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Microsoft launches new mobile OS
Windows Mobile 6.5 - example theme.
Microsoft wheeled out its answer to the iPhone today with the launch of a new version of its mobile operating system and an iTunes-style marketplace for smartphone applications.
Windows Mobile 6.5 attempts to address some of the shortcomings of previous versions that have caused Microsoft to lose substantial momentum in the highly competitive smartphone market.
The first phone in Australia to carry the new operating system is HTC's Touch Diamond 2.
HTC Touch Diamond 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5. Existing users of the handset will be able to upgrade.
However, some critics had their claws out today, criticising the new OS for being too little too late from the software giant.
"Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just a letdown - it barely seems done ... It's an interim product and a vain attempt to hold onto the thinning ranks of people who still choose Windows Mobile despite not being somehow tethered to it until the tardy Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whenever that may be. And it won't work," said a review on the Gizmodo blog.
Key features of the new OS are a re-organised user interface, larger touch-friendly icons and a more advanced web browsing application. The company has also packaged in a free back-up service for photos and data called My Phone to protect users whose smartphones have been lost or stolen.
Microsoft said that My Phone synchronised the content from contacts, appointments, texts and photos to a password-protected website, and also let users publish photos from My Phone or their handset to Windows Live, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.
The Windows Marketplace is a crucial addition to its mobile offering as the company rapidly loses ground to other popular smartphone platforms used in the BlackBerry (Research In Motion), and the iPhone, which are firmly established in Australian business and consumer markets respectively.
* New apps marketplace launched
* Free back-up tool to protect data
* Re-organised user interface
* Larger touch-friendly icons
* More advanced web browsing
Microsoft said its competitive advantage lay in the ability to duplicate work and productivity applications from the computer screen to the mobile phone.
"Customers are telling us they want a seamless, integrated experience over the three screens in their life; the computer, notebook and mobile phone. Our next step is in breaking down those walls," said Alex Stewart, Microsoft's local consumer and online manager.
But the company has some ground to make up according to Australian telecommunications research firm Telsyte. In a recent survey conducted by the researcher, the BlackBerry emerged as the operating system of choice among Australian businesses for 22 per cent of firms, while Microsoft slipped to No.2 with 16 per cent, down from 21 per cent last year.
“That Windows Mobile is no longer the top-of-mind OS platform hardly came as a surprise, given that the vendor has been quiet with no major announcements in the past 18 months in a market where new competitors have risen to the forefront,” said Warren Chaisatien, research director at Telsyte.
The sentiment was no warmer in the consumer segment where Telsyte conducted a similar survey on 900 smartphone users, which revealed the iPhone had been adopted by one-quarter of Australian consumer smartphone users in the short time it has been on the market.
“The rapid rise of the Apple iPhone and the strengthening of the BlackBerry in the consumer space have come primarily at the expense of Symbian-based and Windows-based smartphones,” the researcher said.
Aside from having no apps marketplace, Windows Mobile OS has been widely criticised for its non-friendly user interface and a lack of streamlined functionality with many applications and settings inaccessible from the home screen.
To get around this, Microsoft licensees HTC and Samsung have been overlaying their own interfaces onto Windows Mobile “to create more competitive products and make up for the usability constraints of Microsoft's platform”, Gartner said.
Figures from Gartner reveal that Microsoft's global market share of mobile phone operating system fell in the second quarter of this year to 9 per cent of the market, while Research in Motion and Apple both increased their shares.
Adding to the intense market pressure is Google's relatively new Android platform, which will be the driver of numerous new smartphones due for release over the coming year.
HTC's Touch Diamond 2 is already being sold in Australia on the previous version of the OS, and users will be able to upgrade their handsets once their carriers support version 6.5.
Telstra is the first to support the upgraded HTC Touch Diamond 2 with others expected to come on board in coming weeks.
Other HTC smartphones due to carry Windows Mobile 6.5 at a future date will be the Snap and the Touch Pro 2 and Telstra said the LG GM730 would also be upgraded.
Although HTC has overlayed its own user-friendly interface onto the Touch Diamond 2, users will now be able to choose between the HTC interface and Microsoft's new interface.
While changes to the actual function of the Touch Diamond 2 will be subtle, the new Marketplace and Myphone back-up will help to boost the popularity of the product, said Anthony Petts, sales and marketing director of HTC Australia.
“It allows end users to customise their devices and make it more of what they want it to be. With the back-up service as well, these are certainly good enhancements.”
Microsoft's new Marketplace, launched today for version 6.5, has about 250 applications available including popular games and Facebook and Myspace apps priced from $3.99 to $20 (and above) for productivity applications. These will also be made available to all phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 by the end of the year.
But whether these developments can carry enough momentum to bring Microsoft's operating system back into the game is by no means assured said Chaisatien.
He believes "complacency" has prevented Microsoft from dominating the mobile market and that its greatest challenge now is to create a visible product roadmap to get more application developers interested in the platform.
“Market presence, mindshare and roadmap are what matters to developers and we still don't really know what Microsoft plans to come up with in 12-18 months."
He added that the company should look at carving a new market niche in the smartphone sector.
“When it comes to entry-level pre-pay smartphone market, it has not yet been serviced. I think if Microsoft can move very quickly to service that market [it will be] an opportunity for them.”
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