>>I didn't see the quote, but I'd be interested in what Ballmer was defining as "the market." I believe 3 million phones with Windows Mobile, which would put them at 1% of the overall phone market. Perhaps he was talking about the smartphone market only?<<
Pyslent -
Here's what he actually said:
"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% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."
He's dreaming if he thinks Microsoft software will be on 60 to 80 percent of all cell phones. But why shouldn't he dream?
What's sort of dumb is how he equates providing software with selling the hardware and software together. How much could Microsoft possibly get for one copy of Windows Mobile? They sure aren't going to get a profit of $100 per phone, plus a piece of the service revenue from the provider.
By the way, 3 million phones would put Microsoft at .3% of a billion unit market, but the figures I've found seem to indicate that they are doing slightly better than that. I can't find unit numbers for 2006, but predictions were that roughly 120 million smartphones would be sold. Microsoft might have 20% of that, or 24 million. 24 million would be 2.4% of the overall cell phone market.
So if Apple were to get 3% of the overall market, they'd be beating Microsoft.
- Allen |
