Microsoft Too Late With It’s ‘iPhone Beater’?
By Anna Johnson on May 4th, 2009Microsoft is working with Verizon Wireless to launch a mobile phone to compete with the iPhone. Based on a report by the Wall Street Journal, by way of Silicon Alley Insider, the phone is due to be launched next year.
The Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer observes that it’s likely Microsoft’s mobile device will fail given its lateness to the market. Plus, its other mobile devices, the Zune and Windows Mobile, have both failed to gain much market traction.
Still, Microsoft has come from behind before – most notably with Windows 3.1 back in the 1980s, Internet Explorer in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the XBox earlier this century – so it’s not impossible for the Seattle based company to make a splash.
Microsoft entering the mobile phone fray, in addition to Google with its Android offering and the other mobile phone makers, is also a good thing for the market. If anything, it should prompt Apple to continue innovating in order to maintain its current – and significant – competitive lead.
Microsoft does, however, have its work cut out for it if really wants to deliver a genuine alternative to the iPhone…
Source: Dan Frommer, “Microsoft Planning iPhone Rival,” Silicon Alley Insider, April 28, 2009
