Keep an eye on Symbians current lead in the race to dominate mobile operating systems. A New York-based analyst firm warns Microsoft could gobble the mobile OS developers market share by 2009.
Although Symbian Ltd. currently dominates the cellular operating systems market, ABI Research says the company could see its share dwindle to less than 50 percent with Microsoft picking up most of the balance. “The problem for Symbian,” said analyst Brian Pellegrini, “is that theyre only targeting higher-end phones, which form a tiny part of the market.”
In a new report, Wireless Handset Software, ABI Research notes that the mass market is likely to opt for less expensive models than those currently using the Symbian OS, leaving plenty of opportunity for other operating systems, including Microsofts Windows Mobile. Microsoft, Pellegrini said, already has talked about offering free Windows Mobile licenses to seed the market.
Be sure to add our eWEEK.com mobile and wireless news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page
