Microsoft Corp is expected to announce a major revamp of its phone software tomorrow in an attempt to regain momentum in a crucial market where it has been overshadowed.
CEO Steve Ballmer will be speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the world’s largest cellphone trade show, and analysts expect him to reveal Windows Mobile 7. The software could be in phones by late this year.
The new software comes as Microsoft, dominant when smartphones were young, has taken a back seat to Research in Motion Ltd’s BlackBerrys among corporate users and Apple Inc’s iPhone among consumers.
“They seem to have lost the world’s attention in smartphones,” said Dan Hays, who specializes in telecommunications at management consulting firm PRTM.
The new software is expected to be more consumer-focused than previous versions, with a simplified user interface, which could be borrowed in part from Microsoft’s well-reviewed — but low-selling — Zune HD media player.
“If that thing had a phone in it ... that would be a pretty darn good device,” said Charles Golvin, analyst with Forrester Research.
“But my own judgment is that this is kind of their last chance,” Golvin said. “If Windows Mobile doesn’t get it right this time around, they’re probably toast.”
Microsoft is famous, Golvin said, for sticking to its projects, version after version. However, developments in smart phones are coming so fast that tenacity alone won’t help. RIM and Apple are already squeezing Microsoft out, and in the last year, Google Inc has emerged as a major player with its Android software.
Microsoft has said it would not comment in advance of Monday’s event.
Windows phones accounted for 9 percent of smart phones sold worldwide last year, research firm In-Stat shows. That was down from 13.2 percent in 2008.
Much is at stake in the battle for smartphone dominance. Phones steer their users to potentially lucrative Web services and ads.
Software developers write their applications first for the largest base of phones, making those phones even more attractive.
As it’s trying to regain its footing, Microsoft also finds itself in the odd position of charging for something that others give away.
Both Android and Symbian, used on Nokia’s smartphones, are free for any manufacturer to use and modify as they see fit. Both Google and Nokia hope this will spur adoption and steer phone users to their services.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS