Tuesday, October 1, 2002
Microsoft and their mobile strategy
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "ARTICLE" @ 09:00 AM
http://wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/19545.html
"Partnerships with hardware manufacturers are important, but making inroads with application developers may be even more critical in helping the behemoth repeat what it was able to accomplish on the desktop. What makes any Microsoft operating system dominant is the applications it runs, and Pocket PC is no exception." Here is yet another ariticle that talks about Microsoft's mobile strategy, but from a different angle. This one focuses on Microsoft's strong platform for development. "Competitor Palm's dominance on the application side may not hold for long, according to Aberdeen Group's Isaac Ro. He told Wireless NewsFactor that there is a perception among developers and application vendors that the current kernel of the Palm OS is "not terribly robust for enterprises."
It isn't over yet. MS still trails in marketshare, but their strategy seems to be paying off. I think Palm will get a boost this fall with the release of OS5 devices, but after the initial excitement and most people realize you can't fundamentally do much more on an OS5 device than you can on an OS4 device, the excitement will wear off. I don't see IT departments moving to OS5 either. Developing complex apps for OS4/5 is much more difficult than for Pocket PC right now, especially for those IT departments that have already embraced Visual Studio .NET. "In the next few years, it's going to be a dog fight," Ro said, "but Microsoft will gain a lead around 2005." They have been saying that since 2000, but what is interesting to me is now that we are 24-36 months from this, they are still saying it. Nothing in their surveys have changed.
"Partnerships with hardware manufacturers are important, but making inroads with application developers may be even more critical in helping the behemoth repeat what it was able to accomplish on the desktop. What makes any Microsoft operating system dominant is the applications it runs, and Pocket PC is no exception." Here is yet another ariticle that talks about Microsoft's mobile strategy, but from a different angle. This one focuses on Microsoft's strong platform for development. "Competitor Palm's dominance on the application side may not hold for long, according to Aberdeen Group's Isaac Ro. He told Wireless NewsFactor that there is a perception among developers and application vendors that the current kernel of the Palm OS is "not terribly robust for enterprises."
It isn't over yet. MS still trails in marketshare, but their strategy seems to be paying off. I think Palm will get a boost this fall with the release of OS5 devices, but after the initial excitement and most people realize you can't fundamentally do much more on an OS5 device than you can on an OS4 device, the excitement will wear off. I don't see IT departments moving to OS5 either. Developing complex apps for OS4/5 is much more difficult than for Pocket PC right now, especially for those IT departments that have already embraced Visual Studio .NET. "In the next few years, it's going to be a dog fight," Ro said, "but Microsoft will gain a lead around 2005." They have been saying that since 2000, but what is interesting to me is now that we are 24-36 months from this, they are still saying it. Nothing in their surveys have changed.
