Guest Paul [MVP] Posted November 7, 2003 Report Posted November 7, 2003 VNUNet writes here: Analyst Gartner has warned that, without a concerted effort by Symbian and its backers, Microsoft will sweep them aside in the smartphone business. Redmond's ability to offer standardised handsets which are easier for businesses to support and use will help the software giant win corporate approval, the market watcher predicted. Nick Jones, vice president and research fellow at Gartner, said that, while Microsoft did not have a good corporate smartphone today, he believed it would do by the end of 2004. The analyst predicted that Microsoft will ship a phone boasting strong integration of a range of packages, such as Exchange and Outlook. Symbian, he added, needed to resolve a number of issues to be a credible, corporate alternative. Its platform and menus differ slightly on various handsets, which means that they often do not have the same user interface. Click the link above for the full article... P
Guest comebackdx Posted November 7, 2003 Report Posted November 7, 2003 The Symbian consortium was put together to establishing a beach head on the mobile operating system, and make it extremely hard for MS to penetrate this market. Unfortunately Symbian has not taken the bull by the horns in the last two years, and MS have been able to take the initiative. Usually when MS move into a market, it takes them two years to fine tune their approach and create a definitive solution. We are one year into the Smartphone run, and I don't think that Symbian can reverse the trend. On the handheld market Psion came up against Palm and Pocket CE, and Psion had to concede defeat.
Guest TANKERx Posted November 9, 2003 Report Posted November 9, 2003 Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's reached a state in its existence where it thinks it can survive by talking Blairite 'truths' which carry little weight, and saying that Microsoft is stronger in the enterprise is like re-announcing funds for education. We all know that Microsoft is stronger in the enterprise so why tell us like it's some kind of recent breakthrough? The person on the street is what counts when it comes to numbers. Microsoft is focusing on server stuff and exchange stuff (yawn) while the Symbian platform is being used for innovative software that turns the phone into a truly useful piece of kit (I'm still waiting for some PsiLoc, Symbianware, EpocWare and WildPalm grade software to appear on my SPV). Psion stopped innovating and they suffered the consequences mentioned in a previous post. However, with names like SonyEricsson and Nokia pushing Symbian, there's going to be no let-up just yet. The only things being developed on the old Psion platform back then were re-hashes of existing software like file managers (pretty much where the MS Platform is at the moment). Symbian isn't a glory-seeker, it's not looking for brand loyalty in the same way Micrisoft does. It's happy for Nokia to stretch the OS into more form factors than you can shake a stick at and not even show the Symbian logo anywhere. Neither does it mind that people are buying 'that motorola 3G phone' without knowing that it's a Symbian. Same for SonyEricsson. So I'm not worried. I can see the progress that's being made by Symbian's partners and as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft is still following the leader's innovation.
Guest kyrkesmith Posted November 23, 2003 Report Posted November 23, 2003 It's my opinion that the SPV didn't do as well as it could because (a) it had a rubbish marketing campaign, and (:lol: it wasn't available on PAYG © it wasn't readily available in all the shops, and was only on Orange. If they'd sorted those , it would have probably done much better. If Motorola get their marketing up a notch (although it's already better than Orange's), I think the MPx200 could do very well. Everyone I know likes the look of the MS OS, and is impressed with what my E100 can do. If it was taken up by more manufacturers, it would be a bonus, but I would anticipate that if Motorola released two identical phones, one running Symbian, the other Smartphone, the latter would do better. Once the manufacturers see it this way, I think Smartphone will overtake Symbian.
Guest XWingFighter Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 It is a fact that Microsofts approach to the Mobile Phone Market has two reasons. 1 - To compete in a highly profitable arena (mobile devices and services) 2 - To bring down the overall price of mobile phones A small explanation on item nr.1 Microsoft is not only interested in selling SPV's or MPx's or whatever, don't forget all the cross-selling this will bring! When they sell the idea of MS Smartphone to a Mobile Operator they will also try to sell a huge package of Microsoft Exchange to support e-mail features in close Microsoft enviroment. For many mobile companies not yet using Exchange as their network mail Server, this is an excelent penetration point for Microsoft. Can you imagine the license revenue of a Microsoft Exchange Server Cluster running over a Million individual licenses??? It will also make loyal Microsoft Desktop OS users even more loyal, they will use Outlook on their phone and at home! An expalnation on number 2 This is the most relevant point. Microsoft has (or is still) making an effort to bring down the price of individual Advanced Mobile Phone (i.e. Smartphones). How is this done? Well to start of with, they strike an agreemant with Hitec companies from Taiwan (for example) to produce at a highly competitive price, mobile devices to compete against Nokia and Ericson type devices. This is a Market that would in other ways be intangable to the East Asian companies due to the High Level of Quality Standards of Nokia and so forth. Microsoft will pull the carriage ahead with their incredible financial and Mareting capability and will give huge exposure to these products. The two sides win - on one hand Microsft has access to devices that will help prove the efficency of the Smartphone OS and the manufactures will produce more units that they ever dreamt to be possible. As for Nokia and the major playing manufacturing companies, all they can do is look upon the fist clumsy tries and the flagrent errors that Microsoft will make until an effective level of performance is attained. When the time comes, when Microsoft has settled down and gained a reasonably confortable recognition in this area it will start to "stretch the rope". It will force prices to go down, by pushing the envelope on even cheaper processors, LCD screens, batteries, etc... In overall, the final device (the Smartphone) will cost significantly less than when it started. And far less than any rival device. Why??? Because Microsoft doesn't need to make money off the devices them selves, and the Manufactures don't have to worry about Operating System improvements, and so on. Each side will do what they know best and for the cheapest price. Any one competing against this machne will have to be better "oiled" to com in first place. One more incredibly obvious reason! The Mobile Device Industry has been lacking serious application developement due to a very reduced amount of Mobile Application Developers. With the advent of MS Smartphone, the programing comunity available has grown from just a hand full (Symbian and Java developers) to a mature and vast number of .NET developers. We will see great ideas, fresh applications and revolutionary comunication tools coming up in the near future. This is my personal opinion in this matter, and none of the statements made are based on any official comunication on behalf of Microsoft, Nokia, Ericson or any of the company names mentioned in the report. (Please forgive any spelling mistakes, I am portuguese)
Guest dom Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 As far as I'm aware, MS charges a much higher license fee for a copy of SmartPhone 2k2 or 2k3 than Symbian charge for a copy of Symbian OS. So if Symbian phones were to be more expensive (on a like for like basis), then it would be more down to the manufacturer of the device rather than the OS it uses. I'd imagine that Symbian is easier to implement on a phone too. I say this because looking at Sendo. It took them two years to have a SP2k2 device ready for sale, whereas it has only taken them one year to get their symbian device ready for sale (assuming that they do launch in December as they have said they would). Personally I want to be on both sides of the fence :lol: because I want to develop s/w on all viable mobile platforms and these two (and Palm for that matter, maybe linux in the future too) all seem viable at the moment. It may be the case that we always have competition in the mobile device arena and to my mind that is the best thing for both consumers and developers - it keeps the people producing the devices on their toes and innovative.
Guest adamski Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 I have a P800 and I have just taken delivery of an MPx200. I am looking forward to making direct comparison as a user, not developer. I will keep you posted, all I can say ATM is that the mpx is small compared to P800 and is nice in black :lol:
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