Microsoft’s Plans for Windows Phone 7 in 2012 Leaked
What’s next after Windows Phone 7 Mango? And what’s next after that? Microsoft’s roadmap has been leaked on the web for all to see. Here’s the scoop on Microsoft’s new phone strategy …
Tip of the hat goes to WMPoweruser.com, which obtained the leaked slides detailing Microsoft’s plan. It’s pretty simple, too. After Windows Phone 7 Mango, Microsoft will unveil Windows Phone 7 Tango (not a joke) in the first half of 2012. These devices will focus more on the mid- to low-end market of Windows phones as Microsoft aims to make them the “products with the best prices.” I’ve often speculated that Windows Phone 7 could dominate the market simply by replacing the standard “feature phone,” especially if Windows Phone 7 phones are powerful and hit that sweet spot between free and $100.
After Windows Phone 7 Tango, Microsoft has its sights set on the moon with Windows Phone 7 Apollo. These phones are designed to be “competitive” and business-ready “super phones.” Microsoft also is looking to saturate the market with this phone by “increasing overall volume” of availability.
Slowly but surely I’m seeing Windows Phone devices in the wild, which is a change of pace from December 2010. By the time 2012 comes to a close, Windows Phones could be making a real impact, inching back up to where Windows Mobile device saturation once was, perhaps even ousting the feature phone from existence altogether. Tie in all the buzz Windows 8 will be getting, and Microsoft could suddenly be re-dominating the computer scene.
Pardon for being a dissident, but there’s absolutely no evidence in WP becoming successful wrt sales. Before portraying it as successful you should really start pushing Microsoft (and Nokia too) for som sales facts – not the fiction they try to zeep through “fansites”.
As regards Lumia there’s been some hefty campaigns but it all died well before X-mas. Titan is regarded as a slightly better purchase than Lumia thus why should Lumia suddenly turn everything around.
Holliday figure remains to be seen apart from 3,7 or 3.8 mill Androids (and unconfirmed 3 mill iOS), and i seriously doubt that Microsoft/Nokia was anywhere near such figures. Galaxy note reportedly sold 1 mill in 1 month… That’s 2 months worth of WP sales – or the total number of WP phones in the US in sep/oct….
IF they had good figures for WP, Microsoft and Nokia would have published them.
Will another release in the 7 series increase sales? Well….
How much different will Tango be from Mango? And Apollo? Bearing in mind that it still will be WP7? Improved – shure. But significantly? Mango certainly did not make significant impact wrt sales?
W8 ditches more or less .Net and Silverlight, and it would not make sense to keep it on WP8, thus next potentially significant shift will be with WP8…
If Apollo arrives late 2012 we’er talking +/- mid 2013 before W8 arrives.
iPhone 5 will arrive, and Android will continue to develop. I simply do not see any changes anytime soon wrt market share.
Sure – going after the feature phone users is smart, but Android is already picking customers in that segment – after all – almost every Android users were using feature phones before Android since the iPhone users don’t really move to Android.
Blackberry users are already moving to Android – no indication of these users moving to WP.
Just read the ComScore figs released 29th december.
Last report indicated WP down from abt 122.000 to 65.000 pr month.
The december report indicates that Microsoft are loosing more Winmo users to Android/iOS than it sells WP to non-winmo users as Microsoft seems to loose 24.000 users pr month.
I believe Microsoft should worry. Quite a bit too…
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/12/comScore_Reports_November_2011_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share
Jack,
You raise some good points. If Windows Phone was doing well in the market Microsoft would share some specific sales figures/data points.
But give Dave Courbanou some credit: He’s a long-time Apple fan who goes the extra mile to really uses Windows Phones and studies Microsoft’s strategy. Yes, Microsoft faces an uphill battle in the smartphone market. But Courbanou is offering all sides of the story instead of pandering to Apple.
-TVG
I apologise for being rude – no need for that, and I don’t consider Corbanou’s writing to be biased :o)
I believe Corbanou has a point wrt 0-100 USD price point. In Europe they have pushed Lumia 800 for 0 Euro on fairly modest contracts, and it seems like they are trying to avoid competing directly with iPhone/Android in the US (Lumia 710, T-mobile, 50 USD).
I am not sure it’s working though.
Celluars are “emotionbased products” where flaws brings character. Flaws also brings expectations wrt updates and new versions and so on.
I suspect that WP actualy is suffering a bit from this. It might very well be a good product but does customers really get the emotional aspect that comes with anticipated new versions and updates?
Just read that MS/Nokia will offer the salesguys 10-15 USD for each WP sold if they recommend WP instead of iPhone or Android. That might work to a certain extent, but will that establish sustainable saleslevels? Will Lumia eat iPhone/Android or cannibalize WP’s from different oem’s?