Finally, after all the vague feel-good comments, a real fact about Android phone sales to sink your teeth into. Speaking at the big mobile industry bash in Barcelona today, Eric Schmidt said handset makers were currently shipping 60,000 units a day with the Google software platform installed.
If that figure is sustainable, it adds up to nearly 22m a year. Compare that to Microsoft, which said that “more than 20m” Windows Mobile phones were shipped in 2008.
Microsoft is also not given to revealing too much about its mobile software sales, but it’s a pretty safe bet that unit volumes have fallen since then: Canalys put its smartphone market share at one point last year at 9 per cent, down from 14 per cent the year before.
Of course, extrapolating Android’s current shipment rate into an annual total is fraught with risk. The interest stoked up by the recent launch of Nexus One might may have brought a short-term jump. But with momentum building and more launches due, there are still plenty of reasons to believe that Android is now solidly on track to eclipse the newly-named Windows Phone this year.
So after fumbling badly, does Microsoft have any hope of getting back into the game?
As we predicted, Monday’s show-and-tell for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 platform (pictured at the top of this post) rested heavily on design. The good news: the software got some rave reviews from a tech crowd that is normally less than favourable to the company’s products. Gizmodo said it was “awesome” and “the most ground-breaking phone since the iPhone,” while a less enthusiastic Engadget still confessed that “for the first time in a long time we’re excited about Microsoft in the mobile space.”
Before we get too carried away, though, it’s worth remembering what a tough climb Microsoft faces. By the time 7 appears, the iPhone will have been on the market for nearly three and a half years – an unimaginably long period given the short product cycles of the mobile world. As Stephen Drake at IDC puts it, the window of opportunity is closing fast: Microsoft doesnt have many more chances left to get this one right, and it has already lost all-important consumer and developer mindshare.
Also, Windows Phone is hardly a brand to set the pulse racing. How many people will go into their local phone store and ask for one of those?
Still, a new operating system that finally seems to deliver a good user experience is a start. With the long-delayed 7, it should finally have a product capable of matching up against Apple and Google. Its biggest fear: that, like the generally well-received Bing and Zune HD, it may be too late to matter.
