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Windows Mobile misses annual shipment target

Microsoft sold more than 18 million Windows Mobile software licenses in its recently completed fiscal year -- about 2 million short of its widely publicized 20 million-unit target -- the senior vice president in charge of the business acknowledged this afternoon.

However, Microsoft was still able to increase Windows Mobile's overall share of the worldwide mobile-phone operating system market, despite increased competition from Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry and others, said Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Redmond company's Mobile Communications Business, in an interview.

Lees, a veteran Microsoft executive who moved from the Server & Tools unit in February, attributed the lower-than-projected Windows Mobile sales to some devices coming to market slightly later than previously expected. He declined to say which ones.

"That would be unfair to the OEMs," he said, using the common abbreviation for original equipment manufacturers, or phone makers. "The OEMs give us predictions as to when they'll ship the devices, and I don't want to put them in the dunk tank, if that's a phrase, by implying that they didn't stay on time. That's confidential conversations that we have."

Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices Division, touted the 20 million-unit projection repeatedly during presentations at industry trade shows during the past year.

The first clue about the shortfall emerged in early June, when a letter from Lees to the company's partners said the company would sell "nearly 20 million Windows Mobile smartphone licenses" for the year, as opposed to the company's previous promise of "more than 20 million" licenses sold. Asked about the change at the time, a Microsoft product manager said any shortfall would be nothing more than "a rounding error."

Lees said the shortfall in Windows Mobile unit sales didn't have a material impact on revenue in the Entertainment & Devices Division for the fiscal year, which ended June 30.

"It sounds like a large number of units, but actually, it's less than about a month's worth of a run-rate," he said.

Lees cited IDC data indicating that Windows Mobile unit sales have grown faster than the overall market, expanding from slightly more than 11 percent to just under 13 percent of the worldwide market for "converged devices," better known as smartphones.

The company also cites IDC data showing that Windows Mobile devices have outpaced Research in Motion's unit sales in the past four quarters, and sold more than twice as many as Apple. RIM and Apple offer both software and mobile phones, while Windows Mobile comes on phones made by independent device manufacturers.

Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.1, with a streamlined user interface, in April, and a series of device manufacturers have come out with new and upgraded phones based on it. Devices using the new version include the HTC Touch Diamond, the HTC Touch Pro, and the Samsung Omnia. Devices coming out later include the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

Windows Mobile is "well-poised for the future," Lees said.

Microsoft and T-Mobile USA today also announced a new version of the popular Sidekick phone, which uses technology from Danger, a company acquired by Microsoft this year.

Posted by at July 30, 2008 5:07 p.m.
Categories: Apple, Financial & Corporate, Mobile Devices

Comments

#158418

Posted by unregistered user at 7/30/08 10:08 p.m.

iPhone is about to rock WM6, Microsoft killed their Mobile department by allowing APple to license ActiveSync. I own an Iphone now, and been a WM user since Pocket PC days. Iphone completly shatters WM in every way shape or form. People better get on the ball cause the iPhone is lightyears ahead right now on all levels, all because of Activesync(and of course the SDK).

Also, I'm so glad to be off that buggy WM os. Had so many problems with it, even thou I loved it to death, thinking it was the phone, until my 3rd phone with the same problems, I finally gotta think it's the OS.

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#158471

Posted by unregistered user at 7/31/08 12:32 a.m.

I don't think the iPhone's really ahead in all departments, it's only the UI and looks currently. Feature-wise Windows Mobile is far ahead though no one will agree because of their tendency to bash Microsoft. If MS gets the UI right in WM7, they may go on to dominate phones as well.

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#158484

Posted by unregistered user at 7/31/08 4:10 a.m.

The iPhone however still lacks features compared to the Touch Diamond.

and of course the iPhones backside crackles

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#158507

Posted by unregistered user at 7/31/08 7:02 a.m.

I've got a BlackJack II with Windows Mobile 6 on it and it...how do I say this?...sucks. Microsoft awesomely decided to import the magical delay. Instead of the spinning hourglass however, I get a spinning beachball. Unbelievable. Why do I have to wait 5 seconds for my phone to process after hanging up before I can make another phone call? This shows either a complete lack of understanding the mobile platform or a complete lack of respect for the mobile user or both.

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#158511

Posted by unregistered user at 7/31/08 7:17 a.m.

Windows Mobile is hopelessly lost from both a technology and a marketing perspective. They want to win businesses but cannot produce devices with OEM partners that exceed RIM's performance on battery life, UI, user input responsiveness and security. They want to win consumers but cannot exceed Apple on UI, industrial design and consumer-centric features like music and browsing. From a marketing angle their team leadership has changed so often that they lack clear direction, consistent vision and execution. They believe musical chairs (as evidenced by this month's reorg) will get the job done when instead they should flush a great number of the staff and reboot.

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#158571

Posted by unregistered user at 7/31/08 9:40 a.m.

Microsoft better heed the winds of change. They can shift around blame all they want, but the fact is that Apple is eating their lunch. Do they think HTC wants to launch its phones w/ dated, slow WM UI at the same time Apple launchs iPhone? And what's the deal with the $800 price tags? iPhone is $199.

WM *never* hit the "good enough" stage like XP did. It was always slow and clunky. WM7 had better rock, because this WM developer is losing patience.

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#159764

Posted by unregistered user at 8/1/08 6:04 p.m.

As an OEM to WM, I've seen WM7 and it doesn't "rock" sad to say. What's even worse for a developer like you is that the API model is being broken in a big way (to what extent hasn't been communicated to developers b/c WM team doesn't really know yet - how's that for great product development processes!) so apps written for prior OS versions are likely to break.

HTC is not so dumb to take a dependency on WM alone. There is an HTC Android phone (two models for initial launch, more in the pipeline) and a Symbian phone (whether it's UIQ or S60 or another UI on top of Symbian I won't tell).

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#160616

Posted by unregistered user at 8/4/08 4:20 a.m.

at www.reperion.com we love the Windows Mobile Devices, some have uptimes from over a year, while doing many I/O operations and more...

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#161275

Posted by unregistered user at 8/5/08 10:12 a.m.

at www.reperion.com we love the Windows Mobile Devices, some have uptimes from over a year, while doing many I/O operations and more...

Um, "uptime" doesn't mean squat in the mobile device world. Windows Mobile is not a server OS. WM is still a slow turd.

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