Windows Phone 7 Reveals Early Numbers
Mobile Applications Key Reason for Microsoft’s Success
The Apple iPhone and Google Android have dominated the Mobile Industry for the past few years but there seems to be competition heading their way from Microsoft with the release of its Microsoft Windows Phone 7. Although Microsoft still has a long way to go until it can have the market presence and influence that the iPhone and Droid have in the mobile market, the early reports are pointing them in the right direction for good things to come for Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft recently announced that the Windows Phone 7 partner manufactures have sold over 1.5 million mobile devices world wide since its release recently in November of 2010. This number may not compare to previous marks set by other mobile device manufactures (such as the Apple iPhone which sold about 2.5 million mobile devices during the first 6 weeks) but it gives Microsoft a promising future ahead for its mobile device. Microsoft understands that the key to succeeding in the mobile industry is to gain as much market share as possible and the only way to achieve that will be thru heavy marketing, advertising and developing its mobile application marketplace to compete with Apple’s iTunes and Google’s Droid Mobile Application Marketplace.
Fortunately for Microsoft, its mobile app platform marketplace is off to a strong start as there are 4,000 mobile applications in the first two months since its launch. Compared to other mobile application marketplaces, Microsoft’s mobile application marketplace has taken off at a much higher pace Google’s Droid Marketplace; it took Google’s Droid Mobile Application Marketplace from October 2008 till March 2009 to reach 4,000 mobile applications – six months compared to Microsoft’s two.
Although these statistics may be promising, they are also deceiving due to the fact that when Google released its Android, it was only released to T-Mobile’s G1 service provider until later branching out to other service providers, such as, Verizon, AT&T, while Microsoft’s Windows 7 Mobile did a heavy roll out from its initial launch all across North America and Europe installing their Operating System into mobile devices such as the HTC, LG, Dell, and Samsung.
One Mobile Application Development “expert” claimed that he “would not be surprised if Microsoft had the third largest app portfolio in the industry by the middle of next year.” The main reason for this potentially happening is because Windows Phone 7 Mobile Application developers are already experienced with .NET and XNA Mobile Application Development which allows them the freedom to use tools they are already familiar with rather than having to learn new mobile application development environments, libraries and languages.
Microsoft seems to be heading in the right direction with its Windows 7 Mobile Device and the rapidly growing Mobile Application Marketplace is surely keeping Microsoft competitive in the mobile industry. As promising as things look right now, the only determining factor to measure the success of Microsoft’s Windows 7 Mobile and its Mobile Application Marketplace will be when the consumer sales reports come in at the end of its fiscal year. Until then, the race for mobile device and mobile application dominance will only continue to tighten between Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and now Microsoft’s Windows 7 Mobile.