• silicon.com
• Technology
• Mobile

By Natasha Lomas, 16 January 2009 14:06

NEWS

Â…if your 16-year-old kids come up to you and say 'daddy! Daddy! I must have a Windows Mobile phone'. But I've got a feeling we're a long way from that at this point in time."

According to Microsoft's Langridge, the consumer space has raised questions around user interface.

"I guess it's a bit of a double-edged sword," he said. "A lot of the enterprise customers love Windows Mobile because it is Windows - it's consistent across the devices and it's a consistent experience. In the consumer space, the iPhone has caused a lot of debate about user interface."

Microsoft's strategy to date has been to allow its partners to reskin Windows Mobile with their own, hopefully more user-friendly GUIs - such as HTC's TouchFLO system or Sony Ericsson's X-panel interface on the Xperia X1 device. "We're giving our partners a lot of flexibility on how they can customise that and make the experience more appropriate for the audience the device is intended for," Langridge explained.

But a more radical makeover of Windows Mobile is surely long overdue.

Microsoft announced it was acquiring mobile software and services company Danger - the outfit behind the desirable Sidekick devices - back in February 2008 but since then there have been few clues as to what's cooking in Ballmer's mobile kitchen.

According to Langridge, the Danger team has been integrated with the Windows Mobile team but Microsoft said it is unable to provide details of what the combined team is working on.

Gartner's Jones said a "fair guess" as to what's up Microsoft's sleeve is a Zune phone - or in other words, one last attempt to win consumers' hearts and minds. But is a mobile brand based on the Zune MP3 player likely to be a hit? "It's not as if you see the 16-year-olds of the world coming up to their parents and begging for one of those either," Jones added.

Any radical Windows Mobile makeover is unlikely to arrive before Windows Mobile 7 - the next iteration of the OS, expected in 2010 - which may well be too late for Microsoft to catch up with its more nimble-footed rivals, the analyst said.

Gartner predicts the number of mobile OS platforms will shrink over the next few years as developers converge on their favourite ecosystems. According to the market watchers, the lion's share of the market will be on five platforms by 2011, and just three by 2015.

Asked which platforms will end up as the holy trinity of the smartphone world, Jones said Symbian will "certainly" be one but added various battles have yet to be played out to determine the other victors.

"Apple is continuing to grow so they're doing well," he said. "But I think the interesting battles are around people like RIM vs Android for example because I think RIM is doing very well today but that's more a reflection of the relatively small number of smartphones in the marketplace [today]."

"If Android works - and Google succeeds in building an ecosystem for developers and we get lots of manufactures on board - then it could well become a powerful force there."