentum.

Most industry watchers are predicting that Windows Mobile 7 will be the secret, or perhaps last ditch attempt, to reverse Microsoft's ailing mobile strategy. The problem is that Windows Mobile 7 is not yet available and while Microsoft issues mostly featureless upgrades such as Windows Mobile 6.5, the smartphone market is booming and a host of new players are streaming in through the door.