Windows Phone 7: Success or Failure?

Windows Phone 7(WP7) is probably the most “controversial” operating system in the mobile market today. While some say it’s one the biggest disasters of Microsoft, there are many others who fully support the OS.

                The sales figures by Microsoft indicate that the product has not met the industry expectations. Of the world’s total sale of smart phones, 3.6 million were counted under the Microsoft mobile OS umbrella, of which only 1.6 million featured the latest WP7 OS. That means Microsoft sold more Windows Mobile devices in the first quarter of 2011 than ones with WP7. This clearly indicates that the company’s new product is not as popular among its audience. Although Microsoft hopes to do good in future, with the upcoming Mango update, some research firms still think that WP7 won’t prevent Microsoft from losing out market share. Gartner predicts that Microsoft’s share will drop from 4.7 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent y 2014, following a brief uptick in 2011. And that would be because of its agreement with Nokia to manufacture WP7 phones.

                But the Redmond giant has got enormous fans who are all praises for its new product. They claim that Windows Phone 7 devices have been selling 3 times faster than those of the Android OS, when it was initially launched. And they have got a point. The figures indicate that it took 6 months for Android to cross the 1 million mark, which WP7 just crossed in 2 months. Also the Android Marketplace hit 5000 apps in 8 months, compared to the Windows Phone Marketplace, which hit 5000 apps in just 1 month.

                Microsoft is now preparing for the 2 big releases—the Mango update this year, and the release of Nokia W8, the first WP7 by the Finnish giant, in the upcoming year. With the release of Nokia W8, both the companies aim to regain their market share which they lost to their competitors.