WP7 Predicted To Outgrow Android, WebOS MIA

Market researchers from IDC expect Google’s Android to capture more than twice the smartphone platform market share of Apple’s iOS this year. However, it’s growth will slow down and the opportunity will transition to Windows Phone 7 (WP7), which will become a more popular smartphone OS than Apple’s iOS.

IDC believes that Android will hold 39.5% of the smartphone market by the end of the year, which is predicted to be ahead of 20.9% of Nokia’s Symbian, Apple’s iOS with 15.7% and RIM’s 14.9% of Blackberry. Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile are waiting at the back of the field with a share of 5.5%.
However, IDC expects Microsoft to come roaring back and grow WP7 shipments by an average of 67.1% every year, which would give Microsoft the spot behind Android in 2015. IDC expects Android’s growth to slow to 23.8% per year, the iOS compound annual growth rate to 18.8% and Blackberry’s growth to an average of 17.1%. The result for 2015? Android holds 45.4% of the market, followed by WP7 with 20.9%, iOS with 15.3% and Blackberry with 13.7%. Is it just me or is HP’s WebOS missing in this list? Perhaps it is part of “others”, which account for 4.6% of the market, which would mean that HP’s $1.2 billion investment in acquiring Palm won’t be paying off. There was no information how much market share WebOS may hit, but at less than 5%, it would be a fish dead in the water.
IDC’s predictions are largely based on the fact that WP7 will soon be running on Nokia phones (2012), but there is some general doubt whether this alliance will pay off as Nokia and Microsoft expect it to. Nokia recently laid out substantial risks in the adoption of the platform, there are risks of Microsoft alienating its other partners through the Nokia relationship and WP7 is a largely unproven platform with challenges as far as the platform creation, including the Windows Marketplace, is concerned. The stars have to align for Microsoft in order to be able to come close to IDC’s prediction. We would take this forecast with a grain of salt and wait until we are seeing a stronger move toward WP7 and improved shipment numbers.
“Android is poised to take over as the leading smartphone operating system in 2011 after racing into the number 2 position in 2010,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “For the vendors who made Android the cornerstone of their smartphone strategies, 2010 was the coming-out party. This year will see a coronation party as these same vendors broaden and deepen their portfolios to reach more customers, particularly first-time smartphone users.”

Nokia and Microsoft: 2 Losers = 1 Winner ?

Analysis - The combination of assets between Microsoft and Nokia is a fascinating alliance that has been born out of desperation of two giants that aim to score a portion of the global smartphone goldmine. As powerful as Microsoft and Nokia have been in the past and as many resources and experience they can throw at developing a smartphone, the partnership is merely an opportunity and not a guarantee for success. Nokia will have to learn to swim in hostile waters that are just waiting to eat it alive. And even if it succeeds, it will lose in the end.

Stephen Elop has taken Nokia by the hand and made the jump. Symbian is burning to ashes, MeeGo has been taken along like the unwanted stepchild, but may be left to drown. Steve Ballmer’s Titanic is saving Elop and Nokia from Google’s and Apple’s sharks for now, but Microsoft has been unable to fix the leaks in its own Windows Phone 7 hull and hopes that Nokia may deliver a miracle. If you think about it, the alliance between Nokia and Microsoft was really the only possibility for both companies to keep the hopes for a brighter future alive.

Nokia: Rise and Fall
Nokia was the Apple of the cellphone industry in the past. The company dominated cellphone sales with a market lead since 1998 and drove the industry through phenomenal growth above 1 billion sold units every year. It was the driving force to make text messaging popular and it was a key player behind the adoption of data services, which included, for example, downloadable ringtones and simple games. We should not forget that the smartphone can be traced back to Nokia (if we forget for a moment that Handspring was the company that actually shaped the modern smartphone with the Treo in 2001): Remember the bulky Communicator 9000 from 1996?

In the fourth quarter of 2010, Nokia sold about 124 million phones. However, only 28.3 million of those were smartphones and only 2.6 million were sold in the U.S. Nokia’s smartphone sales climbed by 36% year over year, while the entire market climbed by 72% and the stars of the industry increased their sales by almost 100% (Apple) and almost 900% (Google), according to Gartner. Apple now controls the high-end segment of the smartphone market and Google aims for the mid-range with RIM (which is also growing below the market average), while there are only scraps left for Nokia, Microsoft and HP (Palm).
Nokia’s market share has been declining at an accelerating pace – and has just surrendered its leadership position in smartphones to Android. Having waited for too long already, the company needed to act. Nokia always described Android as a rival and not as a potential partner and Elop’s recent burning platform memo continued on that path. Microsoft was the only option. Elop has detailed knowledge of Microsoft and there may be some unusual synergies that could make the alliance work in a much better way than with two companies whose executives do not speak the same (business) language.

Leaving Symbian Behind, Cutting MeeGo
Symbian is the obvious casualty of this alliance. There are more questions that actually surround MeeGo, a platform Nokia birthed in cooperation with Intel. However, the development has been too slow and we now know that only one device will make it to market in 2011.
Seriously? Why bother?
MeeGo cannot succeed without a platform and an ecosystem. Nokia already said that it plans to pitch Windows Phone 7/Nokia as the “third ecosystem”, which would indicate that MeeGo will not be a (significant) platform.
The netbook UI development has already been abandoned and it appears that Nokia is simply polite and has not told Intel yet that it has no interest in MeeGo anymore. Would you buy a MeeGo phone, if its future is uncertain? In today’s world, probably not. As devices are more connected to an ecosystem of other types of electronics it will be even more unlikely that you buy such a device – even as a backup device or your young children as an emergency communication device.
Let’s be realistic. MeeGo is dead. But Nokia is taking thing slowly as for India Nokia WP7 will be launched after atleast 15 months. So, their is enough time to test out MeeGo.

Microsoft’s Big Advantage and Nokia’s Problem
Nokia must have been extremely desperate, much more than what we have seen in public. In this alliance, Microsoft is taking the lion’s share of the cooperation’s benefit. As much as Microsoft said that it was happy with 2 million Windows Phone 7 units sold in Q4 2010, we know that Windows Mobile 6 still outsold the new platform. You can’t sugarcoat the Windows Phone 7 performance so far: It has been a failure. We have grown tired of Steve Ballmer telling us that user feedback has been fantastic and that the devices just need to get into customer’s hands to see better sales. Sounds a bit like a Saab commercial: “People who testdrive a Saab usually buy one.” How many people do you know who have bought a Saab? And wasn’t Saab nearly shut down not too long ago?
Ballmer can talk about user feedback all day long: The problem is that Windows Phone 7 is not selling. Why? Windows Phone 7 is marketed wrong. It’s a nice-to-have product without a positive lifestyle factor attached. It is not a must-have product. No one would complain if Windows Phone 7 was discontinued today.
With Nokia on board, Microsoft has an opportunity to get about 30 million Windows smartphones out into the world, every quarter. However, it is an opportunity that will need a lot of TLC to grow and make sense for both Nokia and Microsoft. The two companies have laid out a massive ecosystem approach that can work, but Microsoft will have to dramatically change its view of the smartphone market to have a shot at growth. And we will need to see more than just bold words in a presentation.
Microsoft’s problem – and now Nokia’s problem – is Microsoft’s flawed marketing that has created a catastrophic perception of Windows Phone 7. Microsoft tried to be different by telling people that they don’t have to really use their Windows Phone 7 devices and that is just a bad idea to be glued to their phones. The company completely missed the fact that consumers actually like to spend time with their phones. The impression of a device that will not encourage interaction is probably not a great sales driver. We at CTech believe that Microsoft’s marketing has buried the market opportunity of the current generation of Windows Phone 7. The platform needs a complete relaunch.
Microsoft’s opportunity has always been the Xbox 360 in mobile devices. So far, Xbox Live mobile has only been a sideshow. Dear Microsoft, smartphones are entertainment devices. Have you guys ever thought about making Xbox Live content (and not just shared game data) seamlessly available to smartphones? You could get some ideas from Sony and Android Market.

Microsoft’s Problem: Nokia’s Legacy
Nokia is essentially stuck with a smartphone platform that isn’t exactly catering to what smartphone users want today. However, Microsoft’s commitment to Nokia could easily alienate other handset manufacturers that are seeing much more success with Android anyway. Why would they deal with Microsoft and measly sales every quarter? They wouldn’t.
Nokia may be Microsoft’s only hope, but it’s not a done deal as Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 will need amazing hardware to attract attention. Competitive hardware isn’t enough and one more sensor or more pixels on the screen won’t be enough either. There are enough handset manufacturers that are copying the iPhone. Nokia needs to rethink the smartphone in a similar way Apple did in 2006/2007. If you are a frequent CTech reader, the pitch may be getting old already, but I cannot reiterate enough that a next-generation smartphone cannot be anything less than the Seabird concept phone that was shown on Mozilla’s Labs pages.

