WinMo Staggers On Falls To Single Digit Market Share

Yesterday the big news was of course Android surging past the iPhone to become the top selling mobile platform in the U.S. What many, including ourselves, missed though was what was happening at the other end of the scale. The 'sick man' of the mobile OS world, Windows Mobile, was quietly staggering on, but had dipped to single figures, just 9% market share in the last quarter. There are two main reasons for this, both as obvious as each other really. On the one hand you have the likes of Android and iOS tearing up the asphalt with new customers and grabbing all the headlines, and on the other hand you have the fact that Microsoft has effectively abandoned WinMo in favour of its new OS Win Phone 7. Windows Mobile has been cast out like a sick member of the heard to die, or be eaten by the wolves. It's also worth mentioning that Nielsen's figures don't take into account corporate customers, which, if they were included, would probably see WinMo riding just a little higher. At any rate it's one more sign that this relic of the past has had its time and must give way to the future.