Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
Summary: Microsoft is floundering in the mobile market while Palm has made bold strides but remains vulnerable. See why these two could make a love match.
This is an excerpt of an article from ZDNet's sister site, TechRepublic.
Consolidation is coming to the smartphone market. It's simply a matter of when and how.
There are six big platforms vying for mainstream acceptance, and the market is likely to start weeding that number down to three to four over the next several years as all mobile phones become smartphones and as smartphones start replacing PCs for some users.
The platforms in the strongest position are the Apple iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. The platforms that have some momentum but are still vulnerable are Google Android and Palm webOS. The platforms that are most at risk and are struggling the most technologically are Nokia's Symbian and Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
The first major consolidation move could involve Palm. The company has been rumored as a buyout target for years. However, after struggling to survive while rebuilding its platform under the leadership of former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, Palm has had a big year in 2008 with the arrival of its new webOS and the launch of its first webOS device, the Palm Pre.
Despite the fact that the Pre and the webOS have been warmly received by users and the press, Palm still faces challenges. In June, the Pre was launched exclusively with Sprint, the weakest of the U.S. carriers and an acquisition target itself. While Palm aggressively marketed the Pre with its modest resources, Sprint has not been nearly as aggressive.
Source: TechRepublic: Microsoft should buy Palm to resurrect Windows Mobile
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Talkback
Nokia remain the strongest by far.
Ex-US sales don't back that up I'm afraid. Nokia still dominate despite being behind technologically in terms of interface.
With the release of the N900 and the X series this will become even more entrenched.
How is Nokia "behind in terms of interface"?
Symbian I assume
As far as I have seen it has poor playback of multimedia files and generaly speaking has low resolution screens.
Firstly, are you Sleeper Service?
[i]"has a number of bugs and arcane long menu structures in..."[/i]
Some menus, perhaps; not menus I traverse frequently, however. What do I use? Name/number lookup. Lock/unock keypad. Dial/hangup. Texting. Bluetooth on/off. Certainly not bad for a [i]phone[/i]...
[i]As far as I have seen it has poor playback of multimedia files and generaly speaking has low resolution screens[/i]
I use it daily, and find it to be comfortably pocket-sized with a clear and colorful display. The 2 megapixel camera is not bad, either.
Doubtful
Consolidation already happened to PDAs, Palm died and
Windows Mobile won by default. Palm's PDAs and phones
changed to Windows Mobile OS, but that didn't help them
get back their leading position.
Now PDAs are being replaced by smart phones and MS is
MIA. Palm's Web OS is a worthy competitor, but it has a
miniscule market share. I just can't see that buying Palm
gives any sort of boost to Windows Mobile.
Most phone buyers don't give a rats about the OS. Most
don't care about the OS on their PC, they only know about
Windows so that's what they buy. If MS want to make a
dent in the smart phone market, they have to deliver a
[b]product[/b] that consumers want. Windows Mobile is
just an OS, it isn't a useful consumer item of itself.
re: Doubtful
MS is in a position to compete in the smartphone market just like it did in the game console market, or as they did in the browser market.
With Palm's IP and MS's $$$ and some time, it's quite conceivable you'll see MS be the dominate player.
Absolutely not...
It has some great benefits, that aren't on WebOs or iPhone for that matter. The biggest is that developers can write in C++ or C#. I was recently chatting with a set of fellow developers and all lamented the hassle it is to do iPhone apps. If only Windows Mobile had the ecosystem of the iPhone.
Additionally, they need to fix the frameworks that ship with WinMo. The default controls are just horrible looking... like mid-90s MFC apps.
So what WinMo needs to do is the following:
1) Get the shell working well with multitouch. This is probably the easiest task.
2) Update and fix the Fx's and the look of the shell.
3) Have an exceptionally easy to use app store.
4) Have a real web browser.
I suspect they're closer than they even know.
Symbian not at risk
A marriage made in Heaven.
With WinMo 7.0 (at least) a year away, Microsoft needs to do something pretty drastic, and leaving its partners in the dust has never been a problem.
Microsoft needs a modern, touch-enabled modbile OS, something Palm has. Palm needs cash, something Microsoft has plenty of.
By the way, those are also the reasons Palm dumped WinMo last week.
RE: Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
the new contract to deliver Office Mobile on Symbian helps scale as well, but adding Palm to the mix would provide strength in devices which is absent in the current model. They acquired Danger (i.e. Sidekick) to add some intellectual properties there, but little has been done with this team in the last 18 months.
RE: Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
RE: Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
Nokia remains the number 1 cell phone manufacturer in the world; unfortunately US carriers and customers tend to go for other brands.
I've been using Symbian for 5 years noiw and have tried most other platforms (WinMo, Iphone, Palm, BlackBerry) and I can tell you Symbian is still the best in performance and variety of applications and games (you can do almost anything you would do in a regular computer/cell phone, including run Quake 3 at good speed and sync BlackBerry e-mail as well as exchange, lotus notes and any other you can think of).
They're also coming out with Maemo-based cell phones starting with the N900; this plateform is based on Linux and looks very promising.
huh?
Buy to replace Windows Mobile with Webos? But WebOs is built on Linux. No way Microsoft is going to sell Linux.
Oh, and by the way, if it did, Microsoft would be handing the ARM netbook space over to Linux, since Mobile is Microsoft's candidate for ARM netbooks.
RE: Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
Yeah, then they could screw up 2 OSes
Also Nokia lagging? 43% Symbian market share, QT 4.5, Meamo.
Ring a bell?
RE: Could Microsoft fix Windows Mobile by buying Palm?
With the lines between the smartphone and the netbook becoming more blurred each day, the best strategy is for Microsoft to partner with a smartphone maker to port Windows 7 to an Atom-based smartphone.