Microsoft's Andy Lees manages to get in plenty of slams on the iPhone in an open letter sent to MS's Windows Mobile partners and the press. Trying to take just a little wind out of Apple's sails days before Steve Jobs is predicted to introduce the next generation iPhone, Lees touts Windows Mobile's "open platform" and the "flexibility" that Microsoft's partners have when designing products to work with their OS.
Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog cites 36 different slams on the iPhone in the 522-word missive, which can be easily shortened to "we're still better than you." However, Microsoft has reason to be worried. A recent Gartner survey put Apple as the number three smartphone maker behind Blackberry-maker RIM -- which has its own operating system -- and Nokia, which sells a number of different smartphone OS's.
Microsoft may want to be careful touting features like GPS and 3+ megapixel cameras as something that "other operating systems have been slow to deliver" as both of those features are widely expected to be introduced in the next generation iPhone. We suspect that Microsoft, along with everyone else in the tech world, will be watching Steve Jobs closely next Monday.
To Our Windows Mobile Partners:
Earlier this year, I joined an amazing group of people and partners like you who work every day towards a vision of putting a ‘smartphone in every pocket.’ To reach this vision, together we’ve created an open platform that provides freedom — the freedom for people across the globe to get the type of handset they want on the network they want, the flexibility for our hardware and mobile operator partners to build on the platform, and the opportunity for developers to create applications on our platform for virtually any need.
It’s now my honor and privilege to announce a milestone that our partnership has accomplished. This fiscal year we will sell nearly 20 million Windows Mobile smartphone licenses, making Windows Mobile one of the most widely used smartphone software platforms in the world. We also sold more in the previous four quarters than RIM, and in the last quarter our year-over-year unit growth alone was greater than sales of Apple’s iPhone.
To our 50 handset makers building phones with our software, thank you. With your help, we give Windows Mobile customers nearly 150 different phone choices — from phones with full keyboards to brilliant touch screens to convenient flip phones — with rich email, picture and music experiences. You’ve delivered Windows Mobile phones with features like GPS, 3+ megapixel cameras, and voice activation — features that other operating systems have been slow to deliver.
To our 160 mobile operator partners around the world providing voice and data service for our mutual customers, thank you. Because of you, Windows Mobile customers can send instant messages to their families or update their calendars in countries from Brazil to Belgium, India to Italy. We’re proud that we’ve been able to work with you to deliver more than 40 different phones that run at 3G speeds, at prices that meet a range of customer needs — something not all smartphones can claim. We believe the power of smartphones should not be constrained by price, geography, or any other boundary.
To all our developer partners who continue to innovate and bring new experiences to people and businesses every day, thank you. It is because of you that our Windows Mobile customers have the richest application catalog to choose from — over 18,000 applications to help pursue their hobbies, navigate life and work more efficiently. We’re happy to offer some of these applications through the Windows Mobile Owners Circle and provide you the flexibility to deliver them to your customers in whatever way makes sense.
Today, more and more competitors are jumping into the smartphone market or announcing upgrades, with features we delivered to customers years ago. Overall, we all benefit from the increased attention on everything that a smartphone can do and the difference it can make in people’s lives. But ultimately, it is your commitment to Windows Mobile that’s helped shape our success. Our shared desire to help people do more with their phone the way they choose, and our ongoing focus to deliver experiences that delight our mutual customers forms the foundation of our continued success together.
I look forward to continuing this adventure with you.
Andy Lees
Sr. Vice President
Mobile Communications Business
Microsoft Corporation
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
- Roundup: WWDC 2008 Predictions
- Prediction: No next generation iPhones in the US before August 2008
- Analysis: An Open Letter to Steve Ballmer
- Analysis: The big merger of 2008: The mobile phone and Web
- Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s
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