Microsoft Australia is set to see a ray of sunshine later this week, when research company IDC is set to announce that the new Windows Phone 7 platform is “doing better than expected” in OZ with some tipping that it could be the best performing market in the world for the new OS.
Globally, Microsoft is struggling to to grow market share for their new WP7 OS, up against a surging Apple with their iPhone 4 and new offerings from manufacturers using the Google Android OS.
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| New WP7, HTC HD7 Phone launched in Australia today. |
According to Mark Novosel, Market Analyst Communications, the platform has done “extremely well in Australia” during the last quarter after all three carriers, Telstra, Vodafone and Optus backed the platform selling WP7 Smartphones from HTC, Samsung and LG.
Novosel, won’t give away the precise market share numbers, for the Microsoft platform, however he is not denying that that Australia could be one of the best performing markets in the world for Microsoft with the US software company getting close to 5% share Vs an average 2% in markets like the USA & UK.
In its first two months, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 only managed to capture a 2% share of the U.S. smartphone market according to The NPD Group. During the same period October to November 2010, Google Android increased its share by 9 points, to become the #1 smartphone platform.
Microsoft’s prior mobile platform had 4% share.
Globally manufacturers using the Microsoft OS have only managed to sell 3.2 Million Smartphones running WP7. In comparision Apple sold 1.8 Million iPhone 4’s on the first day that they released the device.
The first Windows Phone 7 models went on sale at AT&T and T-mobile on Nov. 7, in the USA.
At today’s launch of a new HTC HD7 by Telstra, both HTC and Microsoft executives refused to talk market share.
All that Microsoft Australia executive, Sheau Lan Read, the new director of Mobile at Microsoft Australia could manage was that the new WP7 platform now had 10,000 applications Vs 400,000 applications available on the Apple platform and over 200,000 on the Android platform.
In a statement, Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, says “Microsoft has made the case for Windows Phone 7’s differentiation and improved integration.” Microsoft next has several critical steps to take, according to Rubin: “Close the feature gap, offer more exclusive capabilities, work with partners to deliver hardware with better differentiation, and leverage its extensive experience in driving developer communities to increase its app offerings.”
