The Skweezer Blog

Mike Dano published an interesting story on Fierce Wireless today. The main gist of the story revolves around a recent report by research group CCS, which indicates that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system is losing ground to Google’s Android. Some reasons to support this claim, according to Dano’s article, include:

• Motorola is betting the farm on Android, a decision notable in light of the company’s heavy reliance on Windows Mobile for its previous smartphone efforts (think the Moto Q). The message from Motorola’s leadership is clear: Windows Mobile can’t turn us around. (I realize that Motorola is still technically a Windows Mobile user, but based on the company’s massive Android push I think it’s safe to remove the company from the Windows Mobile column for the time being.)
• HTC–Microsoft’s first and largest Windows Mobile licensee–continues to pour energy into Android at the expense of Windows Mobile. “CCS Insight predicts that sales of HTC Android devices could outnumber those of its Windows Mobile products in 2010,” the firm said. “This is undoubtedly a worrying prospect for Microsoft given its current reliance on HTC as its biggest licensee.”
• Sony Ericsson’s latest smartphone, the Xperia X2, sports Windows Mobile, though the company also supports Symbian products and has stated its intent to build Android devices. CCS Insight predicts Sony Ericsson’s new management will abandon Windows Mobile in favor of platforms it has more control over, like Android. A Sony Ericsson spokesman however reiterated the company’s support for Windows Mobile, and declined to speculate about Sony Ericsson’s future platform plans.
• LG, the world’s third largest cell phone maker and a latecomer to the smartphone game, recently promised to produce 50 Windows Mobile phones. However, the company also recently announced its first Android device. “Microsoft may have offered LG preferential licensing terms in order to offset weakening commitment from HTC,” posited CCS Insight.
• As for Samsung, the world’s second largest handset maker, it remains a Windows Mobile licensee, though it too has worked with Android lately and has dabbled in Symbian as well.

Of course there are other major players vying for the mobile OS spotlight along with Microsoft and Google–most notably the open-source Symbian OS from Nokia and Research In Motion’s Blackberry platform. And of course there’s Apple’s ridiculously successful iPhone.

When we started Skweezer back in the day, potential investors and partners always asked us, “How does your business relate to Microsoft?” Now the question is usually, “How does your business relate to Google?” Looks like there may be a changing of the guard as Google steps in to replace a faltering Microsoft as the alpha-male at the head of the mobile operating system pack.

Still, as Dano notes in his article:

…as with anything Microsoft, it’s not over until the company says it’s over.

Posted by Mark Sieve