“We wanted to take greater accountability for the end user experience,” Ballmer said. “We want more consistency in the hardware platform and in the user experience,” he said, while nevertheless saying Microsoft wanted to leave room for hardware partners to innovate.
As of December 2009, 73% of the smart phone market was controlled by vendors with vertical hardware – OS integration. Google does seem to be creating a downward trend in that number. Google may prove that there is more to success than having an integrated hardware/OS philosophy but it’s certainly been the most successful approach so far. I do think that MSFT is going in the right direction. I don’t think that they can do whatever it is that is making the Android successful, so it may be better for them to simply ape RIM, Apple, and Palm and try to work on “consistency in the hardware platform.”
| Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Months Ending Dec. 2009 vs. 3 Months Ending Sep. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
|||
| Share (%) of Smartphone Devices | |||
| Sep-09 | Dec-09 | Point Change | |
| Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| RIM | 42.6% | 41.6% | -1.0 |
| Apple | 24.1% | 25.3% | 1.2 |
| Microsoft | 19.0% | 18.0% | -1.0 |
| Palm | 8.3% | 6.1% | -2.2 |
| 2.5% | 5.2% | 2.7 | |
[Update 2/25/10 –I saw this new Gartner report on TechCrunch. These world-wide numbers reveal a different market leader – Symbian!]
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2009 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2009 Units | 2009 Market Share (%) |
2008 Units | 2008 Market Share (%) |
| Symbian | 80,878.6 | 46.9 | 72,933.5 | 52.4 |
| Research In Motion | 34,346.6 | 19.9 | 23,149.0 | 16.6 |
| iPhone OS | 24,889.8 | 14.4 | 11,417.5 | 8.2 |
| Microsoft Windows Mobile | 15,027.6 | 8.7 | 16,498.1 | 11.8 |
| Linux | 8,126.5 | 4.7 | 10,622.4 | 7.6 |
| Android | 6,798.4 | 3.9 | 640.5 | 0.5 |
| WebOS | 1,193.2 | 0.7 | NA | NA |
| Other OSs | 1,112.4 | 0.6 | 4,026.9 | 2.9 |
| Total | 172,373.1 | 100.0 | 139,287.9 | 100.0 |