Nokia and Microsoft have to be realistic and admit that, given the resources the two companies have available, what has been shown so far is embarrassing. There is an opportunity for both to show the innovative power and creativity that has made the companies great. We haven’t seen it yet and now is the time to leverage this potential.
It’s make or break time for both. However, even if the alliance will be successful for both companies, it is already clear that there can only be one winner. Nokia has lost the platform play and will simply be a handset manufacturer with a few additional assets. Microsoft will be the true winner as it has an opportunity to keep Windows relevant in a world that is more and more mobile – and right now does not even recognize Windows as a mobile platform.

Get Latest Cricket World Cup 2011 Scores On Android, iPhone,Windows Mobile, Symbian and Java handsets

Cricket World Cup is on and my God its fever is high. People will do any thing just to have an update of the current match going on. Here is how people with Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian and Java handsets can get updated scores.

All the applications mentioned below requires GPRS/EDGE or 3G connectivity.
 ANDROID

Cricket World Cup 2011 will update you with all the action going on in the field where ever you are. It delivers live matches, scores and news as they happen. You can also listen to live cricket commentary and follow Facebook and Twitter feeds of you favorite players.

 Download Cricket World Cup 2011





SYMBIAN OR JAVA

There is no dedicated World Cup application but as CrickZenga covers all international cricket matches around the globe it will definitely help you out. Apart from live cricket scores a user can also see the full scorecard, complete squads information, Statistical Graphs for each innings, latest commentary view, useful match information such as toss, umpires etc.


Download CrickZenga


WINDOWS MOBILE

CricketCompanion is just an alias name given to CrickZenga for Windows Mobile platform with identical features.


Download CrickCompaninion





BLACKBERRY

Believe me forget about dedicated world cup application, BlackBerry doesn’t even have a dedicated cricket application. Thanks to Snaptu you can get updated cricket scores on the go. Snaptu can also be used with java and symbian devices.


Download Snaptu


IPHONE

To help you guys out Cricinfo’s Mobicast is the best solution. It will provide you with live scores, news, schedules, podcasts and Cricinfo’s famed ball-by-ball commentary! To download point your iPhone’s default browser to http://ci.plusmo.com

If you have any other low end device you can always subscribe to cricket updates SMS packs from your Operators which normally costs around Rs. 30/Pm or switch of the FM radio on your mobile in the worst case scenario.

Nokia Windows Phone 7 Mobile Phones Concept Photos and Device Details

    Microsoft hearts Nokia!! Many people still recovering from the shocking Nokia and Microsoft partnership announcement and now these pictures of a Windows Phone 7 powered slim Nokia handset have surfaced. I just hope two negatives can make good things happen.

 

This was first leaked by Engadget and they say that this device is a concept design to show what such a device would look like. But here u can get a glimpse at the future design strategies of Nokia. Even now we can see Nokias getting a little porky and losing weight. Now we know why, Nokia was getting ready for its date with Microsoft WP7.
There is no word for possible specs yet but after all we need to keep in mind that this phone is still in the concept stage. Still we can see to sharp details on it but basically looks like a vaguely updated version of Nokia C7.
The three key concept bottoms the phone and gives away to its Windows Phone 7 ties. But also one must keep in mind that the N8 and E7 are highly unlikely to receive any WP7 upgrade although Nokia said they might upgrade the OS if they switch to a higher one. But this statement was in responds to the new Symbain^4 not WP7.  The new phones may be powered by some juicy specs when it’s released since WP7 requires at least a Snapdragon processor.
From the pictures we can mark some high light on the hardware form which the most prominent is the remarkably slim body and variety of colors. Secondly a pretty large display, which I guess would be around the 4-inch. Below is the trio of keys that is standard every Windows Phone 7 device. On the back we can see a large battery cover with a camera and LED flash nearby.
To the top it hosts a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB port and power button. The tapering edges on the back give a vague look into the design strategy of Nokia for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 phones.

Well this is evident that this phone may never see the day light. You may have to wait for the real deal till this winter. Let’s just hope Santa clause will be able to drop a Nokia Windows Phone 7 down your chimney. But never the less even he might fail to do so if Nokia has its usual ways!