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iPhone Finally Surpasses Windows Mobile in U.S. Smartphone Usage

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Apr 12, 2001
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FierceDeveloper reports on data from research firm comScore showing that Apple's iPhone has finally surpassed Windows Mobile in share of the U.S. smartphone market usage. The data is based on monthly user surveys averaged on a quarterly basis, and thus reflects actual handsets in use rather than sales of new devices.

114844-comscore_october_data.jpg

According to comScore's data, approximately 36 million Americans are smartphone owners, while an additional 196 million own non-smartphone devices. Nearly 15 million, or approximately 40%, of those smartphone owners are currently using Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating system, with the iPhone now clocking in in second place at about 25%.

Apple had been calculated to have surpassed Windows Mobile in U.S. sales market share as long ago as the fourth quarter of 2007, but Windows Mobile's head start in the smartphone market enabled it to maintain its advantage over the iPhone among active users for a considerable length of time. Its stagnated user base amid a rapidly growing market, however, has shrunk its share of the market to approximately 20%.

Article Link: iPhone Finally Surpasses Windows Mobile in U.S. Smartphone Usage
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/17/iphone-finally-surpasses-windows-mobile-in-u-s-smartphone-usage/
"Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players," Ballmer continued. "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get."

Steve Balmer, 2007.
 
On the flip side....

... it is interesting to see that RIM have increased their lead from 4 million to 5 million.

If only Apple could get the iPhone to work seamlessly with RIMs email servers, then I think that gap would close.

There may be one or two legal issues though.
 
Does this really come as a surprise?

WinMo is trash. And MS has pushed back WinMo 7 to late 2010, when no one will care anymore. MS seems to have Zuned their entire mobile strategy, not that there was really any mobile strategy to speak of for the last few years, aside from whoring out WinMo in whatever condition to any hardware manufacturer who would take it. But hardly shocking, since they can barely get their core (in)competency right.


dmingay said:
... it is interesting to see that RIM have increased their lead from 4 million to 5 million.

If only Apple could get the iPhone to work seamlessly with RIMs email servers, then I think that gap would close.

There may be one or two legal issues though.
Click to expand...

If the Storm 2 is the best they can do, then RIM is in for a rude awakening. iPhone will surpass RIM share in due course, and it'll happen sooner than people would like to think.
 
Damn I thought Android had taken over, I can't believe they have that many users. :eek:
 
*LTD* said:
If the Storm 2 is the best they can do, then RIM is in for a rude awakening. iPhone will surpass RIM share in due course, and it'll happen sooner than people would like to think.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Storm 2 is not the apex of the Blackberry line. Its their touchscreen model, but not their most popular or best handset. A TON of people I know are getting Blackberrys. Sure, its a different animal than the iPhone, but they are pretty solid devices. when it comes to email and some people need of a physical keyboard, BB wins.
 
People only used Windows Mobile cause there wasn't much else.

It is really a horrible OS for a phone!
 
Works4Me said:
"Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players," Ballmer continued. "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get."

Steve Balmer, 2007.
Click to expand...

I was just going to post "I'd like to hear what Steve Ballmer thinks about this." :D
 
Should come as no surprise. Windows Mobile is not user friendly or intuitive.

MSFT should just buy palm and throw money behind their OS and keep only the robust exchange integration offered by WM.

Glad to see RIM is still doing well and Apple is making strides. Hopefully, Google will keep the pedal to the floor and we will all benefit from the rivalry.

As unpopular as his opinion was, Balmer was right. Apple would not be experiencing this success if they stuck to their original business model. Sales languished everywhere but the US market.
 
RIM Article

dmingay said:
... it is interesting to see that RIM have increased their lead from 4 million to 5 million.

If only Apple could get the iPhone to work seamlessly with RIMs email servers, then I think that gap would close.

There may be one or two legal issues though.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if this was a RIM article as they seemed to do the best in this info display.

Go everyone other than Windows Mobile!
 
Hmm...

Looks like RIM are well ahead here. As for WinMo... it's sales numbers are stable suggesting corporate purchasing contracts, not personal purchases. Basically it's in pretty bad shape.

Apple are doing well although not as well as they would lead us to believe. According to these figures there are 9,000,000 active iPhone users in the US. Given that half of all iPhones are sold/used in the US that means about 18,000,000 active users world wide. Pretty good but still a fraction of Nokia's active smartphone users.

Works4Me said:
"Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players," Ballmer continued. "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get."

Steve Balmer, 2007.
Click to expand...

Ballmer's thinking about WinMo on 80 percent of phones is wishfull indeed but he's spot on about the iPhone at the moment. People should really think about that quotation before posting it.
 
RIM better watch out. The only reason they maintain their dominant position is because of their agreements with corporations to provide handsets on the mass.

The iPhone just does more. It’ll take time, but the iPhone will slowly move more and more into the corporate space as its security functions improve.

Apple’s next target should be the dumbphone (errr feature phone) market.

BongoBanger said:
Ballmer's thinking about WinMo on 80 percent of phones is wishfull indeed but he's spot on about the iPhone at the moment. People should really think about that quotation before posting it.
Click to expand...

Meh.

How is Ballmer spot on? Microsoft is a platform/operating system company. Apple is a hardware company. It makes sense he would be concerned about overall operating system marketshare for Windows Mobile.

However, his comparison is irrelevant to Apple’s business model. Apple is not a platform/operating system company. What does Apple care if they only end up with two, three or four percent of smartphone operating system market (in terms of devices on the market)? It’s individual handset sales that matter.

The fact that Apple has garnered 25 percent of usage share in the United States is astounding. They’ve only released three iPhone models, one of which is no longer on the market, on a single cell carrier in two and half years.
 
Now, now... Give Ballmer his due... He did say, after he finished laughing and talking about no keyboard, that it may sell very well, he just didn't know. Well, now he knows. He also said he liked his company business plan, of course if that changes, we'll know that he doesn't care very much about it now especially if MS "creates" their own hardware/software phone... and just like the Play for Sure program axed in favor of the Zune, WinMo as a OS for the various handset manufacturers will probably go the way of the Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld tv commercials... :rolleyes:

But it will be interesting to see the stats a year from now with Google and Android, along with RIM and of course Apple... MS will be the big player amongst the Palm and Symbian crowd! :eek:
 
powers74 said:
Certainly does look like WinMos days are numbered. Unless they can come up with something that makes people say Wow!...
Click to expand...

Seems that they've already successfully done that, recently:

microsoft-wow-campaign.jpg


slicecom said:
I was just going to post "I'd like to hear what Steve Ballmer thinks about this." :D
Click to expand...

"It's just a rounding error, trust me - millions of people still use our mobile software around the world - just wait until we roll out our next version."
 
jaw04005 said:
RIM better watch out. The only reason they maintain their dominant position is because of their agreements with corporations to provide handsets on the mass.
Click to expand...

Rubbish. RIM's individual subscriptions are at least equal or greater than their corporate subscriptions.

The iPhone just does more. It’ll take time, but the iPhone will slowly move more and more into the corporate space as its security functions improve.
Click to expand...

Maybe. It's possible.

How is Ballmer spot on? Microsoft is a platform/operating system company. Apple is a hardware company. It makes sense he would be concerned about overall operating system marketshare for Windows Mobile.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're on about there. Ballmer is stating that Apple will never get a significant share of the global mobile phone market which they haven't (remember this is the entire market, not smartphones) and that they'll make lots of money which they have. Pretty straightforward if you ask me.

I largely agree with the rest of your post. I just wish people would think about what they're posting.
 
*LTD* said:
If the Storm 2 is the best they can do, then RIM is in for a rude awakening. iPhone will surpass RIM share in due course, and it'll happen sooner than people would like to think.
Click to expand...

You have a lot of learn about RIM then. The Storm is just a touch screen phone but not their flagship phone. That is currently held by the Bold 9700 and Tour. The Storms biggest issue I think is it is so much different than the rest of their lines and the tried and true curve format that people really seem to like.

Some stuff in the rumor mill for blackberry is a crossed between the two offering a touch screen interface but keeping the hardware keyboard people really like.

All the different OS provide different advantages and draw backs. RIM OS 5.0 is starting to hit the wild with the 9700 and the Storm. It is prededicted by end of Feb that it will be out for most of there other phones as well.

Now it lacks the flash of the iPhone but Rim is also limited on what they can do since they have to stay true to the Blackberry design. Apple had an advatage there entering into the Smartphone market when it did since it could start fresh. Same as with the Android it was able to start fresh with out having to stay true to an older format. RIM on the other hand is limited by that fact.
 
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