By Mobile Pipeline News
Symbian, which currently has a strong lead as a smartphone platform vendor, will see its lead seriously eroded by Microsoft's smartphone platform, a market study released Monday by ABI Research claims.
Specifically, the study claims that Symbian's market share chould dip below 50 percent with Microsoft picking up most of the rest of the market share. Symbian is co-owned by a consortium of vendors such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, all of which use the Symbian platform.
"The problem for Symbian is that they're only targeting higher-end phones, which form a tiny part of the (smartphone) market," ABI Research analyst Brian Pellegrini said in a statement. "Not too many people are going to have these expensive models. Most will have simpler 'enhanced' phones with a color screen, maybe a camera, but not many very advanced features."
Recent market studies have shown that smartphones based on Symbian's smartphone platform have a large worldwide lead, although the palmOne Treo, based on the Palm OS, has the lead in the U.S. However, the ABI study indicates that, while Microsoft has not yet had much success as a smartphone platform vendor, the market is young and the company has many advantages.
"Money is not really an issue for them," Pellegrini said. "They have even talked about offering free Windows Mobile licenses, just to get the product used."
Pellegrini noted, however, that Microsoft also faces serious hurdles, such as the fact that many vendors may not like the fact that its Windows Mobile Smartphone platform is not open source. However, overall, Microsoft's deep pockets and ability to be patient in the market puts it in a good position.