Windows Mobile has nothing to fear from either the iPhone or Google Android, says Microsoft's John Curran.
TechRadar asked the Windows business lead for Microsoft UK how he saw Windows Mobile, Android and the iPhone divvying up market share in three years' time.
"Well I would have to say that number one would be, not surprisingly, Microsoft," says Curran. "We've got over 50 partners... from a hardware perspective we're really well positioned."
Placing Android and Apple in order in the remaining three rivals is "a tough call", he continues. "One's an emerging one, the other is a very limited form factor. One has relatively limited hardware support and limited distribution; the other is just one form factor from one company with limited choices of operators. So they both at this point feel fairly restrictive compared to all the great options consumers would have with a Windows Mobile phone."
New strategy
Curran was speaking to TechRadar about Microsoft's new Windows campaign, where he explained that the campaign is part of a wider strategy to push Windows Vista, Windows Live and Windows Mobile as complementary products.
"One of the most interesting things about this campaign is that we are for the first time talking about the whole Windows experience in an integrated fashion," says Curran. "The Windows experience extends from the PC to the web and to the phone."
Curran says he is confident that Windows Mobile, already popular in the business community, is also suitable for consumer use.
"Windows Mobile phones have been incredibly successful. In the last 12 months they've been the fastest selling smartphone, outselling RIM and others in the category.
"If you look at the exciting new phones that are coming out here in the UK, we've got some great consumer phones, whether it's the HTC Diamond, the Samsung Omnia, the Sony Ericsson Experia X1... these are great, exciting phones that have all of the features consumers are looking for, plus they bring in the experiences people would expect with Windows."
Curran continues: "Traditionally, we've played more in the business space - we have great Windows and Office applications, the ability to get Outlook on your phone, but we're taking that and extending it with the ability to have a lot of our web services, things like Hotmail and Messenger right on your phone."
