Is Samsung going to switch to Android?
13th November, 2009 by Adina
Tags: Android, Mobiles, OS, Samsung, Smartphones
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Recent rumours say that Samsung is going to lower the use of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system for its phones. According to HMC Investment Securities analyst Greg Noh, Windows Mobile will be used on only 50 percent of the phones in 2010, compared to 80 percent at present, and will go even lower in the years to come, reaching a small 20 percent by 2012. Samsung will increase the use of Android to almost 30 percent next year and afterwards will keep this percentage constant. As for Symbian, it will decrease to a few percent next year and will completely disappear in 2011. A new proprietary Samsung operating system will fill the empty place and will reach about 50 percent of all the smartphone sales.
Samsung has neither confirmed nor denied these claims by now, but the Korean firm will develop a new platform named bada /em.
This switch of strategy may confirm a trend that has already been observed, other major companies doing the same thing. HTC, maybe the largest manufacturer of Windows Mobile-based devices, has also rumoured as preferring Android for more than half of its phones in 2010. Another giant, LG, having a pact signed with Microsoft to produce Windows Mobile phones, recently introduced its own first Android-based handset and is committed to extend the use of this operating system to other phones.
This Windows Mobile-related issue demonstrates the tendency of reducing dependency on Microsoft as a unique provider and the desire to have an operating system capable of supporting more modern smartphone functionality, such as accurate and fast web browsing and capacitive touchscreens using finger-ready interfaces. Even Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest in the series and having touch-ready features, is based o the same design as the 5.0 version and lacks of modernity.
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This news leaked out after Samsung held a meeting with analysts. Now Samsung tries to backtrack, saying it won’t drop Windows Mobile just yet. But I think the original story is true. Samsung just wants to sell the current Windows Mobile phones, and doesn’t want to declare them obsolete just yet, so as not to affect sales.
But this is the same story with every manufacturer. Either they’ve reduced the number of Windows Mobile phones (like HTC or Samsung), or they’ve dropped Windows Mobile completely already (like Palm, Motorola).
Nobody wants Windows Mobile any more. We are watching a platform in its death throws, before it finally gets put out of its misery, and cancelled, which won’t be too far away.
Because of this decline, if you are buying a mobile smartphone, make sure it is not a Windows Mobile phone. Buy anything else. Don’t get stuck on this platform that will soon be discontinued.
The downward graph of Windows Mobile at Samsung (seen above), represents the same downward graph of Windows Mobile phone sales with all manufacturers. Windows Mobile is heading very fast towards zero.
Samsung, like other phone manufacturers, are jumping off this Windows Mobile Phone sinking ship, before the whole operating system is discontinued.
Everyone is moving towards Android, where the excitement and new applications are.