Therese Poletti's Tech TalesMicrosoft's real target should be BlackBerry
9/6/12 9/6/2012 (MarketWatch)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- When
But Microsoft (MSFT) , and its partner Nokia Corp., may be taking a risk by focusing too much on average Joes, and not enough on the software giant's bread-and-butter corporate customer with its new version of Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8.
Nokia's (NOK) demonstration of its new Lumia phones and their better cameras and mapping tools was heavily consumer centric. Microsoft, too, touted its ease of use and customizable start page, ease of social networking, and location-based apps.
Clearly, Microsoft and Nokia are pitching the tech savvy people who have stormed corporate tech departments armed with their own devices. But by focusing so much on the consumer, it appears, at least in Wednesday's launch, the company might risk missing the most obvious chance to make bigger strides in the mobile market: the disgruntled and ready-to-leap
Those customers are typically the business users who rely on their BlackBerry device for their work email and the security of the RIM (RIMM) network. But those loyal customers aren't going to get anything new until next year, when RIM is expected to launch its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and new devices.
"2012 has been and continues to be a golden goose, wrapped from RIM, to its competitors," said Ramon Llamas, an IDC analyst.
Indeed, some have already grown tired of waiting. Perhaps skeptical of what the new operating system will bring, or even the fate of the embattled company, some RIM customers have already planned to abandon ship for
According to IDC, Android-based phones led the smartphone business in the second quarter, with a "commanding" 68.1% market share of all smartphones shipped globally during the quarter, while pioneers Research In Motion and Nokia Corp. saw their share of mobile operating systems reach just 4.8% and 4.4% respectively. The report also said that the smartphone market has now become a "two-horse race," between Android and iPhone.
None of these companies are standing still. September is turning out to be a storm of smartphone and tablet launches, with the much expected Apple event now confirmed for Sept. 12. Today,
Microsoft still has a small share of the smartphone operating system market. But during the second quarter, according to IDC, the software giant was coming on strong in its effort to gain on RIM and eventually became the No. 3 player in smartphones. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 had only a 3.5% stake of the worldwide market, but that was at a growth rate of 115.3%.
"It is still a very young and new kind of platform," Llamas said. "Yes, it has things like security and things like VPN access, corporate messaging and the like, but it is still a new platform for end users to get to."
So perhaps the best way to gain share, at this point, is through entrenched corporate users, who for the most part, use Microsoft Windows and the Office suite at work. Old corporate habits die hard and many information technology departments are likely to be wooed big time by the software behemoth. But if that is in its plans, Microsoft wasn't talking about that Wednesday.
"The corporate message, and the corporate capabilities didn't really come up," Llamas said. "To be fair, there were some other consumer apps and features that they didn't bring up either. . . They are concentrating on how they are differentiating themselves from the rest of competition."
Surely Microsoft realizes some IT gurus might want smartphones that are more compatible with their entire corporate infrastructure. With the launch of the new Windows 8 expected next month for the personal computer, Microsoft has an opportunity to get corporate CIOs to consider replacing their corporate fleets of BlackBerrys with smartphones based on Windows Phone 8, while they look at upgrading hundreds of PCs.
When asked about its consumer focus in its event on Wednesday, however, a Microsoft spokeswoman advised reading the company's blog posts and press releases. In a post in June, Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore wrote, "Windows Phone and its bigger sibling will share common networking, security, media and web browser technology, and a common file system."
Apple has become very corporate infrastructure friendly but Android still does not have that reputation, although Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Note smartphone is helping to change that impression.
Investors should hope that Microsoft is playing to its strengths in the corporate market with the latest version of Windows Phone. If the company plays its corporate cards right, it could have a shot at quickly taking over RIM's spot, a far easier target than Android or the iPhone.
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