With Android commanding that kind of OEM attention, Microsoft is going to have to work harder than ever to rewrite the weak mobile story it’s written for itself over the past few years.
“To ensure Window Phone 7’s success, Microsoft must sign up virtually all of the name brand smartphone vendors who deserted Windows Mobile for Android when Microsoft failed to modernize the operating system for three years,” says Needham analyst Charlie Wolf. “Microsoft has signed up three of them and has two to go. Google would argue that it has the upper hand in this tussle because it licenses Android for free while Microsoft charges a licensing fee (albeit a small one compared to its PC licensing fees). But Microsoft simply has more at stake.”
And it knows it. Which is why it’s putting so many marketing dollars into Windows Phone 7.
Says Wolf, “We suspect the company will devote a material portion of [its marketing budget] to buy the support of the leading smartphone manufacturers.”
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