By Jeff Dorsch
The introduction of Windows Phone 8 by Microsoft – wait a minute, let me close the window. There’s too much noise outside from people rushing to buy a new iPad.
There, that’s better. Okay, back to Windows Phone 8. The Microsoft mobile operating system was introduced a week ago, shortly after the formal launches of Windows 8 and Windows RT for computers. Like those operating systems, Windows Phone 8 features touch-screen capabilities that fit in well with smartphones in particular. (Tablet computers will generally employ Windows 8.) Nokia, once the mobile-phone champion of the world, tied up with Microsoft in early 2011 and made a big commitment to implementing Windows Phone (which was preceded by Windows Mobile) in its product line as an alternative to the open-source Symbian operating system that previously formed the OS basis of its phones. As a result, Nokia is on the Windows Phone 8 bandwagon, as are HTC, Samsung Electronics, and other leading phone purveyors.
The mobile electronics market is not evolving as the PC market did. The “Wintel” duopoly, which had Windows running on computers with Intel processors, is not what it once was and isn’t a strong contender in the smartphone market. Intel is getting its low-power Atom processors into some new smartphones and tablets, all of which run on Android, Google’s mobile operating system. Windows Phone is far, far, far behind Android and Apple’s iOS among mobile operating systems. The question now is whether Microsoft and Nokia can regain their leadership positions on the strength of Windows Phone 8.
It is too early for the market’s verdict, of course. Yet Microsoft clearly has ambitious plans for its mobile OS. There’s an online Windows Phone Store to find the all-important apps for your Windows-based smartphone. And there are even reports that the company is looking at the prospect of developing a Microsoft-branded smartphone, now that it has delved deeper into the hardware market with its Surface tablet computer. (Its only previous hardware was the Xbox game console and its related Kinect motion sensor.) The software giant is looking toward hardware and services (such as its Windows Azure cloud-computing platform) to regain its growth mojo. Windows Office applications and the Windows OS business aren’t as big and profitable as they once were.
Could Microsoft regain the dominance it once enjoyed? Should it? Or is it time for other companies to take the industry spotlight? What do you think? Please leave a comment below.