News - Smartphone shipments to near one billion by 2016 with WP7 second biggest platf

[HEXUS]

The floodgates are open, according to IDC.

Read more.

[3dcandy]

WP7 with 20% of the market is miles away from reality. It appears to be the weakest smartphone platform with the least interest from users and is very much derided. Nokia on board will make or break both company's mobile strategy.

[abaxas]

Hmmmm..

Good luck microsoft, I think you'll need it.

[Funkstar]

WP7's tie in with Windows 8 will give it a massive boost though.

I can imagine WP7 trundling along for a while not really making any waves, but building a solid foundation and eventually expanding from it. It certainly won't be a rapid growth, not for a couple of years yet anyway.

[crossy]

WP7's tie in with Windows 8 will give it a massive boost though. I can imagine WP7 trundling along for a while not really making any waves, but building a solid foundation and eventually expanding from it. It certainly won't be a rapid growth, not for a couple of years yet anyway.

+1 on this. The few people I've talked to who have WP7 phones have been as "evangelic" as iOSers. Comments like "I expected it to be crap, but it's actually quite slick and easy to get your head around".

As for the combo of WP7+Win8, I've got to say that if MS aren't planning something neat integration features then they're totally off their trolley's. Heck, I'd even look at speaking to HP to get permission to do something like Touchstone, or some other cableless/seamless sync mechanism. From what I've seen WP7 already dovetails nicely with Xbox, so linking with Windows makes 100% sense.

As to the "WP7 replacing Symbian" assumption - not sure either, I would have thought that Android would have picked up a good slab of these sales, because it'll be cheap smartphones. Unless, of course, Nokia surprises everyone and delivers a spectacularly good range of WP7 phones, in which case the Nokia fans will find it a lot easier to stay brand loyal.

[Funkstar]

The Nokia thing is interesting. Everything I've read about them lately has been very US or UK centric, but people either forget or they simply don't know about the dominance of Nokia in other markets. In my Saudi Arabia right now and i've seen a couple of Nokia Service Centres. Most of the guys I've been working with have Nokias. the ones with a Qwerty keypad are definitely seen as an alternative to a Blackberry.

If Nokia can convert markets like this over to WP7, that is a massive chunk of custom for them and Microsoft.

[kingpotnoodle]

WP7's tie in with Windows 8 will give it a massive boost though.

I can imagine WP7 trundling along for a while not really making any waves, but building a solid foundation and eventually expanding from it. It certainly won't be a rapid growth, not for a couple of years yet anyway.

This, and lets not forget this is a market Microsoft need to become successful in to stay relevant - make no mistake they will throw many billions at it if necessary.

[Scott B]

This, and lets not forget this is a market Microsoft need to become successful in to stay relevant - make no mistake they will throw many billions at it if necessary.

At current prices Microsoft turns over more money in two quarters than Nokia's total market cap.

[directhex]

Prrtty far into conjectureland to say WP7 has a hope of being the #2 OS. Haven't several hardware vendors come forward & said their WP7 sales have been crap?

[bobharvey]

You really can't trust futureologists. I'd like to pull this story out of the files in 2 years time and push it under their nose.

I see no reason for WP7 to be a success. M$ have cut the feet from under their existing business users by not having a sensible migration route for 6.5 applicatons, and failed to excite the private market. What strange mathematics assumes that these trends are irrelevant.

Existing Symbian users will all migrate to WP7? oh really? None of them will defect? Tosh.

This looks like a report written to be sold to someone-or-other with a vested interest.

[crossy]

Existing Symbian users will all migrate to WP7? oh really? None of them will defect? Tosh.

Yes, I had severe doubts about that. I've also seen some opinion pieces elsewhere suggesting that folks (like me) who'd defected from Nokia would then have a Damascene revelation and come back once they see how superb the WP7-based phones are.
In my case that's not likely to happen - I've now got too much invested in Android, and WP7 would have to be spectacularly better than 'droid to get me to switch, (which isn't likely).

This looks like a report written to be sold to someone-or-other with a vested interest.

Hmm, here's my suggestion, read the quote below.

This, and lets not forget this is a market Microsoft need to become successful in to stay relevant - make no mistake they will throw many billions at it if necessary.

Maybe I've got a nasty suspicious mind, but there seems to have been a flood of "WP7 will rule the galaxy" articles coming across my desk recently. In which case there's an organised PR campaign going on.

[dronjohny]

According to me, Nokia would be the best option.