LG has announced a major Windows Phones launch for the next few weeks – with up to 13 devices on the market by the end of next year. This is part of Microsofts massive drive to save its floundering Windows Mobile platform, and will see LG launch three devices before Christmas.
Microsofts drive:
Microsoft has been pushing out news about it’s OS update, Windows Mobile 6.5. On Monday we reported that Microsoft had announced the support of seven different global manufacturers. They didn’t release ANY details on the phones at that time, which will allow them to drip feed news releases from all seven companies for the next year. You can expect to see a lot of mobile device releases for Windows Phones in the next 12 months.
The LG phones:
This really is just a teaser announcement. The only details available so far are the devices will be a touch-screen device, a QWERTY slide-out and a QWERTY candy bar phone. The three devices will be aimed at different segments of the market, with different wallet sizes. So we can probably expect the full touch device to be a tech-heavy smartphone aimed at the bigger spenders. The touch slide-out with the QWERTY keyboard will probably be an enterprise device – Microsoft has declared it’s intention to seize that market from RIM. And the candy bar will be a cheaper model aimed at the lower-end of the market.
What we think?
The “iPhone problem” really is a worry for anyone making phones today. Microsofts solution seems to be to throw as many different devices at it as possible, and see what sticks. It’s not a bad plan, to be honest. Every single one of the devices coming out will be running on the same software platform – Windows Mobile 6.5. There’s a shared experience there. What’s more, since pretty much any manufacturer worth it’s salt has an app store these days, Windows Phone owners will have access to both Skymarket and whatever apps the phone maker is pushing.
This strategy isn’t sustainable – you can’t just keep developing and releasing a huge spread of expensive smartphones forever. But if it works for Microsoft in the next 12 months, they’ll be able to cut off those devices that aren’t selling well, and fall back on a core of decent WinMo devices that people actually like.
